They seem to be everywhere these days: movie theaters with menus at your seats in lieu of a traditional concession stand with popcorn, nachos, and candy. At these venues, a theater employee comes to your seat to take your order and deliver your food. Anything from a soft pretzel to a full meal of a burger and fries can be yours, all without you having to leave your seat.
It sounds like a dream but I’m not a fan.
Going to the movie theater is an immersive experience. You enter the carpeted halls, reeking of old butter, to not just watch a film, but to experience it on a huge screen five times as tall as you, with booming sound, and with an audience that hopefully shares in your gasps, laughs, and tears.
Combining a dining experience with this viewing experience removes the magic of watching a film on the big screen.
The interruptions. I don’t want an employee coming up to me, taking my order or my neighbors’ orders when I’m settling in, excitedly awaiting the previews.
And then during the film itself when food and drinks are being delivered to seats, I’m disturbed by moving figures carrying food, by hushed “thank you”s, and by the new scents of beer, french fries, and buffalo wings filling my nostrils. It’s extremely distracting.
When I watch a film in a theater, I want to be sucked into the film, the setting, the characters, the dialogue, the plot, the everything. I want to become a fly on the wall of each scene, being fully enmeshed with the landscape.
Having the constant distractions takes away from and prevents this experience from materializing fully.
Instead of being focused and completely engaged with the story, I’m now looking at the shadowy employee dropping off a plate of calamari to the person sitting in the row in front of me and the moment is ruined.
All of this is to say: I won’t be going to a dine-in theater again and don’t think that they should be touted as viewing destinations. They’re not a movie theater, nor are they a restaurant. Instead, they’re a secret third option, a hybrid, and that’s something that I am not interested in and neither should any other serious film watcher.
