Century City AMC

I HATE the Century City AMC! Movies are a big part of my life and around late March, I start getting very excited for the upcoming summer blockbusters. You give me a flashy trailer and I will be excited for months leading up to opening day. Such is the case with Iron Man 2. I think that I was jacked up to see this movie the moment the first one ended. So, Jackie and I went online tonight to reserve some tickets for opening night, May 7th. We are (or were) big fans of the Century City mall. Ever since Westfield remodeled the place, it has been amazing. Recently the movie theater has changed to an assigned seating facility. This was great, a theater we like and now no waiting in line. So, why the hate? Well, this may seem petty, but they raised their prices. Normally, I wouldn't post on a buck or two, but when I went to select my tickets, they were charging $16.50 a ticket!!!! And, that's before the one dollar per ticket "Convenience" Charge (a whole post on this concept is no doubt on the way)!

I get that LA is going to charge a little on the high side, but I think the regional average is about $12 or so. I kind of get charging an extra dollar or two for IMAX or maybe for 3D (however I think this is a scam anyway) so maybe if this was a 3D IMAX movie, they MIGHT be justified, MAYBE! But, this particular screening was neither on IMAX nor in 3D (the IMAX showings were $17.50). This was just an advanced purchase for a normal movie in a normal theater with assigned seating. The happy ending to this story is that, in the end, Jackie and I reserved 2 assigned seats at the Landmark theater (a better theater, by the way) for $12.50 each. Of course they still hit us with that darn "Convenience" Charge.

PS - I did a little more research on this specific showing and they mention something called ETX which stands for Enhanced Theater Experience. I looked it up and it says there is supposed to be a bigger screen, better sound, etc. This sounds like a major scam to me. Please, if anyone experiences the ETX, let me know if it is worth a 35% increase to the ticket price.