Hawthorne Theaters — Attraction in Hawthorne

My sister and I went there today to see a movie and there was one technical problem after another. First the sound was on but no movie - I had to come out and ask them to restart it for us,which they did. Then 30 min into the movie the screen went black, so we had to come out of the theater and tell them - it took them 10 min to fix it. Then another 30 min in it went black and we had to go out and tell them again. My sister asked for a refund and they did give it to us and said that they were working on the people but did not know how long it would take or whether they even would be able to fix it.

I told the manager that we could not wait indefinitely (we got a sitter to watch the kids and I did not want to have to pay her $25/hour for who knows how long while waiting for them to fix the problem.). I asked a manager if he could give me a voucher so that we could see a movie another day and he said that he already refunded me a ticket and it was not his fault (which I get - things like this happen ) and he did not feel he needed to do anything else. He was kind of irritated about me asking for a voucher so I decided I did not want it after all because I did not want to come back to a place that treats their customers that way. As I was walking to his office to tell him about it I overheard him complain about me to his colleagues telling how he did not like when people asked him for stuff.

It might sound that I am greedy because he did give us a refund - no questions asked. But from my perspective - I paid over $30 to a babysitter and only was able to see part of the movie so I thought it would be fair to be compensated for part of that. As a business owner you are supposed to take care of your customers and I expecting him to OFFER me vouchers - after all, how much does it cost him to give to vouchers to a movie he is playing anyway ( this theater is hardly ever sold out). He did not, which is OK but I did not think he would give me so much trouble after I asked him for a voucher.

I've been going to this movie theater for years but honestly don't think I will ever go there again - I don't want to give my $ to an establishment that clearly does not treat their customers...

This place was disappointing, despite lowered expectations knowing this is a small local business. The entire place has a smell, like old carpets cleaned with old vaccuums. The sound inside the theater is low. Our screen was damaged and had some kind of tape or plastic which was distracting during the movie. The overhead lights stayed on which was also distracting.

We found this place through Groupon and used an offer that included popcorn and soda with the movie tickets. We noticed that the popcorn they used for the Groupon is different than if you were ordering the popcorn separately. They have it all pre-bagged for the Groupon deal and it has a stale taste. There a couple of problems with that approach. First, the price of the Groupon is not face value for just the tickets, it does cover some of the in food and drink cost albeit discounted. We should not have been served pre-bagged stale popcorn as if it were a freebie. Furthermore, if the goal is to attract repeat customers, why serve lower quality on the Groupon?

This was one of those experiences where I can say they got me once but never again. Maybe that's the goal, to lure people in with the deal and not care if they come back again in the future.

The positives, although not enough to come back for, were friendly staff...

a film festival I help run (White Vulture Film Festival) had their first ever live event last week with all screenings held for 2 full days on 2 screens at the Hawthorne Theater... this is the first festival I have ever attended, working or not, where there were no technical difficulties... not a single one. EVERY SINGLE FILMMAKER complimented the picture sound and of course the staff... we were handled by George, Joann and their time with courtesy attentiveness and nothing but respect for our project. it is my hope that for so long as WVFF endures, that we are capable of having it in this theater every year... fantastic service but still "local" enough to be completely approachable... the festival received many compliments... half of them should have been directed straight to George, Joann and the entire staff of the Hawthorne...