ArcLight announces expansion to Bethesda
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
June 15, 2012 at 10:47 am
BETHESDA, MD — The Southern California luxury chain, ArcLight, is building its first theatre on the east coast. Of course they will feature the standard ArcLight amenities of reserved seating and no ads.
Read more at First Showing.
Comments (1)
Wow! This is great news. I’ve read all the great things about Arclight, at least the plex near where the Cinerama Dome is located. Its too bad they can’t build a similar complex that has a super sized screen, even if its the IMAX-lite screens or XD screens that AMC and Cinemark have.
Montgomery Mall is supposedly going through an expansion. I used to work there and am curious as to where the cinemas are going to be built. If not part of a mall extension, perhaps a stand alone complex. The thing there is an independent theater downstairs by Macys that just renovated and reopened. Curious as to what their fate may be given the Arclight building announcement. Perhaps the independent could survive with counter programming but given the large 16 screener that the Arclight will have, it seems Arclight will have enough screens to book anything and everything.
On a positive note, if Arclight’s standards hold up with this plex on the other side of the US, it may force the others such as AMC and Regal to take notice . I am told Arclight’s projection and sound standards exceed that of THX. Thats a good thing. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of reserved seating. The Rave Multiplex in VA has it and I never liked the idea of having to sit in a specific seat and not move during a show if I find out that my original selection was not a good one.