Customer Unfriendly Cinema

REGAL SOUTH BEACH CINEMA
CUSTOMER UNFRIENDLY
February 19, 2016


Today, as I have for most Friday mornings of the past couple of years, I biked the 5.5 miles to the Regal South Beach Cinema at Lincoln Road, Miami Beach to catch a matinee. I didn't have any actual movie to see, but The Witch got good reviews so, tho not my normal fare, I decided to give it a look.

Got to the box office at 11:55 AM and handed the teller $11 and told her which movie and she informed me that the 11:50 showing was in the VIP and would be $15. That was not indicated on my Regal SoBe listing that I have on my Earthlink Homepage that I check for movie showtimes.



Since I was there I decided on the next movie that I was not thrilled about, Hail Caesar but would watch just to see the cast of actors. The 12:10 PM showing of that was also in the VIP. DAMN! So, even tho I have seen it two times at matinee in the past week I opted to see Deadpool again. NOPE, the 12:30 PM was also only showing in VIP.

WTF?! These greedy suits at Regal Corporate (who probably don't even go to movies) have ruined my movie going recreation at the only easily accessible theater in town. IDK if this is now the model, that most new matinee movies will no longer be showing for a reduced cost but will be much the same as an evening ticket, but I cannot afford the $15 for a matinee - I can barely afford the $10.58 that a weekend matinee now costs since they quit giving senior discounts. And, what's up with that 58¢? Why not .50. Looks like the suits setting that ridiculous inconvenience to the cashier just followed some computer readout to get the optimum out of the customers.

I have never been in any kind of business so I don't claim to know how many millions that 3¢ can add up to nationwide, but for the inconvenience it causes, it seems a business that appreciated its customer base would have eaten that little cost to make us movie goers happier.

So, I will have to go to Fandango in future to ascertain if the early matinee is in fact available at matinee prices before biking all the way to Lincoln Road from North Beach. If their matinee model is only going to open in VIP for the increased price, then I will just have to discipline myself to not seeing first run movies in the theater and wait half a year for the DVD to come out.

 

I dont understand? Didnt you go to Italy and on a cruise around Hawaii this year

I download most stuff, its free and helps the environment.....and apparently legal now in my country, kind of, thanks to a recent court case

 

That's why I don't have a car, bike everywhere I go and go to the cheapest matinees, so I can take cruises to Barcelona & Hawaii.

(The trip to Italy doesn't count, my young Prince paid for that.)

 

The nearest high quality theater prefers to sell most of its tickets online now, often selling out shows before the box office opens at the theater. I have to enter my credit card number, solve one of those annoying visual puzzles that screen out web bots, and print the tickets out on my home printer. If my schedule changes or I get caught in traffic, there's no refunds, of course. They don't care if I actually get to see the movie that I paid for.

My local cable system is getting pay per view movies earlier than ever before, long before the DVD release. The price goes down as the movie gets older, but even their highest prices are cheaper than theater tickets for two, and I can eat my own snacks. I can pause the movie for a bathroom break. It may be a while before I see the inside of a theater again. These theater companies are nuts.

 

If you are really unhappy about this, complaining to them will do you more good.

You can demand that they list prices on their web site.

Not that I think that it is a worthy cause, but if you and some other angry old farts go out and picket the theater demanding that they reinstate senior discounts, you can probably make them do it.

You may want to contact AARP

 

I know the hassle with those pre-bought tickets. When I donate blood they give a movie ticket. It used to be just a paper ticket that I took to the box office but then they went to one that has a scratch off number that you have to enter into Fandango and get a printout ticket. So, I have to make sure the weather is good and commit myself to one particular movie then go thru the computortions of getting it printed.

Hopefully, Fandango will let me know in advance which early matinees are only VIP. As a fall back I guess I can do a later matinee, like 2 or 3, but I prefer going to the early ones like I have for the past 5 or more years.

 

$11 for a matinee? i think it was $6.50 here when i went last week.

 

Looked up the same movie and matinee showing at my movie theater of choice for Monday 2/22/16 at 11:20 am and it was $21.00 (including a convenience fee)

GENERAL ADMISSION
[SIZE=1.142em]$20.00[/SIZE]

TICKET TOTAL $21.00 A convenience fee of $1.00 per ticket is applied.



Hotwater

 

I haven't been to the movie theatre in years so I have no idea what it costs but I'm assuming it is probably over $10 for a matinee and $15 or more at night.

The ridiculous prices for snacks and drinks always bothered me more than the ticket price. I always took a big purse and smuggled in my own snacks but appearantly the theatre closest to me now makes you show them the contents of your purse? No thanks, the cinema experience isn't worth some pimply 15 year old usher sifting through the tampons in my purse.

More than price it was really the annoying people that drove me away from the theatre. I can be neurotic about sound so if I get stuck sitting beside someone who chews loudly or has an annoying laugh it ruins it for me.

 

you should go to there with a purse you've stuffed full of nothing but tampons and used kleenex.

 

ridiculously high prices for admission and snacks, they search you, and most of the movies they show are crap anyway. I don't know why anyone goes to the theater anymore

 

The nearest other theater is the AMC in the Aventura Mall - 8 miles away. I think I can bike it along sidewalks in Sunny Isles Beach. I was going to do a test run today but the overcast didn't look appealing.

According to their online schedule the matinees are about $3 less than the Regal.

The bike ride will be 45 minutes to an hour as opposed to 30 minutes to the Regal, but I can always use the exercise.

 

Yeah, you don't wanna gain weight until you get old.

 

Bike Trip to AMC Aventura
February 20 2016

Today was a beautiful day for a bike ride so I set out at 10:30 a.m. for Aventura. Half the trip I normally make to the north end of Haulover Park which was 20 minutes away and I continued up the sidewalks thru Sunny Isles Beach along Collins Avenue to 192nd Street, then across the Lehman Causeway to Aventura. Going over the bridge there is a wide walkway but the cars are going by quite fast. Then there is the very high bridge, which challenges my mild acrophobia.



I made the trip in exactly 45 minutes to the mall but took another ten minutes riding around this huge complex looking for the theater. Locked up my bike and before 11:30 was at the theater.



Then I found out that the weekend 11:30 a.m. matinee was not on a weekday, so I had an hour to kill - which isn't so bad at this mall of high end stores that I will never shop at.

At 12:30 I got to the box office and got a ticket for Deadpool - my third time seeing this movie.

The ticket was only $9.43 - 72¢ less than the weekday admission at Regal South Beach. Considering that this is not much more difficult to get to than SoBe, I will likely be using the Aventura Mall Cinema more than in the past.

I did come here two times in 2009 to see Avatar and Star Trek in IMAX 3-D. Regal now has that capability, but I think I may be thru with them.

Something I noticed at the AMC theater in Aventura was the unisex restroom. This may seem strange to many ppl who think Men & Women is all you need but for transgender ppl it often presents a problem, especially in those backwater places that are making laws forcing ppl to use the restroom of their "legal" gender, which does not always match the one they present.

I found that a progressive move for this theater and don't know if it is standard with AMC theaters or just in in a high-end mall in South Florida.

 

fixed it for ya....


I'm surprised they are even in business anymore. When I was a teen and went to movies often, the theaters either had a steady menu of "pop culture" fare to choose from or they had a big movie running for months on end.
Now a days the majority of "pop culture" offerings are in the theater no more than a month and then on to dvd or very often straight to dvd.
Then the big movies are only run for like 3 months before going to cable an then to dvd.
They barely have time to make $$$ on any movie releases because the BIG $$$$$ are in aftermarket dvd sales.

just like video killed the radio star, dvd's and Netflix, Youtube, etc. are killing the movie theaters.

 

Huh?
Sounds like an unenforceable law. What people gonna do, follow folks into a stall and take pics???

 

Yeah, I never buy from the concession stand. I hadn't eaten in a while this day but looked at the price of a small popcorn - $6 :yikes: so I just went without.

No my big tire, 15-gear bike does just fine. I like the stability more than a narrower tire.
And, cheap is not good when you put 3K miles on a bike in a year. I have to replace most of the moving parts because they wear out.