20 minutes of trailers and 10 minutes of AMC puff pieces including the Nicole Kidman OMG Cinema commercials.
Earlier today I went to an AMC IMAX theater to watch Dune Part 2 (spoiler free review, a great film), and instead of the film starting at the scheduled time we have to duck around for 30 min before the film starts (which even then isn’t true since we get two 30 second studio logos).
I’m so happy that most theaters I go to are smaller with usually only a preview or two.
But for AMC, fuck you.
Good questions—
Yes, eat while watching. It’s no louder than eating popcorn. All the food is served in paper trays or cardboard, so the sound is still relatively quiet. In fact I think candy, especially the bagged kinds, are far louder from the bag crinkling. Lots of people around me have eaten food and it doesn’t disturb the movie. The movie itself is far louder.
There is seating in the bar area if you’d prefer to eat before or after the movie, but it’s not required.
I think I would also annoyed at the smells of different foods, but… I don’t know. It’s one of those things I would have to experience myself. :)
I would tend to agree, but none of the food is really offensive smelling (I guess that’s subjective) but the other thing is that you’re pretty far away, unless they’re sitting right next to you, which is rare these days in all but the most popular opening weekend shows. From row to row (front to back) you’re separated by roughly 5-6 feet horizontally and maybe 3 feet vertically. Enough that I can recline fully (another awesome feature of most modern theaters) and there’s still room for someone to walk through in front of me without turning aside for my feet. And then when standing in your row, your feet are just above the heads of those seated in front of you. It works really well.
Honestly, if you haven’t been In a while, it might be worth checking out. Of course each theater can vary in quality and guest experience — I once went to a theater where their “fresh cooked pizza” was a cheap frozen pizza put through a fancy pizza oven and never went back — but in my opinion theaters are, on average, drastically improved from the 80s/90s/00s era theaters of old. Even if they are more expensive now, a good theater makes a nice occasional outing if you can find a good one. I wouldn’t go back to the old style.
And make sure you find one with a good rewards program if you become a regular. It can really cut down on the cost of tickets and concessions.