Please select your seat. Would you like more degrees of recline? How about a hot meal or early seating?
Such choices were once the domain of increasingly greedy airlines, with pricey add-ons making the difference between a bare-bones flight and a bearable one. Oh, you want to bring your clothes to Bermuda? That’ll be $30!
Lately, the evil strategy of up-charging for the basics has crept into movie-theater chains desperate to compete with Netflix-and-chill. In New York, especially, if you want quality, comfort and convenience at the movies, better increase your line of credit.
AMC and Regal Cinemas, with their duct-taped seats and exhausted screens, basically acknowledge just how crummy their theaters are by charging as much as $6 extra for improved audio and video.
If you plan on seeing “Blinded by the Light” at AMC Empire on 42nd Street this weekend, a traditional, musty digital screening will run you a scarcely economical $16.49, while an AMC Dolby showing with 128 speakers and heated recliners goes for an outrageous $23.49. The special theater’s chairs also feature “seat rumblers that reverberate with the action.” I’d rather spend $3 to ride the C train.
Adding to the confusion, this theater also offers AMC Prime (Premium Economy?), which, priced at $22.49, suggests that it’s slightly worse than Dolby.
Then, in some cities, the chain also includes an enhanced 3D option, unfortunately named BigD. Similarly at Regal, their RPX films (bigger screen, louder sound) cost $23.15 versus the normal $17.15. Other Regal choices include Reel, 4DX and ScreenX. It’s becoming Xcessive.
Call me old fashioned, but shouldn’t struggling theater chains retrofit all of their screens to not suck? But no, they’ve decided to reserve the decent rooms for high-payers while ensuring everybody else’s whole experience gets lousier, even before the flick starts.
Call me old fashioned, but shouldn’t struggling theater chains retrofit all of their screens to not suck?
Take concessions. Popcorn and candy at the movies have always cost too much (remember your mom smuggling Twizzlers in her purse?) But these days, you have to pony up just to get your snacks at a reasonable time. AMC Stubs Premiere members pay $15 a year to get into priority concessions lanes with a dedicated cash register, while we plebes wait 20 minutes to spend $9 on a Coke.
The worst change AMC made is actually one that costs no extra money: reserved seating. It’s absolutely de rigueur in New York to choose your seat when you buy your ticket ahead of time online. But, should you arrive during the previews, the room is almost completely dark, the seat numbers and letters are Smurf-size and there’s no flashlight-carrying usher to guide you — or to break up fights between angry moviegoers.
Listen, I’m not saying that certain perks aren’t worth it. IPic lets you enjoy a steak and Champagne, for example, while you watch a flick under a blanket in a room with fewer than 50 people. Fabulous! But to charge ticket-buyers the price of my gas bill in exchange for two hours of crisp, 2D picture is a crock.
According to Comscore, cinema receipts are down 10 percent from last year. Huh. Why could that be?
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