Favorite Movie Theaters

[Woochifer]

T and Anamorphic -

Interesting that both of you liked the AMC Bay Street theater. Looks like I'll have to try it out. I've yet to go there because of the generally unimpressive sound I've had at most of the AMC theaters I've visited. (On average, the picture quality at the AMCs is a little better than what you typically get at the Century megaplexes, but the sound quality is a huge step down)

Locally, the AMC Mercado in Santa Clara for a while was the highest grossing theater in the country (since then, The Grove in Los Angeles has vaulted to the top of the list), but for the life of me, I could not understand the appeal of that place besides its central location. The surround sound was horribly balanced, and the theater had dialog intelligibility issues and not a lot of impact, and the picture was out of focus both times I went there. Other AMC theaters have had similar issues with the dialog intelligibility. Terrence did once point out that a lot of the AMCs used composite screens that were not as acoustically tranparent as other designs. The only AMC theater that I've liked is the big auditorium at the Kabuki, which was one of the first THX installations in S.F. (sound quality I thought was on par with the underappreciated Galaxy on Van Ness, which unfortunately has been maintained horribly since it opened to much fanfare in the mid-80s as San Francisco's first truly modern movie theater).

I went to a test screening at one of Sony Pictures' dubbing stages several years ago. (I remember passing through an art deco looking hallway with several trophy cases in the walls, so I'm not sure which one it was) It was decorated in basic black, and I saw a mixing console in the middle of the auditorium. The movie being tested was some horrible Richard Gere flick. It didn't even get released until two years after I first saw it (and judging from the reviews I read, it had major reshooting and editing done -- to no avail, it flopped anyway). But, I did remember how great the picture sounded, and this was a rough cut without the final sound mix and music. Dialog intelligibility was as good as I've heard, the surround imaging was strong, and the subs had good impact without sounding strained.

P.S. Terrence - I just followed your link. It looks like that test screening was at the Cary Grant theater, although I remember the decor looking much starker than what's in the picture. Looking at the specs at that theater, I guess there was a reason why that crappy movie sounded as good as it did!

[anamorphic96]

I agree with you about AMC. Sometimes the sound is great such as Bay Street 16, and sometimes only respectable at other locations. Even downright bad . For example house #6 at the Van Ness 14 uses a Taurus screen which curves the screen from the top and sides to improve brightness and light efficiency. However its not as transparent as most screens therefore they installed the horns above the screen and shoot them down and out towards the audience. This makes makes dialog hard to follow and the sound somewhat weak with poor dynamics and integration with the bass bins. I think they used to use this at other theatres with traditional screens and passed it off as something called HITS. High Impact Theatre System or Sound. It seems they have gotten away from this idea and moved on to more traditional installs. This could also explain some of the sub standard sound you are hearing.

On the whole AMC seems to put the most into there booths compared to some of the other chains. However the # 1 problem contributing to bad presentations are the operators not being trained properly. Its a shame the theatre companies dont take this position more seriously and pay the operators better. There are exceptions to this rule. Some of the larger complexes have qualified people that get a repectable wage and some locations still have union operators. But even union houes can suck.