You know I gotta do it! Just a subset of Chicago movie houses:
Avalon/New Regal Theater
Uptown Theater
Cadillac Palace Theater
Chicago Theater
Music Box Theater (those ceiling lights are constellations, and there are moving clouds too!)
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My oh my. Never before in my life have I been tempted to go to your fair Windy City.
But now I gotta go!
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Of course you’ve got to come! I recommend avoiding winter though, especially for those who are accustomed to southern California weather.
Of course, we have a lot of boring movie theaters too. But you’re not really leaving the LA area in order to go to movies, right? 
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That Uptown Theater is fairly ridiculous. Royalty typically get married in shabbier venues.
I’d feel pretty damned weird watching an Adam Sandler comedy in one of those.
The only time I’ve set foot in Chicago was changing planes at O’Hare, from Concourse J to Concourse K. In August. Swore I’d never come back. Never gotten so sweaty in a mere ten minutes in my life.
Prolly not, but I do love a great theater! And if you have half a dozen movie houses like that, what must the rest of the city be like? I’ll have to submit to the humidity and check it out someday!
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Ahh yeah well not sure the 14yr old boy is gonna have that movie even on his radar… We did see Deadpool at the cheap theater… that was fun both as a movie and watching him be all oh whatever at the sex scene montage but then hide his eyes at the strip club scene… shurg
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It’s basically concerts now; the only thing that brings in enough money to keep the bills paid.
Are you kidding? Architects from all over the world come here to gawk and take notes!
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My nephew, a little older than that but not by much, was supposed to see it with me and friends; when I saw it I couldn’t help wondering what his reaction to plush unicorn masturbation would have been.
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I really enjoyed the last time I went (The Force Awakens) but the prices are usually way too rich for me.
Big fan of the whole “Gold Class” thing though.
Only about 50 seats in the whole cinema. Crowds freak me out.
Yuuuuuuge recliney armchair seats and well separated into pairs, so I’m near enough to a friend in case I need them, but far enough away from everyone else.
Quiet. Possibly because anyone paying that amount is going to want to watch the movie.
Bonus ninjas bringing drink during the film.
But $50+ is waay too much for a movie for me as a regular thing.
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I am not usually a fuddy duddy, but there were some widly inappropriate young people at the showing I went to.
Hopefully they’ll build an Alamo Drafthouse near you some day - they’re expanding. They’ll punt people for talking/using phones, they have kitchens and serve food that’s quite good (and serve decent beer/wine according to people I know who drink) as well as doing quote-alongs and other events that are entertaining (we saw Master Pancake mocking Jurassic Park at an Alamo on Sat. - completely brilliant). I really enjoy seeing films there since they work to make a great environment. Not cheap, though.
They have different trailers explaining you’ll be kicked out for talking/using a phone, but this one is my fave:
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One of my most memorable moviegoing experiences was seeing the Fifth Element in it’s first run, and when the diva started busting out the dance moves the entire theater erupted howling with laughter and shrieks of delight. It was awesome. I do miss sharing the experience with a room full of strangers, even if they are occasionally annoying.
But yeah, I want to know where these people are that are seeing movies for 8.50. I haven’t paid that little for a first run movie since I would guess about 2000. Like everyone else, I used to go a lot more but now save it for the stuff like Gravity in 3D Imax, Coraline 3D, Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D, stuff like that. And I also shelled out for opening night of The Hateful Eight, which was totally worth it, if only for the retro nostalgia of having the projector malfunction a few minutes in and having to wait for them to fix it. Only thing missing were those blob shapes of melting film.
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I’ve had a few rather intense, scary experiences with rowdy audiences. I remember going to opening night of Alien 3; the theater was decorated like the Sulaco, and everyone was excited. At the opening scene, where [spoilers?] Newt and Hicks die, people started yelling WHAT THE F?!! and throwing popcorn and soda at the screen. A guy walked up the aisle yelling THIS IS SOME BULLSHIT RIGHT HERE and I genuinely thought there was going to be a riot.
On the other hand, seeing Black Dynamite at a midnight screening was one of the funniest two hours of my life.
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That is AWESOME! “Okay?!”
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I still go to the arthouse theater for foreign things/niche films, but am otherwise pro-Alamo since they make me like going to see movies again. Before the film while people are being seated they play odd clips that are somehow related to the film that’s going to show, rather than the ads/sponsored quizzes the big chain here shows. At this point they’re big enough that they get people from the films they’re showing to do their no-talking PSAs. The Finding Dory one was really cute. The Star Wars one was sublime:
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Our moviegoing experiences have been so awful due to, most often, the people around us and, less often, the quality of the theater’s presentation. I couldn’t bring my picky, easily-annoyed self to spend $12 on such a lousy time. We stopped going out to see movies outright for a while.
A few years back, we found that a theater 20 minutes away had $6 movies all day Tuesday and $2 popcorn. If you had their club card, it was $5 per movie. So now we only go to movies on Tuesdays and only the latest showings possible to ensure any kids are already in bed.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the price is right.
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Some friends of ours own a small 2nd-run theater in Minnesota. They explained to me the difference in pricing between 1st & 2nd run films. For a 2nd run, the theater is charged a fixed fee to rent the film for a specified amount of time. It may be on the order of $750. The theater does not have to share box office or concession money, but they run the risk of not covering the rental fee if attendance is poor. For 1st run films, there is no rental fee, but the theater has to share the box office take. This cut is on the order of 85%. For the big blockbuster films like the Marvel superhero films, etc, the studio cut can actually exceed 100%! That’s right, for some films the theater does not get to keep ANY of the ticket money, they have to pay MORE than they take in! In those cases, the only way they make ANY money is on concessions.
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jeezus. i will try to get some popcorn more often then. i just shudder at $4 for a bottle of water.
eta: thanks for the inside info…
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The Franklin Theater in Franklin, TN is a charming old theater where they’ve taken out some of the regular seating and put in tables. During a movie you can even order food or a pitcher of beer.
It sounds like the Alamo Drafthouse has taken the same idea and turned it up to eleven.
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Cinebarre her in Seattle does that but somewhat sadly it is 21+ only.
There is a jewelbox theater I forget about that has serves drinks and very tasty pizza and other nibbles. They have retro geeky films, sing along nights, and other fun things.
ETA and tonight I am gonna miss out on taking the kid to $1.99 night for Conan The Barbarian… 
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