It doesn’t surprise me the Brandywine location hasn’t repaired any broken seats. That company is super cheap and has a habit of entering a market strong and then cutting back once they are in. Usually they would enter markets where there are no other choices though. They would even open brand new locations prior to digital with 20 year old projection equipment.
Supposedly the AMC Prime locations use the same speakers installed at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The price does seem kind of steep though and I wonder how much of a competitor Dolby will be to IMAX. Maybe the best route they can go is try to get some chains to convert their house brand big screen formats.
Oakbrook makes sense because they are also building a new theatre at that location. Rivertowne doesn’t make sense because it’s in a horrible neighborhood and they closed it many years ago because of all of the security issues and because it was losing a significant amount of money. Those security issues still exist in that neighborhood. It seems in many cases they are now doing this simply to increase screen count.
AMC is building a new 12 screen theatre here and will reopen the 1-4 this summer after renovations. After the new theatre is built the 1-4 will remain open.
It doesn’t surprise me that this theatre ended up closing after being reopened. It was kind of doomed from the start for several reasons.
The new operators were the same of Eastpoint 10 in Baltimore which is still open. They were previously affiliated with Village Theatres out of Chicago. All of those locations ended up closing after promises of renovations and stadium seating conversions which never happened.
When AMC closed the location it was possibly going to be taken by Best Buy so AMC ended up gutting it and removing all the equipment, seats, screens, masking and rigging, etc. When the new owners came in they had to replace everything. They decided to replace everything with used equipment (used older style seats, screens, etc.) in addition to used 35mm projection equipment. There was an issue with Paramount pictures including a lawsuit because one of the people affiliated with the theatre was being sued by Paramount for issues with reporting grosses. They settled and still didn’t get product because Paramount accused them of underreporting grosses at Eastpoint 10. Neither location got Paramount movies.
The Marlow Heights theatre up the road was renovated and taken over by the landlord to be managed by Phoenix Big Cinemas. They put in all new seats, digital projection, etc. and fully renovated the theatre with new items unlike Rivertowne who put in all older used items.
The location had a poor reputation previously and the only way it could have been successful was probably if someone went in and put in new items (at the very least some updated seating and digital projection). The “fly by night” company that took the space probably wasn’t capable of doing that. The neighborhood is rough and probably wouldn’t be able to attract a national chain to return to the sight. Also Hoffman is so close and that probably stops someone from going into National Harbor with a new theatre. AMC is going into a lot of older sites now and renovating them with recliner seating (like what they did at St. Charles, Courthouse, and Worldgate). If they aren’t interested in doing that with a location then it’s probably doubtful that someone else would want to either.
The theatre is set back from the curb and parking lot with shops surrounding it. It makes it difficult for someone like Best Buy to go in to the space. I don’t know if someone will try again with a theatre but if they do they have an uphill battle. If someone can put in all digital projection and upgrade seating to high back seats (even without stadium seating) they might have a shot.
The best course of action for the shopping center might be to open it themselves and find someone capable of a management deal such as what the shopping center at Marlow Heights did. I suspect that the theatre does end up helping the other shops around it but it’s doubtful that it would be profitable for a new operator to go in. Academy 8 (a former AMC as well) was renovated and is under a management deal and seems to be doing okay.
*The shopping center was recently sold by the Peterson Group to another landlord so possibly they will look at trying to do something with the space.
There was an article recently where the new metro line might end up going right through this theatre forcing it to close. If they were sticking around it would be nice to see some kind of renovation.
This place unfortunately will close when Arclight opens. Silverspot pulled out of the deal so it looks like that’s not going to happen. Also it looks like White Flint is losing major tenants (Cheesecake Factory closed and moved to Montgomery Mall) and it appears that the theatre there will close at some point too.
Yes this theatre is from the same company that operated the Great Escape chain which was sold to Regal during construction. It appears they kept this site as part of the purchase and changed the name. There have been numerous complaints on sites like Yelp about the ticket/concession setup being too time consuming and lines being too long. This company in their previous locations were known to be thrifty and cheap so they didn’t always staff all of their areas and this is probably their way of cutting staff at some point. They would open strong and staff their theatres well but once they got going would reduce payroll to a bare minimum (and then some) and also stop taking care of their buildings. The seats are vastly different from the AMC installs at renovated theatres (like St. Charles, Courthouse, and Worldgate) and were definitely an after thought. Several places in the auditoriums have railings blocking the screens which would probably not have happened if the auditoriums were designed with these seats in mind. It will be interesting to see how they can compete. They will probably start off strong and then taper off like they did at their previous Great Escape locations. Pretty disappointing that this is the chain that came into the Waldorf area for a new theatre. Kerasotes or Bow Tie would have been much better.
This location is being acquired by AMC along with 9 other Rave locations. As for a “30-plex” being built somewhere else nobody builds them anymore – not profitable.
A common misconception is that this theatre was closed due to the Majestic opening next door. Truth be told this theatre wasn’t profitable for a long time before the new 20 screen theatre opened next door. Even if the new theatre didn’t open this theatre’s fate would probably have been the same.
This was originally a Cineplex Odeon location that was part of the merger with Loews, then became AMC when AMC acquired Loews in 2006. This theatre was scheduled for a renovation to stadium seating and an expansion of three screens prior to the AMC acquisition but Loews never followed through with it. The design is pretty much a nightmare in terms of operating it. There are two concession stands across from each other in the lobby, and the entrance at the front is too small. The largest auditoriums are at the front of the building and there isn’t anywhere for people to wait to go into the next show without blocking the concession stands. Also the theatre is designed with the nine auditoriums around the perimeter of the building. This theatre does a solid business but because of it’s age many in the area choose to travel to other places outside of Waldorf to see movies.
AMC recently announced a $4.5 million renovation to include upgraded reclining seats (like the AMC Lakewood 12 or AMC Vestal 9), along with upgrades to the bathrooms, concession area, lobby, and box office areas.
This is owned by the same company that was once known as Village Theatres in the Chicago area. From what I’ve read about them, they basically take reject theatres from larger chains and run them completely into the ground. Wonder how long it will take them to do that to this location?
It doesn’t surprise me the Brandywine location hasn’t repaired any broken seats. That company is super cheap and has a habit of entering a market strong and then cutting back once they are in. Usually they would enter markets where there are no other choices though. They would even open brand new locations prior to digital with 20 year old projection equipment.
Supposedly the AMC Prime locations use the same speakers installed at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The price does seem kind of steep though and I wonder how much of a competitor Dolby will be to IMAX. Maybe the best route they can go is try to get some chains to convert their house brand big screen formats.
Haven’t been here in a while but they recently had a Kickstarter campaign that was funded and added new seats.
Oakbrook makes sense because they are also building a new theatre at that location. Rivertowne doesn’t make sense because it’s in a horrible neighborhood and they closed it many years ago because of all of the security issues and because it was losing a significant amount of money. Those security issues still exist in that neighborhood. It seems in many cases they are now doing this simply to increase screen count.
AMC is building a new 12 screen theatre here and will reopen the 1-4 this summer after renovations. After the new theatre is built the 1-4 will remain open.
It doesn’t surprise me that this theatre ended up closing after being reopened. It was kind of doomed from the start for several reasons.
The new operators were the same of Eastpoint 10 in Baltimore which is still open. They were previously affiliated with Village Theatres out of Chicago. All of those locations ended up closing after promises of renovations and stadium seating conversions which never happened. When AMC closed the location it was possibly going to be taken by Best Buy so AMC ended up gutting it and removing all the equipment, seats, screens, masking and rigging, etc. When the new owners came in they had to replace everything. They decided to replace everything with used equipment (used older style seats, screens, etc.) in addition to used 35mm projection equipment.
There was an issue with Paramount pictures including a lawsuit because one of the people affiliated with the theatre was being sued by Paramount for issues with reporting grosses. They settled and still didn’t get product because Paramount accused them of underreporting grosses at Eastpoint 10. Neither location got Paramount movies. The Marlow Heights theatre up the road was renovated and taken over by the landlord to be managed by Phoenix Big Cinemas. They put in all new seats, digital projection, etc. and fully renovated the theatre with new items unlike Rivertowne who put in all older used items. The location had a poor reputation previously and the only way it could have been successful was probably if someone went in and put in new items (at the very least some updated seating and digital projection). The “fly by night” company that took the space probably wasn’t capable of doing that. The neighborhood is rough and probably wouldn’t be able to attract a national chain to return to the sight. Also Hoffman is so close and that probably stops someone from going into National Harbor with a new theatre.
AMC is going into a lot of older sites now and renovating them with recliner seating (like what they did at St. Charles, Courthouse, and Worldgate). If they aren’t interested in doing that with a location then it’s probably doubtful that someone else would want to either. The theatre is set back from the curb and parking lot with shops surrounding it. It makes it difficult for someone like Best Buy to go in to the space. I don’t know if someone will try again with a theatre but if they do they have an uphill battle. If someone can put in all digital projection and upgrade seating to high back seats (even without stadium seating) they might have a shot. The best course of action for the shopping center might be to open it themselves and find someone capable of a management deal such as what the shopping center at Marlow Heights did. I suspect that the theatre does end up helping the other shops around it but it’s doubtful that it would be profitable for a new operator to go in. Academy 8 (a former AMC as well) was renovated and is under a management deal and seems to be doing okay. *The shopping center was recently sold by the Peterson Group to another landlord so possibly they will look at trying to do something with the space.
Now open as Studio Movie Grill.
Now an AMC with leather recliners.
There was an article recently where the new metro line might end up going right through this theatre forcing it to close. If they were sticking around it would be nice to see some kind of renovation.
This place unfortunately will close when Arclight opens. Silverspot pulled out of the deal so it looks like that’s not going to happen. Also it looks like White Flint is losing major tenants (Cheesecake Factory closed and moved to Montgomery Mall) and it appears that the theatre there will close at some point too.
Yes this theatre is from the same company that operated the Great Escape chain which was sold to Regal during construction. It appears they kept this site as part of the purchase and changed the name. There have been numerous complaints on sites like Yelp about the ticket/concession setup being too time consuming and lines being too long. This company in their previous locations were known to be thrifty and cheap so they didn’t always staff all of their areas and this is probably their way of cutting staff at some point. They would open strong and staff their theatres well but once they got going would reduce payroll to a bare minimum (and then some) and also stop taking care of their buildings. The seats are vastly different from the AMC installs at renovated theatres (like St. Charles, Courthouse, and Worldgate) and were definitely an after thought. Several places in the auditoriums have railings blocking the screens which would probably not have happened if the auditoriums were designed with these seats in mind. It will be interesting to see how they can compete. They will probably start off strong and then taper off like they did at their previous Great Escape locations. Pretty disappointing that this is the chain that came into the Waldorf area for a new theatre. Kerasotes or Bow Tie would have been much better.
This location is being acquired by AMC along with 9 other Rave locations. As for a “30-plex” being built somewhere else nobody builds them anymore – not profitable.
AMC is taking this location along with 9 others.
This location is going to be AMC.
This location is one of 10 going to AMC.
Now owned by Regal.
This isn’t going to be one of the Cinemark acquired locations. This one is going to AMC (along with 9 others).
A common misconception is that this theatre was closed due to the Majestic opening next door. Truth be told this theatre wasn’t profitable for a long time before the new 20 screen theatre opened next door. Even if the new theatre didn’t open this theatre’s fate would probably have been the same.
This was originally a Cineplex Odeon location that was part of the merger with Loews, then became AMC when AMC acquired Loews in 2006. This theatre was scheduled for a renovation to stadium seating and an expansion of three screens prior to the AMC acquisition but Loews never followed through with it. The design is pretty much a nightmare in terms of operating it. There are two concession stands across from each other in the lobby, and the entrance at the front is too small. The largest auditoriums are at the front of the building and there isn’t anywhere for people to wait to go into the next show without blocking the concession stands. Also the theatre is designed with the nine auditoriums around the perimeter of the building. This theatre does a solid business but because of it’s age many in the area choose to travel to other places outside of Waldorf to see movies.
AMC recently announced a $4.5 million renovation to include upgraded reclining seats (like the AMC Lakewood 12 or AMC Vestal 9), along with upgrades to the bathrooms, concession area, lobby, and box office areas.
This location is under a management deal so the landlord owns the actual theatre but AMC operates it for a fee.
This is owned by the same company that was once known as Village Theatres in the Chicago area. From what I’ve read about them, they basically take reject theatres from larger chains and run them completely into the ground. Wonder how long it will take them to do that to this location?