AMC A-List & other theater subscriptions (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Adkins]

I saw Darkest Hour on MP tonight. I didn't care for the film... the first 3/4 or so bored me to death. The end was a bit more entertaining. I think the performances were fine but the script, direction and editing felt lifeless to me.

I had a bit of an issue buying the ticket. I checked in successfully, but my card was declined. Tried it a couple more times and same result. So I went back to the MP app and I pressed the "sold out/changed my mind" button thinking maybe I could try again or try a different title, but when I clicked again, it said I already had a selection pending. By this time, about five minutes had elapsed from the start and I got timed out at the kiosk. I re-entered the selection at the theater kiosk, and figured if I had to, I'd just buy it myself - I was already there after all - but I tried one more swipe on the MP card and this time it worked. First time I've had any issue using MP.

I've had an issue once in a while at AMC kiosks at one particular theater for some reason. Usually the 2nd or 3rd time it works. I have a suspicion that the kiosk is having trouble reading the card since other AMC theaters never give me this problem. It's an annoyance but one I can deal with for the price I'm paying.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I haven't received my card yet, but my favorite local theater complex has e-ticket so I was able to see my first movie today with this application. It was Molly's Game and I'll probably see it again next week with Movie Pass. My theater didn't have any active kiosk so I simply reserved my ticket ahead of time and then showed the theater cashier my iPhone with the redemption code.

 

[Patrick Sun]

With Studio Movie Grill, I just get my redemption code and go up the kiosk and enter the code and the ticket just pops on out! Yes!

 

[Robert Crawford]

With Studio Movie Grill, I just get my redemption code and go up the kiosk and enter the code and the ticket just pops on out! Yes!

We don't have that franchise in the state of Michigan yet.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Not my favorite place to see movies, but it's about 1.5 miles from my house, so it'll do in a pinch, especially with the Movie Pass factor now...

 

[Robert Crawford]

Not my favorite place to see movies, but it's about 1.5 miles from my house, so it'll do in a pinch, especially with the Movie Pass factor now...

What's the appeal, food?

 

[bujaki]

What's the appeal, food?

Food service, smells, noise and distraction throughout the film. Yikes!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Food service, smells, noise and distraction throughout the film. Yikes!

Yeah, that's not my thing either.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Also not a fan for those reasons. I'd be ok with being able to preorder food and having it delivered before the start of the actual film, perhaps during trailers, but once the movie starts, I don't want to see people walking around the auditorium, or have fresh smells introduced, or see the flashlights from people trying to find their way.

Not necessarily food related, but I've noticed something in theaters I attend that have converted to luxury recliner seats: the audience behavior is almost always worse. I think with those larger seats, you often now can't see the people in the row in front or behind you, and even the people in the same row as you are barely visible. Between not seeing your neighbors and being in a chair that feels like something from home, I think people are just forgetting that they're having a communal experience and feel free to talk or use their phone or whatever. They either don't think that they're causing a disruption, or they've lost track of their surroundings.

It's a shame because I think a lot of theaters did need some kind of upgrade from small and uncomfortable old fashioned seating, but perhaps luxury recliners where you lose all sense of having a communal experience was overkill.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yeah, but those seats are pretty nice as I don't have any theaters around me with them, but I did experience them when visiting my sister in another state.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, but those seats are pretty nice as I don't have any theaters around me with them, but I did experience them when visiting my sister in another state.

The seats themselves are nice -- but I have yet to go to a movie that has one where I didn't have to ask someone in them to be quiet.

I kinda understand how it happens, you're going to the movie, especially with a friend or on the date, those seats are usually set up in pairs of two, often the people in them will lift up the center armrest so it's as if they're on a couch, and it's so easy to just start looking over and talking to the person you came with, especially when you can't actually see anyone in the other chairs or rows. But it is also so distracting as an audience member to listen to people talking as if they were watching at home.

Whoever picked the furniture for the Dolby Cinema auditorium here also made an ill-advised choice to pick electronic chairs that have very bright light up buttons on them. Anytime someone adjusts a seat, it's as if they're sending up a flair in the auditorium.

A lot of these ideas are well-intentioned and are coming from a good place, but don't seem to be thought through.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The seats themselves are nice -- but I have yet to go to a movie that has one where I didn't have to ask someone in them to be quiet.

I kinda understand how it happens, you're going to the movie, especially with a friend or on the date, those seats are usually set up in pairs of two, often the people in them will lift up the center armrest so it's as if they're on a couch, and it's so easy to just start looking over and talking to the person you came with, especially when you can't actually see anyone in the other chairs or rows. But it is also so distracting as an audience member to listen to people talking as if they were watching at home.

Whoever picked the furniture for the Dolby Cinema auditorium here also made an ill-advised choice to pick electronic chairs that have very bright light up buttons on them. Anytime someone adjusts a seat, it's as if they're sending up a flair in the auditorium.

A lot of these ideas are well-intentioned and are coming from a good place, but don't seem to be thought through.

I've experienced that seating about four times and never experienced noisy others. New Yorkers are known for being loud mouths.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've experienced that seating about four times and never experienced noisy others. New Yorkers are known for being loud mouths.

The last time I went to one of those types of auditoriums was for Justice League back in November - late night show, not many people there, but the couple next to me would not stop talking. At one point, I politely asked if they could try to keep their voices down as the sound was carrying (as opposed to just saying "please be quiet!") and the guy chastised me for speaking to him and ruining his experience. He felt very strongly that as long as he was sitting in his assigned seat, he paid $25 for the privilege, and could do what he wanted. Unfortunately, that seems to be a common theme when I go to the movies... patrons who feel that their ticket purchase price entitles them to not only view the movie, but to behave as if they were watching it at home.

Let me put it this way: a couple of years ago, I thought Ron Epstein was crazy to say he hated going to the movies. Now, I'm not far behind him. It's a very different experience from when I was a kid or teenager or even from just ten years ago.

One of my concerns with Moviepass is that if it gets so big that the majority of people in theaters are using it, it'll be harder to enforce any kind of behavior standard. When a ticket costs $25, I have a little bit of moral high ground and/or room to shame the person or complain to management if I have to, because it's not unreasonable to say "I paid $25 for this ticket, and I just want to watch the movie I paid for." If we're all getting in for "free", will that change how people behave and how theaters deal with it? It doesn't seem farfetched that patrons and or theaters themselves might just say, "Don't wanna hear me talk? Try the next show. Besides, it's not like it's costing you anything to be here so stop complaining about me talking."

 

[Tino]

I’ve never had an issue in (New Jersey) theaters with reclining seats. It’s gotta be you Josh

 

[Jason_V]

It's not just at the theater, Josh. It's everywhere. On the bus, at theme parks, at the grocery store, at the mall, cutting the queue for the bus, on airplanes.

Common decency has gone out the window and those of us "old guard" are a dying breed.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’ve never had an issue in (New Jersey) theaters with reclining seats. It’s gotta be you Josh

There may be a difference in an audience that has to make a conscious decision to look up show times, get into a car, drive to a location, and park to see a movie (New Jersey more residential areas) vs one that wanders into the movies out of a plethora of options on the same block. Or I don't know, maybe it's exactly the same. I sometimes struggle with trying to reconcile why my theater-going experiences are generally poor, while so many others here have much better experiences. Do I just live in the rudest spot in the world? I pay higher prices than everyone else; does that effect my expectations and reactions?

Or, do I just have what my dad coined an "asshole magnet" attached to my back? My dad used to joke when I was a teenager and college that I must have a magnet on my back attracting jerks, because whenever he'd go out with me to a movie or a show, we'd encounter some kind of jerk or disruptive weirdo, but when he'd go to the same places alone or with someone else, there wasn't a problem. My wife recently joked that she was noticing that there was more problematic behavior at things she went to with me than things she went to without me. It's a funny joke, but I'm really not conceited enough to believe that the universe is singling me out.

It's not just at the theater, Josh. It's everywhere. On the bus, at theme parks, at the grocery store, at the mall, cutting the queue for the bus, on airplanes. Common decency has gone out the window and those of us "old guard" are a dying breed.

That very well may be it, though for what it's worth, I'm not that old... 34.

I do think that this stuff doesn't happen in a background, and that people react to changes in their environment. So, maybe if you're spending $5 or $8 for a movie ticket for a relatively small seat, in a row next to a lot of other people, you might be inclined to be better behaved because of the proximity to your neighbors. And it's not as comfortable to move around in those, so maybe it's physically not worth the effort to be reaching for your phone the whole time. On the other hand, when you pay big bugs to sit in a big comfy recliner seat, maybe the extra money makes you feel like you've paid for the privilege to act as you want, as if you're not sitting in a seat at a public event, but like you just rented a hotel room.

And perhaps I'm quick to interpret someone talking loudly or playing with their phone as if the person had said to me, "My entitlement to do whatever I want when I want is more important than your right to see the movie you just paid for, so F you." And, the truth may be, that rather than intending to send out signals of hostility and rudeness, that they're just completely oblivious, and when that trailer played before the movie saying to turn your phone off, that just meant all of those other people with the really large and loud phones, not their phone.


Honestly, I must sound like an uptight and overly picky crazy person from the sound of this posting. But I really don't think I'm that bad. What I want from going to the movies is really simple: I just want the only light I see on the screen to be from the projector, and the only sound I hear to be from the speakers. But I'm not gonna flip out if someone whispers to ask their neighbor to repeat a line of dialogue they missed or the name of an actor onscreen. I'm not gonna flip out if someone gets a call or text and excuses themselves from the auditorium to deal with it. I don't mind the sound of popcorn being chewed or straws being sucked on. Those are all reasonable sounds one would expect to hear at a movie and are easy for me to tune out. It's the couple gossiping about their friends, the person talking on the cell phone, the constant interruption of light from smartphones during the film, the parent who brings a small child to an evening showing of an R rated movie and gives them an iPad with some noisy and bright game to pacify them during the movie... these are the things that drive me nuts. All things, by the way, which are on the theater's posted "don't do this stuff or we'll throw you out" list of rules, and yet, I've never ever seen anyone removed from a theater for doing it.

 

[Jason_V]

I'm not much older than you, Josh. A young 38 here.

When I get on an airplane and people are playing YouTube videos without headphones, it drives me insane. We've got this culture that says it's okay to do whatever I want whenever I want and who cares about the people around me. People smoke in front of buildings and open windows when the law says they have to be at least 25 feet away. There are people dropping hard curses in family restaurants and not thinking anything of it.

For what it's worth, every recliner movie I've seen has been AOK in this regard. Coco over Thanksgiving caused me anxiety because of the kids behind us, but they were good the whole movie (even the Frozen short). We did go see a Friday night show of the first Turtles movie (don't ask why) and there were young people being loud, though...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Pretty much agree with all of the above.

The movie theater thing bugs me more than a lot of the other examples. The smoking thing, for instance, I don't know what the law is in New York City about being near a building or window or whatnot. I've never seen a sign specifically about that (just generic ones that individual buildings might put up directing people to stand elsewhere), so I can understand how a person might start smoking outside of a building if there isn't a giant sign or if they don't know the law. I'm annoyed by people listening to stuff without headphones on the subway, but there isn't a sign, and the subway itself isn't producing entertainment, so I can kinda sorta understand where they're coming from. I sometimes curse without thinking; I can forgive that impulse easily as well.

The movie theater thing is really more troubling because there are so many instructions about behavior before it starts. You walk by a sign on the way in listing theater policies and code of conduct before you buy your ticket. When you get to your seat, they play a damn trailer before the movie that specifically tells you to turn off your phone, that the light is just as distracting as the sound, and to stop talking. Purchasing a ticket is entering into a contract where you're agreeing to abide by those rules. I'd believe it if a kid on a subway with an iPad or a guy smoking outside the office building genuinely didn't think they were bothering anyone else and were just trying to mind their own business. It's harder for me to accept that it's just as innocent inside a theater where there is an established expectation for behavior.

But I dunno, maybe Tino and Robert are right, maybe New York is just extra rude.

 

[Jason_V]

A slip of a curse is one thing. When the curse is every third word, it's completely something different. I think an accident can be forgiven fairly easily. When it's used as frequently as the word "the"...that's a problem for me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Josh,

I was kidding with you. Anyhow, can we continue this discussion in a more appropriate thread.