Regal Gallatin Valley — Attraction in Bozeman

This place has an awful monopoly on this town. Concession prices are way too high, but perhaps thats something corporate creates across the board. However, what they COULD control would be cleanliness of theaters (never good) and quality of display. On SEVERAL occasions I've had lights stay on in the theater until 20 mins into the movie, or for the projectors to be soft (out of focus). Even a couple times the movie has skipped or experience some other digital problem. And sure, you can go complain and get your money back, but this takes forever because there are normally lines. Which is another frustrating thing, because they are not understaffed, theres always plenty of people "working," but usually they have 4 people waiting in concession and only 1 or 2 people working the ticket counter. And believe you me: there are far more people trying to buy tickets than there are people trying to pay massive amounts of money for some bad popcorn. Perhaps the most detrimental thing about this little theater is its lack of selection. They always seem to be missing the movies I want to see. And not just smaller art films: big name films. In fact, what inspired me to write this review after its been stewing in my brain for so long is the fact that they are not showing the new Steve Jobs film. This is a big movie, starring big stars (Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet), directed by a big director (Danny Boyle), written by a big writer (Aaron Sorkin), and distributed by a big company (Universal Studios). Why would they not show it? Missoula, Billings, and Helena are all showing it, so it is not a problem of location. Perhaps the rumours around Bozeman are true, that this theater is run by the religious right and they have some moral qualm with some of these films? I cannot say for sure, but I can say they certainly screened the religious film "The War Room" for a suspiciously long time....

But, alas! I am a cinephile and have no other choice but to go to this theater and fork over my hard earned money. Such is the horrible nature of...

My daughter and I recently went to see "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark". I hadn't been to a movie in about 2 years and was floored that the price was nearly $12 a person! I know the movies are expensive, but it seems like they increase their prices like crazy. Then, we were asked to choose our seats on a monitor, which was also new to me. We chose the two seats in the very back, in the center. I was excited because those are my favorite seats and I thought it was neat you could "reserve" your seats. So instead of rushing in to claim our seats we went to get popcorn and soda (Another $15) and went happily in the theater to claim our seats... and there sat 2 young men in our seats. I was disappointed but didn't want to cause a scene, so we just sat a few seats down from them, in the back. Then another couple came in and up the stairs and by the look on their faces, we were clearly in THEIR seats. Basically, everyone else who entered after that started up the stairs and looked around in confusion as someone was clearly in their seats and so I'm pretty sure that very few of the "reserved" seats ended up being correct. If the movie theater enforced the seating it would be great, but as it is now, it doesn't appear to work and most people don't want to say something to a complete stranger, so they just sit in a different seat. It just seemed to cause a lot of confusion and uncertainty. Other than the cost and the seating issues, the theater was clean and wasn't a freezing 50° degrees, so that was nice. The employees were all professional and friendly. There was also a crazy amount of previews, I expect 5-10 minutes but it was nearly 20 minutes of previews which is insane. Overall, for an occasional treat, a movie here is a ok,...

This theater offers one of the worst viewing experiences I've ever had, but they can get away with it because they're the only theater in town. The food is extremely overpriced, a soda and popcorn can cost more than the ticket. The employees don't care about the customers at all and are extremely rude. It's very common to have people talking or texting during the movies but the employees refuse to do anything about it, even if you leave during a movie and tell the staff what is happening. I don't know if this is a legal thing or not but 15 minutes after a movie starts and 15 minutes before it ends, an employee will walk into the theater with a red flashlight, walk all the way in front of the seats, look at the emergency exit to make sure it's still there, and then walk all the way back across the seats again. It is incredibly distracting and takes me out of the movie every time. The management has also been very condescending toward me when I only asked if I could buy a ticket to a limited-run movie that was only showing for a single day. The management told me that the movie wasn't showing at that theater and was very rude to me when I asked them if they were sure, since the Regal Cinemas website said that that movie was playing there that day. Sure enough, that movie was playing that day like the website said, but the staff had no idea. This theater combines the worst of a terrible staff and a large chain theater. If there was any other theater within 50 miles I would go there. The Empire Twin Theater in Livingston is great but only shows two movies at a time and it is hard to drive through the pass if the weather is bad, but if the Empire Twin is showing a movie go there instead, avoid this theater...