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Movie Theater Fail!

Regal Warren Theater, East Wichita

We normally don’t go to the movie theater often due to the extortionate cost of movie tickets. But, this weekend as I got a bonus from work, I decided to treat my family with a trip to the East 13th St Regal Theater, formerly Warren Theater and it was a very overpriced and disappointing experience.

I guess the first thing, the cost of tickets, applies to most theaters these days, but $43.68 for 3 adults and 1 child is too much in my opinion. Yes, you could skip the $5.80 convenience fee by buying the ticket in the theater itself. I believe that venues that charge a convenience fee are shooting themselves in the foot, in this case, Regal adds a 15% surcharge to every ticket sale through their app or online.

Clearly, other people feel the same, while we were sat in the restaurant, for about 45-50 minutes, we observed more staff than customers, and even when we went into the theater itself for the showing of the movie, I would estimate that less than 15% of the seats were taken, on a Saturday evening.

The real disappointment was the onsite diner restaurant. Since the last time we visited the diner, about six or seven months ago, the menu has changed, with significantly higher prices, 3 burgers, chicken sandwich, side salad, 2 bottles of water, two milkshakes and one fountain drink came to almost $94.

Ignoring the price, the experience was not good. First of all, when we ordered, we said that we were going to eat-in, we took our seats and waited, and waited, and waited. After about 20 minutes, my wife turns around and noticed two bags on the counter as asks me “is that our food?”. I responded, “I don’t know, go ask”. My wife goes up to the counter and asks, and yes it was our food, now barely warm.

The food was transferred to ‘plates’ and brought to our table, I start to eat my onion rings, and I pull a blond hair out of my mouth. Not best pleased, I go up to the counter with my plate and the hair and ask to speak to a manager. There was no issue with the manager, he offered to get me another burger, which I declined, finding a strangers hair in your food kinda kills your appetite. They refunded my meal without an issue but coupled with a 30% price increase over a similar meal previously, it really irritated me.

Honestly, I have avoided the movie theater over the past couple of years, because the cost, it should not cost $70 to $80 to take a family of four to see a movie. $43+ for the tickets, $38 if you buy in the theater, then another $35+ for popcorn and drinks. It’s no wonder that there are 70%+ of seats still available for each showing. There is no need for tickets to cost $9.50 to $15.50 to see a movie, I’ll wait for it to become available on in-home streaming, pay $4 to $7 and invite a few friends around to watch with my family.

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