AMC Empire 25

What was the movie? I have never experienced this, but I hope you e-mailed the AMC people. I had a problem there and e-mailed the national HQ and they were all apologetic and I received some passes. The best thing to do is go right to national HQ because that let’s the manager of the theatre know his superiors are aware of the complaint. They’ll forward the complaint to the AMC’s manager and he’ll respond.

PS – I was wondering where all the people from the concession line went. Perhaps they have a crack den in there someplace??

In fact, they are required to sell off 10 theatres, including E-Walk.

I am surprised that they allowed this merger to go through without forcing the combined entity to shed some theatres. I don’t quite understand why Cinemaplex Odeon & Loew’s had to shed cinemas when they merged, but AMC and Loew’s didn’t have to shed cinemas, particularly in Times Square where AMC is now the only game in town. There are what 25 screens at AMC and I think 14 at Loew’s across the street. 39 screens controlled by one company? At the least AMC should have been forced to sell one of those two theatres.

And speaking of AMC, there clearly isn’t enough product to go around to fill 39 screens during the dog days of February. They are desperate to fill those screens. “The Tenant” opens exclusively at AMC this week. They also opened the equally poorly reviewed “Tamara,” which is also playing in Manhattan at the often second run City Cinemas E. Village ‘plex and the New Coliseum in Upper Manhattan. Finally, to complete this sorry-assed trifecta, also opening at AMC today is an, ahem, art film, “A Good Woman,” which is also playing at the less than A-list Clearview Cinemas’ E. 62nd Street ‘plex and the higher profile Regal 14th Street 'plex. “AGW,” like “Tamara” and “The Tenant” were all poorly reviewed.

Another weird booking at the AMC was “Bloodrayne,” a horror flick that opened at AMC on January 13. It also opened in the boroughs as well, but AMC was the only theatre showing “Bloodyrayne” for the first week anyway. What was odd about “Bloodrayne,” in addition to its exclusive Manhattan booking at AMC, was the fact that it wasn’t reviewed in the “New York Times” even though advertising appeared in the Times.

REndres;Many thanks for your clarification and insight into this. It’s always good to have someone with ‘first hand knowledge’.

A current photo (courtesy of woody) of the ceiling and two balconies. Note the rectangular space in the ceiling above the window is where the vents from the projection box were located and the two semi-circular ‘balconies’ each side of the window indicate the original floor level at the rear of the second balcony.
View link

An identical view, taken in 1989 before the theatre was ‘moved’ and showing the projection box still in position is in the book ‘Lost Broadway Theatres’ by Nicholas van Hoogstraten (page149)

The main problem I have with the AMC Empire 25 is the sound. Every time I’ve seen a movie there, at every splice during the feature. It losses the digital soundtrack (SDDS) and reverts to the Dolby SR analog track for a few seconds and then back to the digital SDDS track. In doing that it goes from a full sound field to a sound field that you can tell your missing channels.

Bway… the 2nd link isn’t working.

Thanks so much for your description rendres.

Re: The balconies at the original Empire. There were indeed two. I worked a week there as a relief projectionist in an asbestos booth at the back of the top balcony. It was so steep there were hand guide rails at the ends of the seating rows (not really all that unusual in those houses). In addition there was an observation port cut into the booth at floor level so you could stand in the rewind room area inspecting film and look out and down at the top of the screen. They kept losing their intermission music tape decks because audience members would punch through the asbestos wall, get into the booth and take anything that was of interest.
Interestingly, I was in the theatre while the Empire 25 was under construction with a fellow co-worker, and he mentioned to the construction foreman that I had worked in the original Empire. The foreman asked if I would like to go “up top” to where the booth was, and I found myself in a hard hat going up stairs in construciton scaffolding. There is a picture taken of me in the hard had staring at one of the sculptures in the relief work at the top of the balcony. The foreman said that the original top balcony was dismantled and moved down to the position of the original first balcony and a new top balcony constructed in its place, which explains the lack of ornamentation on the top balcony. Since the orignal first balcony was much deeper, it would probably have interfered with the escalator paths crossing from the lobby under the proscenium. It was a revelation to see both the Eltinge mural over the proscenium restored and the work at the top of the auditorium. When I worked there the top balcony was locked off and kept dark. I would take the elevator up to the Brandt offices located above the the curved window you see at the front of the theatre to start my shifts, but at night the manager would have to unlock the gates leading to the balcony to let me down at the end of the show since the offices were closed. While I worked relief shifts up the street at Cine 42, the Empire was the only REAL 42nd St. theatre I got a chance to work in, and I remember it fondly when I see the restored auditorium at the Empire 25.

There are plenty of worce theaters in New York. The lack of leg room at the Quad Cinema (as well as the lack of stadium seating with screens low to the ground…not fun since half the movies there are subtitled!) pops to mind. The Empire is probably the best mainstream mutiplex in Manhatten despite the fact there are hidden levels too it (theaters 7 and 8 are located on a half level that can throw you if your not paying close attention, but they have overstuffed leather seats, my guess is they are hidden away for special screenings). The presentation has always been good, Most of the time I’m ussually in one of those small upstairs theaters, but I have been in a few of the larger houses as well and I can’t complain about it…okay, one complaint, but not against AMC – that food court closed, I miss CPK ASAP.

Movieguy’s comments today about the screens being non-performated would seem to imply that the double-curved tourus screens are still being utilized. Is this a fact, and are the screens in all the auditoriums tourus? I remember when the first tourus screens began to appear in the Philadelphia area sometime in the early 90’s or late 80’s – cant remember which – it was kinda funny if you sat dead center in the auditorium, you could clearly hear nearly every conversation going on. It was as if the screen acted as some sort of audio “cone” which amplified every sound and focused it on this one point. At this time, pre-SDDS, the tourus presentations actually didn’t look too bad if you sat in the “sweet” spot. I remember now: “Godfather 3”, whatever year that was, ushered in a giant tourus installation at the AMC Marple ## in the western suburbs of Philly.

This is a horrible, HORRIBLE theater. I have had exactly ONE good experience here (Shopgirl in their largest house – #6) since they opened.
The sound quality is inexcusable for a new theatre. And the sad thing is that the management of AMC KNOWS it is horrible. They blame it on the fact that their screens are “nonperforated,” that their surround speakers are all at ceiling heght and on the bare concrete construction, all making for a terrible echo effect – particularly in their larger houses – and that in turn makes dialog pretty much unintelligible unless they turn the volume WAY up – which is what happened with Shopgirl. Apparently, in house 6, they run the trailers low and the movie high. Supposedly because house 6 is the only one with a Dolby processor. (AMC = SDDS) Still, they ONLY do this in house 6. Beware.
Here’s a fun thing to do next time you visit one of the large houses in this plex… stand in the corridor leading into the theater – notice that the sound is clearer in the corridor than it is in the auditorium. Shameful.