Super-premium theater chain in the US to sell $35 movie tickets
Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas is building 50 new super-premium theaters across the nation, with leather armchairs, valet parking, and chairside waiters who serve freshly prepared sushi and other seat-treats. Tickets will cost $35.
Each complex will sport theaters featuring 40 reclining armchair seats with footrests, digital projection and the capability to screen 2-D and 3-D movies, as well as a lounge and bar serving cocktails and appetizers, a concierge service and valet parking.Link (via The Consumerist)But the circuit will especially push its culinary offerings — made-to-order meals like sushi and other theater-friendly foods from on-site chefs (a service button at each seat calls a waiter). Moviegoers will have to pay extra for any food they order, however.
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Or, for $7 (half that on two-for-one Wednesdays) you can snuggle up with your sweetie(s) on couches and enjoy a drink and fresh-made dinner at the bar at the Parkway and Cerrito Speakeasy theatres:
http://www.picturepubpizza.com/
P.S. No valet parking, but they remind us "Don't park in Kragen lot". Crying babies optional at selected performances, weekly.
For that price they damn well better not waste the first 30 minutes of the "show time" bombarding customers with adverts for random crap.
Sounds like a good deal to me (I'm in the UK). My local cinema already charges $15 (at current exchange rate) on a Saturday night, and it's rubbish.
If you want to go to the country's most famous cinema, Odeon Leicester Square (where they hold UK premieres) tickets start from $15 on a weekday, and they don't have any parking, let alone valet parking, or any better snacks than average. They do have really good sound and better seating than average, though not armchairs.
Ah, but not a word about what I would gladly pay more for - quick dispensation of the inconsiderate jackasses who are talking, phoning, etc.
they've been doing this sort of thing in Malaysia and New Zealand (that i know of anyway) for a while now.
http://www.readingcinemas.co.nz/home/goldlounge.asp
in a limited fashion....not whole cinema complexes though
I don't get it. Sure you might get higher quality experience and food, but surely it will be a bunch of noise as people order food to the waiters as people will want to get their moneysworth. So you will be paying $35 for more legroom and a noisier cinema?
If you are going to spend that much money per movie I would rather use it for home theatre setup where I can watch the movie at my convenience.
There is already a cinema in Vancouver Washington that has been doing this for years. Huge leather seats with 10-inch wide armrests, gourmet food brought to your seat, and excellent wine selection (200+) wonderful desserts, live flamenco guitar played before the viewing, its awesome. And, the ticket prices are around $10. Locally owned. Its the tits. Cinetopia
There's also been one of these in the Boston area for about ten years now. Currently operates under the name "AMC Premium Cinema", in Framingham, MA.
http://www.moviewatcher.com/theatres/theatre_information.jsp?unit=816
Full bar with beer and cocktails, restaurant area outside the theater space with better-than-decent bistro-style food (which they will deliver to your theater seat if you wish), leather reclining seats and two-person couches with tray tables, stadium-style seating, full THX-certification, no one under legal drinking age permitted (was fantastic to be able to see the Lord of the Rings trilogy without any kiddies making noise).
Theater itself is only about sixty seats or so, so you really need to make reservations for weekend showings.
Been there many times - it is a pretty great way to take your wife out on a date without the kids (or dealing with anyone else's kids, for that matter).
To answer #6 above - once the previews have ended, they stop waiter service in the theater, most likely I'm sure to avoid the noise problem you mention. You can still get full restaurant service, but you have to go out into the restaurant area yourself and get it.
They have their business model all wrong. They are offering an enhanced experience over the multiplex for a premium price. In reality, they are competing with cut price DVDs and home theatre setups that offer everything that they do only substituting in the in seat service button instead of the pause button and a walk to the refrigerator.
$35 per ticket (plus another $35 for your date) will buy you 3-4 new release DVDs on amazon, or 2 full season box sets of a tv show. Of course there are other options if you don't like the clutter of DVD cases, say....
Still, anything is better than the multiplex queuing experience.
The Odeon on Leicester square is £15 (US$30) on the weekend, as are most of the cinemas in London showing indie fare. And the seats are comfy, but definitely economy class.
More proof that in the land of plenty, people are crazy. Paying like this (or a lot more) for live theater is one thing, but a moive?
Remind me to never see a movie in London. Gosh almighty. Even movies on NYC are only about $11 USD (last I checked).
#7 & #8, thanks for the recommendations! I'm going to be in Boston soon and have always wanted to go to Vancouver, these sound like a lot of fun! I'm not sure that I'd pay $35, especially here in Manhattan where the prices are already close to that anyway. Maybe if they played more independent stuff and could ENSURE me that annoying children and people who talk through the movie wouldn't be there.
Do any of the current super-premium theaters offer a restroom at the back of each screening room with piped in audio from the movie?
I've always wanted this improvement. Especially at the theaters that serve beer. I would drink more beer if I didn't have to worry about getting up and missing part of the movie to empty my bladder. And while I don't drink those bathtubs of soda that are sold in theaters, I can't imagine it's easy to hold in one of those for very long.
The restrooms could even have one-way mirror windows so that you can see the movie as you are washing your hands, or as the boys pee at a urinal.
Muvico has been doing this for years: http://www.muvico.com. I don't think you can reserve the premium services online but their web site does show what they offer.
--K
Just in time for the recession, too. Good timing, guys!
I guess I'm stingy, because even if I see a movie that I like, I can barely see the experience being equal to the $35 or so it costs for two tickets, popcorn and soda.
$70 for two tickets, plus (presumably) at least another $30, if not another $100, for fancy-schmancy refreshments? I think not.
Pair this story with the one not too long ago about the $15 cups of coffee.
We have the Alamo Drafthouse for that in Austin and spreading through the rest of Texas. http://drafthouse.com/
Less upscale, but good pub food, beer and wine. They also focus on fun and unique things like sing-alongs and Mister Pancake Theatre (live MST3K).
Re: HALLOWEEN JACK:
Yeah, a recession for most of us.
This new gilded age is looking nice and shiny, complete with absurd, unnecesary expenses on things that really aren't worth that much.
Can you think of a better way to enjoy a film like Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo?
the other end is still open. Bring back the drive-in, the $2.00 double feature, cheap popcorn,the young people's social experience.
Not everyone is old and rich
AbsoluteTruist: I know the Cinerama in Seattle already does that. I was pleasantly surprised one time I had to use the restroom during a movie and found that I could still hear what was going on. It's down a flight of stairs from the seating area, but I can live with that....
Except that some of us find it fun to leave the house to do things. Some of us enjoy the idea of going out to an event, even if it is only a movie.
That is why TV hasn't replaced the theatre, and why people still go to concerts when they could just listen to the music on their stereo.
I went to one in Michigan that offered that, so yes.
#17: Alamo Drafthouse FTW, I used to go there practically every weekend. Just gimme an ice bucket with a few beers and one of their homemade pizzas and I'm good.
$35+ to watch current Hollywood fare? Mmmmmmmno.
FWIW, Kansas has a similar chain, as well: http://www.warrentheaters.com/
Seat service is only available in the Old Town Theatre and the main (balcony) theatre of the other locations.
#17: Also, it used to be Mr. Sinus Theater. Did they change it to Mr. Pancake? That's odd...
#1: I love Speakeasy! Couches, beer and decent food.
The few times I've been there the audience was great. People tend to actually want to enjoy the movie experience.
My beef with the larger theater chains is that they seem to attract people that just want something to do. I don't know if they just don't understand what they're seeing on screen or if people have just lost all concept of the people around them.
If I were to pay $35 for a movie experience, it better be amazing. Meaning no stray noises (wrappers, loud chewing, talking etc.) and an audience that's truly interested in getting sucked in to the movie.
Nothing beats the experience of seeing a movie with a group of people that all "get it" and collectively laugh/cry/scream.
This makes no sense to me. Shouldn't the business model be to charge normal prices to get people in the door so they can bang them out with high prices for mediocre meals and/or drinks?
As others have said, there are theaters all over the country that employ this business model instead of the one village roadshow plans to use. All I know is that there is no way you'd find me there. Then again, I'm not willing to blow $100 on a hoodie either so maybe there is a market for it.
#12 The Cinetopia theater is in Vancouver _Washington_ not Canada. Vancouver BC is a pretty awesome place to visit and I highly recommend it (even if it doesn't have a fancy full service cinema).
#25: For legal reasons the group changed their name from Mr. Sinus Theater to The Sinus Show. A year or so after that, the group decided to part ways and 1.5 of them (John Erler & Joe Parsons) went on to form Master Pancake Theater. It's essentially the same thing, minus Owen and Jerm.
The Varsity Theater in the Manulife Center in Toronto opened premium theater rooms back in the late 90's, early 2000's. Big seats the reclined, maybe 40 to a room. Good viewing from any seat. Wait staff to fetch you drinks and food. The food was from the regular food counter, but they already had a pretty odd selection of foodstuffs at that theater.
I saw a movie in one once. Just wasn't worth the $30/seat. Not sure if they still run the rooms or not.
Livingroom theaters in Portland, Oregon has been doing this for a while now - tickets are 9 bucks, the food is good but spendy, and they serve (so no kids). They play some new indie-ish flicks and older movies too - recently I've seen A Clockwork Orange, Casablanca, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
So, 35 bucks plus food. . . it's clearly a sustainable business model for the places all the rest of the us go for the same experience to not charge an arm and a leg for the tickets when you're probably buying dinner at their restaurant. In space they've already rented. And with no kids to mess up the nice furniture.
Thanks #1 for the Speak Easy Theaters link. (and recommendations from the other posters)
I have almost given up on going to the theater.
In order to get a good seat I usually arrive about 15-20 minutes before the film starts. Which means I am a captive audience for the interminable commercials to which the Cinemark and AMC chains subject their audiences. I feel like Malcom McDowell undergoing the brainwashing treatment in 'A Clockwork Orange'.
My only option is to flee to the lobby, leaving my wife in the theater. I feel very guilty about this.
I purchased a 'TV-B-Gone' in hopes it would shut down the digital projector they use for the ad barrage. No luck. I even stood at the top row of the theater, zapping away to no effect.
Maybe I should try the big jar of moths from 'Strange Brew'.
I don't know about $35/seat and waiters ducking around, but I would definitely pay a premium to be able to enjoy a movie without hearing someone in the theater yell "OH SNAP!" ever again.
My gf and I enjoy going to the movies periodically, but our local chain has become overrun with inconsiderate audiences. We've learned to never see a movie on a Friday (doesn't matter what kind of movie, either), to not be surrounded by teens. However, waiting to see a flick late in its run, on a weeknight, just sets you up to see it with the gaggle of old ladies who need to explain the plot to each other at conversation volume.
I think a better business model would be a monthly membership fee (which could be revoked for disruption, etc.), so the apparent cost would be lower- say $15/ticket and $9.99/month.
I think that's a great idea. People will be unlikely to lay out that kind of money unless they're serious about wanting to see the movie. Old people (notorious talkers, in my experience) probably won't pay it and it'll make it too pricey for people bringing kids along to kid-inappropriate movies.
Meaning I'd be able to watch the damn movie in PEACE.
I would totally love this kind of premium theatre experience. While it's not cheap entertainment, the movies really isn't anymore anyway. If I'm looking for budget amusement, we're going to rent a movie or watch one on tv and stay home. If I'm thinking about going out to watch a movie, it's because I want the deluxe movie experience. I want to watch the newest movie on a bigger screen with better sound than I have at home, but most importantly I want to go on a date with my husband. Going the theatre is fully immersive. If we rent a movie and stay at home and watch it, I have to deal with the interruption of work and the phone and dishes that need washed and such peaking out at me from the corners of my eyes and edges of my mind. It's not special. It's the same old thing. A fancy theatre with food and premium services and an upscale atmosphere would be so cool! And I bet the premium price would help keep it more upscale,too. We could enjoy the movie with other adults who were looking for the premium experience,too. No teenage kids (and classless adults) being silly and loud. No toddlers crying.
It would be like the difference between going to a fastfood joint versus going to a casual dining chain versus going to an upscale restaurant. DVDs at home are fastfood. Most movie theatres are casual dining. That would be the gourmet restaurant.
#9 NIC is not familiar with pop culture.
That's very old news - we've had this service in New Zealand since at least 2005, it's called Gold Class - http://www.village.co.nz/GoldClass.cmsx
Some might say that they timing is poor given the looming RECESSION (and others might say huh! What recession) but the top end of the market can afford USD70 for a pair of tickets (otherwise a guy looks cheap when you go on a date).
Interesting point is that the local currency price is the same $35 although the U.S. is stronger than the Kiwi dollar (around 80.39 cents U.S to one Kiwi dollar this morning).
Well Dan Turner beat me to posting about http://www.livingroomtheaters.com/about.html which I cannot say enough good things about.
A good runner up is Mc Menamins pubs in Oregon and Washington. http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?type=theater
Beer or spirits, comfortable seating, affordable second run movies and a witches hatful of atmosphere.