I live in the Back Bay in Boston, very near the Boston Common theater. I was very happy when it opened. Before that all we had were the Copley Square cinemas and the Cheri, and both were terrible. I simply didn’t go to the movies back then. For a while the Boston Common was great, but it has seriously slipped lately.
It is tremendously understaffed, and the people who are working there are poorly trained. The movie-going experience there is not good. Several times I have sat in a theater with crying babies – literally screaming through the whole movie. I went out to get an usher but could find no one. Finally I got a manager, but he did nothing. I’ve gotten my money back twice from them for situations like that.
The last straw was this summer, when I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the day it opened. Being opening night, the crowd started to gather about an hour before hand. There was no one to take tickets or organize the line. Everyone just stood in a crowd in the corridor. After a while a very clueless employee started to put up the post-and-strap dividers, with the apparent goal of making a zig-zag line for us all to stand in. He couldn’t figure it out and ended up making one dead-end line, and also fully enclosed another group of people. It took two other employees a half hour to figure out how to set up the posts and dividers. The whole time the crowd was laughing at their efforts. Needless to say the crowd ended up just being a mob, jockeying for position near the front.
With tickets for that place up to nearly $11 each, and food very expensive, I’m tired of paying $40 or $50 for a mediocre movie experience. I go to the movies very rarely now, which is a shame, because I love movies. There is just no good place to see them in Boston.
I predict that there will be no new theaters built in Boston, or anywhere. With home theater offering better and better experiences, and movie houses offering worse and worse experiences, people have no incentive to go out to the movies. With no customers, no one will want to run a labor-intensive business like a movie theater.
BTW: The Back Lot was completely cleared out the last time I was there. No furniture, and the overhead monitor screens were gone.
Oops. I actually don’t recall the street I was on, but I thought I’d read the theater was on Pico. My bad. My Dad lived on Catalina when he was a boy. USC is around Vermont, Figueroa, Exposition, Hoover, etc.
My father lived near this theater when he was a kid in the 40’s and 50’s. He has many fond memories. In the 80’s, I attended USC, which is near this theater. I remember seeing it boarded up. I was impressed by the size of the theater, and the two towers on the top. My dad told me there was a lavish apartment at the top for the owner. He’d heard stories about it when he was a teenager but had never seen it. Sadly, in one of my last years at USC I drove down Pico and saw the demolition in progress. The first time, the facade was gone and I could see inside – a lobby on the lower floor, and a large staircase above that going into the theater, I assume up to the balcony. The second time I went by, a few days later, more of the building was gone. Everything in front was demolished and I could see directly into the auditorium. It would have been great to tour this theater before it went, and the penthouse. It must have been quite a place.
I live in the Back Bay in Boston, very near the Boston Common theater. I was very happy when it opened. Before that all we had were the Copley Square cinemas and the Cheri, and both were terrible. I simply didn’t go to the movies back then. For a while the Boston Common was great, but it has seriously slipped lately.
It is tremendously understaffed, and the people who are working there are poorly trained. The movie-going experience there is not good. Several times I have sat in a theater with crying babies – literally screaming through the whole movie. I went out to get an usher but could find no one. Finally I got a manager, but he did nothing. I’ve gotten my money back twice from them for situations like that.
The last straw was this summer, when I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the day it opened. Being opening night, the crowd started to gather about an hour before hand. There was no one to take tickets or organize the line. Everyone just stood in a crowd in the corridor. After a while a very clueless employee started to put up the post-and-strap dividers, with the apparent goal of making a zig-zag line for us all to stand in. He couldn’t figure it out and ended up making one dead-end line, and also fully enclosed another group of people. It took two other employees a half hour to figure out how to set up the posts and dividers. The whole time the crowd was laughing at their efforts. Needless to say the crowd ended up just being a mob, jockeying for position near the front.
With tickets for that place up to nearly $11 each, and food very expensive, I’m tired of paying $40 or $50 for a mediocre movie experience. I go to the movies very rarely now, which is a shame, because I love movies. There is just no good place to see them in Boston.
I predict that there will be no new theaters built in Boston, or anywhere. With home theater offering better and better experiences, and movie houses offering worse and worse experiences, people have no incentive to go out to the movies. With no customers, no one will want to run a labor-intensive business like a movie theater.
BTW: The Back Lot was completely cleared out the last time I was there. No furniture, and the overhead monitor screens were gone.
Oops. I actually don’t recall the street I was on, but I thought I’d read the theater was on Pico. My bad. My Dad lived on Catalina when he was a boy. USC is around Vermont, Figueroa, Exposition, Hoover, etc.
My father lived near this theater when he was a kid in the 40’s and 50’s. He has many fond memories. In the 80’s, I attended USC, which is near this theater. I remember seeing it boarded up. I was impressed by the size of the theater, and the two towers on the top. My dad told me there was a lavish apartment at the top for the owner. He’d heard stories about it when he was a teenager but had never seen it. Sadly, in one of my last years at USC I drove down Pico and saw the demolition in progress. The first time, the facade was gone and I could see inside – a lobby on the lower floor, and a large staircase above that going into the theater, I assume up to the balcony. The second time I went by, a few days later, more of the building was gone. Everything in front was demolished and I could see directly into the auditorium. It would have been great to tour this theater before it went, and the penthouse. It must have been quite a place.