The major things I noticed:
--no real food offered at concessions anymore. Just popcorn and candy and drinks. I am still missing those superb AMC mozzarella sticks and the flatbread pizzas. Straws, lids, condiments and napkins are on-request only. Drinks and popcorn are $5 each for right now and probably the forseeable future. If you want any substantial nutrition you will probably have to sneak contraband food into the theatre in a purse, handbag, or cargo pants.
--more on pricing: $5 tickets for all the "classic" and second-run films (Sonic the Hedgehog, Bloodshot, Jumanji, etc). Inception IMAX is $8 though. I'll be curious if they go back to demanding normally high prices for first--run films. Unhinged on a Dolby Screen was $18.....which in insanity but at the very least is a good way of ensuring that the theatre would be at low capacity. Tenet Early Access on Dolby was only $16 for some reason, while normal projection for Tenet Early Access was $12.
--soda fountains still in operation. Signs say there is a "No Refill" policy for popcorn and drinks, but as far as I can tell there's really nothing to prevent you from getting a second helping of soda (I did not try to do so though). I feel like this is kind of a recurring theme -- "Here's a rule intended to protect you, but probably nobody is going to really enforce it." I wiped down the touchscreens on the Coca Cola Freestyle machines before and after use. I think they really should have just roped off the soda area and had employees handling drink service and refills.
--there is supply of alcohol disinfectant wipes in front of every auditorium. Take as many as you like, and use them to wipe down your seats and armrests. This is a nice touch, as you can do all the work yourself and don't have to be reliant on theatre staff to clean seating surfaces. There's sanitizer stations around the areas as well.
--masks "required" for anyone not eating or drinking. Again though, I'm not sure how much this is really being enforced. I never noticed anyone come in to the auditorium to do a mask check. I didn't report anyone for not wearing a mask, so I don't know what the response would be if I did. If anyone shows up without a mask, they will apparently sell you one for $1. I saw people in the hallways without masks and nobody was exactly hounding them to cover their faces. The theatre was doing an okay level of business, but certainly not what you would expect a normal Saturday night to look like.
--"Restricted seating." As far as I can tell, their ticketing software automatically builds a 1-2 seat buffer around any sections you purchase. So while no seats are strictly "unavailable", as other patrons purchase tickets to a particular show the seats around them will be blocked as unavailable. For mega-auditoriums that don't have the kind of spacing already allowed by the large recliner seats, every other row is completely blocked off from purchase. Smaller theatres tend to rely on the auto-buffering in the ticketing system, and I imagine that the "40% capacity" promise is centered more around the fire marshalls' estimates rather than the actual number of seats available.....because it looks like plenty of the 20-30 seat auditoriums are pretty well sold through. The small auditoriums already have massively spaced out rows, so not every other row is blocked out from purchase.
--our seating. We had an entire row to ourselves in a "small" theatre. Rows in front and behind us were pretty spaced out and significantly elevated/lowered. I don't feel like anybody ever came into our personal space. We kicked back our recliners and largely enjoyed the show.
How Was The Movie?
Pretty good! While I have vivid memories of seeing Return of the Jedi in theatres as a child, I was too young to have seen ESB on a big screen so I was rather looking forward to it. Of course they showed one of the Special Edition versions with updated effects. It was not the original SE that has Luke's dumb yelp when he takes a leap off of Bespin. Enough content has been replaced/upgraded that I often found myself trying to remember what the original 1980's cut of the film was like or how it was different.
I went with a friend who has only recently re-entered the Star Wars universe/fandom through a Disney+ subscription and she was loving it. She was laughing at all the comic relief, trembling at the tense/dramatic moments, crying at the sad moments. It was a fun reminder of how nice it is to go out to the movies with expressive and enthusiastic friends. She winced when Leia kissed Luke.....which actually happens twice in the film (I only remembered the one instance that everybody mentions). I always kinda disliked ESB for all the low-stakes downtime there is in the middle of the film, but it seemed to move at a much better pace than I really recalled.
Even though I kinda prefer the other 2 films in the Original Trilogy, I am glad that they chose to release ESB since ANH and ROTJ have much more distracting and substantial Special Edition changes. I'll bet Disney could make a killing if they ever decided to release the original versions for a theatrical-only run, sometime in the future. Just bill it as "the original movies, seen as they originally were."
Are You Going Back?
Ehhhh, maybe if the screenings for Tenet aren't too full. I find myself strangely tempted to go see Back to The Future and The Goonies on the big screen, but it's probably not worth it unless I can find a friend to go with that's excited for them as mine was for ESB. The next time I'm going out for a movie will probably be for a Drive-In showing of Bill & Ted Face The Music, which I presume will probably be a safer and better experience than most brick & mortar theaters can currently provide. It's showing here locally, and there will be food trucks to service anyone who wants to snack during the show.
--no real food offered at concessions anymore. Just popcorn and candy and drinks. I am still missing those superb AMC mozzarella sticks and the flatbread pizzas. Straws, lids, condiments and napkins are on-request only. Drinks and popcorn are $5 each for right now and probably the forseeable future. If you want any substantial nutrition you will probably have to sneak contraband food into the theatre in a purse, handbag, or cargo pants.
--more on pricing: $5 tickets for all the "classic" and second-run films (Sonic the Hedgehog, Bloodshot, Jumanji, etc). Inception IMAX is $8 though. I'll be curious if they go back to demanding normally high prices for first--run films. Unhinged on a Dolby Screen was $18.....which in insanity but at the very least is a good way of ensuring that the theatre would be at low capacity. Tenet Early Access on Dolby was only $16 for some reason, while normal projection for Tenet Early Access was $12.
--soda fountains still in operation. Signs say there is a "No Refill" policy for popcorn and drinks, but as far as I can tell there's really nothing to prevent you from getting a second helping of soda (I did not try to do so though). I feel like this is kind of a recurring theme -- "Here's a rule intended to protect you, but probably nobody is going to really enforce it." I wiped down the touchscreens on the Coca Cola Freestyle machines before and after use. I think they really should have just roped off the soda area and had employees handling drink service and refills.
--there is supply of alcohol disinfectant wipes in front of every auditorium. Take as many as you like, and use them to wipe down your seats and armrests. This is a nice touch, as you can do all the work yourself and don't have to be reliant on theatre staff to clean seating surfaces. There's sanitizer stations around the areas as well.
--masks "required" for anyone not eating or drinking. Again though, I'm not sure how much this is really being enforced. I never noticed anyone come in to the auditorium to do a mask check. I didn't report anyone for not wearing a mask, so I don't know what the response would be if I did. If anyone shows up without a mask, they will apparently sell you one for $1. I saw people in the hallways without masks and nobody was exactly hounding them to cover their faces. The theatre was doing an okay level of business, but certainly not what you would expect a normal Saturday night to look like.
--"Restricted seating." As far as I can tell, their ticketing software automatically builds a 1-2 seat buffer around any sections you purchase. So while no seats are strictly "unavailable", as other patrons purchase tickets to a particular show the seats around them will be blocked as unavailable. For mega-auditoriums that don't have the kind of spacing already allowed by the large recliner seats, every other row is completely blocked off from purchase. Smaller theatres tend to rely on the auto-buffering in the ticketing system, and I imagine that the "40% capacity" promise is centered more around the fire marshalls' estimates rather than the actual number of seats available.....because it looks like plenty of the 20-30 seat auditoriums are pretty well sold through. The small auditoriums already have massively spaced out rows, so not every other row is blocked out from purchase.
--our seating. We had an entire row to ourselves in a "small" theatre. Rows in front and behind us were pretty spaced out and significantly elevated/lowered. I don't feel like anybody ever came into our personal space. We kicked back our recliners and largely enjoyed the show.
How Was The Movie?
Pretty good! While I have vivid memories of seeing Return of the Jedi in theatres as a child, I was too young to have seen ESB on a big screen so I was rather looking forward to it. Of course they showed one of the Special Edition versions with updated effects. It was not the original SE that has Luke's dumb yelp when he takes a leap off of Bespin. Enough content has been replaced/upgraded that I often found myself trying to remember what the original 1980's cut of the film was like or how it was different.
I went with a friend who has only recently re-entered the Star Wars universe/fandom through a Disney+ subscription and she was loving it. She was laughing at all the comic relief, trembling at the tense/dramatic moments, crying at the sad moments. It was a fun reminder of how nice it is to go out to the movies with expressive and enthusiastic friends. She winced when Leia kissed Luke.....which actually happens twice in the film (I only remembered the one instance that everybody mentions). I always kinda disliked ESB for all the low-stakes downtime there is in the middle of the film, but it seemed to move at a much better pace than I really recalled.
Even though I kinda prefer the other 2 films in the Original Trilogy, I am glad that they chose to release ESB since ANH and ROTJ have much more distracting and substantial Special Edition changes. I'll bet Disney could make a killing if they ever decided to release the original versions for a theatrical-only run, sometime in the future. Just bill it as "the original movies, seen as they originally were."
Are You Going Back?
Ehhhh, maybe if the screenings for Tenet aren't too full. I find myself strangely tempted to go see Back to The Future and The Goonies on the big screen, but it's probably not worth it unless I can find a friend to go with that's excited for them as mine was for ESB. The next time I'm going out for a movie will probably be for a Drive-In showing of Bill & Ted Face The Music, which I presume will probably be a safer and better experience than most brick & mortar theaters can currently provide. It's showing here locally, and there will be food trucks to service anyone who wants to snack during the show.
