The River Oaks Theatre — Attraction in Houston

As much as I’m happy the River Oaks is back, It’s been a year and each screening has progressively gotten worse and worse. Not the actual films, Robert Saucedo is probably the only reason for the star on this review as well as keeping programming as attractive as it is, But The River Oaks Theater has consistently the worst audiences of any theater experience I have ever had to endure. I guarantee you will endure people talking(loudly) and people on their phones. And not just checking, i mean full on browsing and scrolling with full brightness on. While this type of behavior isn’t new to the theater experience, The River Oaks Theater has no sort of guidance or alerts or ANYTHING present throughout the theater to remind customers to be respectable to their fellow audience members and acknowledge why everyone paid money to visit the theater. To make matters worse, ive had screenings where the employees themselves have sat in and had their flash notifications on, talked throughout the movie, and brought in their own canned drinks which echoed every time they opened a new beverage How can the theater expect their customers to behave properly in their screenings when their own employees don’t even practice any sort of common courtesy for the establishment. After FOUR consistent screenings of having to be subjected to bright phone screens blasting my eyes over the screen, audible and verbal reactions to every little thing that happens on the screen, and employees giving me dirty looks for telling them to put their phones away, ive decided to cancel my subscription to the theater. Not that it matters to anyone reading lol, nor to the theater itself, business has been booming fortunately enough. The River Oaks theater itself has become less of a place to come and enjoy a film and more of a social setting where people can just stroll on by and sit in a room where a movie just so happens...

I'm happy Houston has the River Oaks Theater. However, in the handful of times I've gone some issues I would like to see improve are the menu, seats, and pre-show.

Menu: I understand this theater is located in River Oaks and the neighborhood of River Oaks being an affluent crowd but I would argue watching a film isn't a fine dining affluent experience where you go to eat food like steak frites and lobster rolls. I would love to see items like pizza, chocolate chip cookies, mozzarella sticks, loaded fries, or nachos. I would argue most people aren't River Oaks residents and would appreciate some of these more affordable options that people might prefer over steak frites and lobster rolls.

Seats: Personally this is the first theater where I'm half way through a film and it takes me out of the film experience to think, "man my back hurts from this seat." Unfortunately I don't think this will change but something I wanted to address and don't look forward to when I buy a ticket.

Pre-show: I think a simple warning or reminder to silence cell phones and remain quiet can go a long way. I was shocked to see how many phones and chatter occur during the past films I've seen here. I think a quick little motion graphic reel could go a long way and improve the experience of others and remind guests that it's movie time not phone time.

I really think this can be the inner loops Alamo Drafthouse but better and I hope the management for River Oaks Theater does more community outreach on what we're liking and not liking. Again I'm ecstatic we have the River Oaks Theater but it's unfortunate I sometimes prefer going to the Regal over The River...

Went last night to see the one night only showing of Muse's concert from Rome. River Oaks Theatre was the only place in Houston to show it, and things were looking up when we first got there. I thought the place was small but cozy, staff was really courteous and the bartender made my girlfriend and I two really good drinks.

We headed down to get some snacks and a good seat for the show and really enjoyed all the leg room the seating had. I was getting psyched since initially it was supposed to be playing in one of the upstairs theaters, and I guess they decided to put it downstairs in the main one instead.

Then the concert came on and the volume was so low it was beyond irritating. This was a rock concert showing! I play music louder than that it my car! It was impossible to get into it when I could so easily hear all the other people around me talking.

Then during one song with heavy bass, they lowered the volume even more. I watched at least 5-10 people get up and go complain. If Muse were not my favorite band, I would have walked out and asked for my money back because of the poor showing. They did turn it back up a bit later, but at that point the whole experience was more or less ruined.

I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 because I really liked the theater itself and the staff were nice, but they completely ruined the entire reason I was there. I didn't expect the volume to be like I was at an actual Muse concert, but I DID expect it would be as loud as a typical action movie in any other theater. Total disappointment; don't show a rock concert if you are barely going to...