bryce0lynch

The neighborhood theater wasn't showing Disaster Artist so we went to the local AMC, the next closest theater. It's in an upscale part of town. Words cannot express how much I hate this theater.

The ticket booths are behind anti-theft glass with the speaker things in the windows. Trying to buy tickets, the only two seats together, at 11:30am, were the front row. Lots of singles the lady happily told us, if we wanted to seat apart. It's fewer seats and assigned seating now? We left. My wife later reminded me that I had sworn off this theater earlier, when we saw GB2 there, when confronted by the "premium & plebs" concession line.

We ended up going to the arthouse theater, with nicer seats, better staff, an actual bartender, and cheaper.

God I loathe AMC.

Bluelitespecial

I have been to a few in town, but I don't like going to them often. All the things you said don’t really bother me, it’s the classic exclusive screenings. There were other theaters I would have much rather gone to for T2 3D at the end of last summer.

Wolf359

As a premium I can't help but laugh. I'll gladly pay the $14 to not have to stand in your long line. It more than pays for itself in both $5 coupons and time saved.

Troy Stiffler

I love my local AMC. They remodeled it with reserved seating. And they cut the seats by probably 50-75%. It used to be crazy-busy. Now it's usually sold out (or close to it). But you reserve your seats on Fandango, send the tickets to your phone, and there's little wait.

One thing about the system ... I went to see IT and these two younger people insisted that we both bought the same tickets. It was kind of worrying, because I thought I was going to have to get a refund and leave. The couple gave up and left. Found out that they bought tickets for the next day. I was right, they were wrong. But the whole thing seemed stupid. I was in my seat, so they sat in someone else's seat. Then the other people got there and they had to move. I felt bad for them. Can't choose your customers, I guess...

Even when I don't go to that theater, I'm more of a Saturday morning guy. There's rarely more than one or two people in line.

Here's something that bothers me... People getting concessions who have no clue what they want. And it takes them forevvvverrrr to order. Like, I'll be behind one family of three. And it'll take eight minutes to get to me. Then I order a popcorn, drink, and whatever. And I'm in and out in less than a minute. Same thing often happens at drive-thru windows. People suck.

RichC2

That's the problem with reserved seating, nobody wants to sit next to each other so you have a big theater of empty, person, person, empty.

I have no problems with the AMC here. Good bar, usually short snack lines, nice recliners and like 20 ticket kiosks.

Groucho

The theaters around here have started catching on and won’t let you reserve seats that leave a one person gap between you and the next group.

Josh-da-man

Reserved seating sucks. You're locked into a certain seat, so if you're sitting next to the "special needs" kid, the fuckwit who's constantly on their phone, the assholes who just won't shut up, or the shithead who's getting up out of his seat, going down the aisle, and coming back every ten minutes, you're fucked.

GuessWho

Could happen on a flight or at a play, concert or ball game too...

E Unit

Reserved seating - the scourge of our society. Talk about whiny first world problems. We have a couple of AMC’s in town and they’re okay. Of course being in the land of Drafthouses, regular theaters are few between. But my most recent experience was at an AMC at Universal Studios and it was a fantastic experience. Aside from the high regular pricing, I have nothing to complain about with the experience. And those $5 Tuesday’s are a nice perk as well.

fumanstan

Reserved seating is awesome.

I only have one local AMC by me which I actually really like since they're not that busy, and they're changing one side of the theater to the premium experience. Seems like the trend now, which to me is great.

kefrank

Personally, I love the reserved seating at my nearby AMC. I get the tickets online and then I don't have to get to the theater a half hour early just to get a decent seat. I strongly prefer it to open seating theaters now.

B5Erik

Fortunately for me, we don't have reserved seating at any of our local theaters.

We still pay less and get to choose our seats. (And, yes, I'll avoid sitting near the loud people with loud kids...)

And the only time in the last few years I've been to an AMC it was a good experience (Shin Godzilla). Someone had a heart attack during the movie, so they stopped it. We went to the customer service desk, easily got tickets for the next show, and came back after lunch. No problem, no hassle, no worries.

TomOpus

My local AMC is great. It has one of the first Dolby Cinema screens, an IMAX, a bar (with bartender), upscaled menu, separate concession stand for ice cream stuff. It has the self-serve Coke and ICEE machines. Plus multiple ticket kiosks.

My only issue is their pricing structure but that evaporated when I started using MoviePass.

devilshalo

Reserved seating means not having to get there early to jostle for seats and getting stuck in the front row. Why is this hated?

TomOpus

The only downside to reserve seating is getting stuck to an annoying person. Otherwise, it's pretty cool.

jjcool

Ghostbusters 2?

The only local AMC here only does assigned seating for the "premium" shows. So I am only affected should I want to see something on Imax, or in the Dolby Cinema. They also do it for 3d shows, but that doesnt affect me as I dont go to those because 3d is garbage.

Ash Ketchum

I hate reserved seating. I only go to the earliest shows (10AM if they have one!), so why the reserved seating when the audience is at its sparsest? I usually have to try 5 or 6 different seats before I find the one that's the least uncomfortable. My back suffers from seats where you lean back and the seat back moves, so I have to find the one that moves back the least, usually in the back row. I prefer straight-back seats, but so few theaters have them now. Ever since the Ziegfeld closed, I know of only three theaters in NYC that have them.

So I tend to stay home more often now and watch DVDs, Amazon Prime, On Demand, TCM, Encore Western, etc. I'd rather watch a classic samurai or yakuza film that I've never seen before or new Japanese superhero movies/TV shows that I get from a Japanese video store than a new Hollywood CGI superhero spectacle. (Unless one comes along that's as good as WONDER WOMAN, but that was the exception that proves the rule.)

Mabuse

Precisely. Any person who complains about reserved seats must be too young to remember the old way.

I’ve never seen a theater that didn’t have the ticket guy behind glass. What other option is there?

jpcamb

seems a lot of folks in here like AMC. Do any of you use movie pass to buy the reserved tickets with AMC? Info on the movie pass site seems limited and I'd like to take advantage of the program but I hate to give up getting advanced seating buy buying at the box office...

Obi-Wanma

Most of the theaters in my area just have counter with nothing separating you from the clerk. The only one I can think of that has glass is one where the ticket buying area is in a separate enclosed area between the front door an the main atrium/lobby. I can't think of any other theaters that are like that now, though I do remember when it was commonplace.

Mike86

Unfortunately for me AMC is the only option in town. It was formerly a Carmike which was outdated in the first place. The seating could be updated and the screens definitely could be replaced. All they did was rebrand what was existing and added some things to the concession stand and upped the prices.

slop101

My local AMC beats all other local theaters (mostly Regal theaters), which were once nice, but are starting to get rundown, with tears on their screen and broken chairs.

Giantrobo

I love AMC. It's the dominant theater chain where I live. Not crazy about reserved seating but so far I've been lucky. I'm an, "Always back row center seat" type. I use Ticket Kiosks so unless there's some person who doesn't know how to use it, there is no wait.

dfmaverick2

For moviepass, you will not be able to reserve tickets from home. With moviepass, you must checkin to the movie you are seeing before buying the ticket and you must be in the parking lot to checkin.

fujishig

How did they even get in the theater if their tickets were for another day?