AMC Hickory 15 — Attraction in Hickory

This theater has such bad quality control that it is a stain on the AMC franchise name. I have been to AMC theaters across multiple states and have not seen this severe of a case of bad management, poor protocols, and horrible standards as this theater has set. As a local, I have visited this theater more than a few times over the past few years, even before it was an AMC branded theater. However, it has gotten so bad that I felt that I had to write this review for the world to see. The Dolby theater has a severe moth and insect infestation. Not just, "Oh I saw a single moth one time", but I have had moths in my face as I watched a movie everytime I have visited for the past two years. Then the moths will fly in front of the projector and mess with the movie causing an annoying disturbance repeatedly throughout every single darn movie that I have seen in that auditorium. Next, the cleanliness has taken a plummet to the depths of the abyss. Now, I know that theaters have a general issue with cleanliness, however this is deplorable. The amount of sticky auditorium seats, leftover trash, messy and smelly bathrooms, and ridiculously sticky floors is just horrendous. I don't even know how this place could ever pass a health inspection, especially on busy days. Which brings me to my next point, considering how busy this theater can get, one would expect that they could at least afford to keep up with the basic upkeep. However, the seats in the dolby have started to show visual wear and often do not function properly. Considering the near $20 price tag of a single Dolby ticket, one would think that these issues should have already been taken care of. Following this, some of the seats in some of the other auditoriums that I have visited also lack proper filling anymore and are in quite pathetic states themselves, and some of the screens have also seen better days. Finally, my main issue is the protocols. They need to be better aware of the heat in the theaters as the amount of times that I have visited and felt like I was entering a sauna is ridiculous, and it is also a health risk for some people. Then there is seat stealers and hoppers, which seems to be an epidemic at this location. This is especially true in the Dolby auditorium, the amount of times that I have visited with my family and people were in our pre-purchased seats is more than a few. On top of this, most of the time these people do not even have tickets for that showing or at all. For how busy that auditorium can be, one would expect a second ticket checker at the entrance to it, at least for the more busy, near sold-out, showings as that is when it is most prevelant and annoying. With all of this said, one would think that this is some no name theater with bad management. However, this theater is branded as an AMC franchise theater and that name is supposed to mean something amongst us movie-lovers. However, in this case it feels more like a cancer on the AMC name that severly needs to be addressed by corporate's...

I’ve literally never had a bad experience at this theatre until then, when I came in to the theatre to get my tickets I said hello and smiling to the guy at the stand just being polite and he was instantly rude to me for no reason at all, I don’t even remember if he said hello or not. Then he asked what seats I want and he told me to come over there at the screen and choose them and not in a nice way then I sometimes forget it’s not a touch screen and touched the screen because I was trying to pick the seats and he told me it wasn’t a touch screen and again in not a very nice way a rude tone. He just kept on making faces at me too and just having a bad attitude. I ordered my tickets and my food and after that this nice woman asked if everything was okay because she could tell I was upset by that guy and I told her that guy was being very rude, I would have spoken to a manager but we were already late for the movie so I just brushed it off, but when he got my drink out he slammed it on the counter. I have worked in customer service at restaurants for about two years, I would never treat a customer like that. I was already having a bad enough day and it really disheartened me to be treated like that so rudely and poorly for no reason. No matter how bad of a day I’ve had before work I would never take it out on a customer who probably might be having one too and they just want to go somewhere and have a good experience and good service, the movies is my happy place so It was even more disappointing to be treated like that when I came there to have some happiness but instead got treated like that. I usually never write reviews, but I just had to write this because that guy was so rude and horrible to me for absolutely no reason at all. Needless to say other than that It was a good experience, the power went out, but the movie was almost ending anyways. They gave us free movie ticket passes since that happened, I just know people go to the movies to have an escape from their bad days or other places so It’s important to treat people with respect and kindness no matter the day you’ve had or whatever because you would want the same. I love this movie theatre, but that customer service experience was horrible and I hope that employee can treat people better than that. Other than that though love this movie theatre, this is the only time I had a bad experience but just wanted to put that out there and hopefully that employee can have a talking to on how to treat customers and other...

Their last showings throughout the weekdays are around 7:30 pm. Needless to say when a theater shuts down that early, it is less than useless.

I keep trying to root for AMC Hickory 15, but too many basics are off. Cleanliness is the #1 issue: I’ve walked into sticky floors, trash left from prior shows, and bathrooms that feel perpetually neglected—turnarounds often seem rushed or skipped. Seats are worn in regular rooms and even in Dolby; several squeak/wobble and look overdue for replacement. Spring brought social posts claiming bedbugs; I haven’t seen any official finding to confirm that, but I have repeatedly seen flying insects/moths in the Dolby auditorium—either way, stronger pest prevention and visible cleaning would help.

Presentation is hit-or-miss: when tuned, Dolby can look and sound great; other times the mix is harsh, and the 20+ minutes of ads/trailers before the feature drags. Concessions are another pain point: lines bunch up right before showtime, staffing feels thin, and self-serve machines are sometimes “out of” options.

Worst of all, preordering doesn’t save time here. My A-List concession preorders are almost never waiting at the pickup kiosk, so I end up in the same long line. And if I only need to scan a preordered ticket, there’s usually no separate ticket scanner—so I’m stuck in that concession line just to get in.

Reliability hasn’t helped: I’ve had storm/tech outages cancel shows and trigger auto-refunds with little warning. For the price, the experience feels sub-premium.

Verdict: 1/5 until they deep-clean daily (especially restrooms/floors), improve pest prevention, refurb seats, staff concessions for peak rush, add a separate ticket scanner, and communicate outages...