Phoenix Theatres Woodland Mall — Attraction in Kentwood

This theater seems as though it went through a checklist of what people consider to a quality modern movie theater. The company lacked conscientious implementation to pull that off. The price (especially of concessions) isn't worth it unless you have a specific movie you want to see in Dolby Atmos. We probably won't be back again until Avatar 3 comes out. Hopefully the owners improve the experience before then. Here are my thoughts of that checklist with the subjectively more important items higher on the list:

Ticketing: Getting tickets is a much more time consuming process than it should be. Buying tickets online doesn't help that and they charge you an extra fee to do it. We had to wait in line for concessions twice as that is the only place to get the tickets. We arrived early hoping to find a self serve kiosk to confirm the tickets. While buying a popcorn, we used the card the tickets were purchased with while purchasing concessions as it mentions online and in an email to use the same credit card to receive the tickets. No one gave us tickets. After walking away, we noticed and thought the emailed ticket voucher would be sufficient. I pulled up the QR code that came with the email to use at the ticket collection point only to be told I needed to wait in the concession line again. Soon after, I asked a person who appeared to be a manager if there was another way. She said no. After getting back in line three more groups got back in line because of the same issue! At this point, I asked the manager if it was possible to open another line for just the people needing tickets or to find another option. She said no and, seemingly rudely, explained that I needed to get back in line. I suspect she's frustrated with the system too, but the perceived rudeness on top of the wait just increased the feeling of frustration. With only two concession lines open, the line moved slowly. In addition to the manager, there were two additional employees seemingly standing around. The system for ticket collection needs to be reevaluated and adjusted. The frustration with ticketing left me primed to notice other small annoyances that may have been easier to overlook otherwise.

Sound: The sound during the trailers was way too high. I took out the decibel meter on my phone while the lights were still on. It measured right around 90 decibels almost the whole time. Loud enough for hearing damage. The sound stayed uncomfortably high through the movie. My phone was away and it seemed slightly less than the trailer. A couple times the sound didn't quite seem to sync with the picture, I am not sure if that is the theater or the movie itself.

Sight lines: The bar in front of the seats was too high and blocked a small amount of the screen. Though I didn't notice it often, when I did, it took me out of the experience. A shorter person may have more of an issue. Adjusting the seat to try and see better left the seat uncomfortable. Perhaps the chairs could be raised a few inches to avoid this. I suspect the railings probably have a minimum height for code, if they don't they could be lowered too.

Concessions: They are limited and the lines are long for overpriced food. Most of this is to be expected at a movie theater. We asked for butter on our popcorn and asked it to be put on in the middle and again on top so that it soaked in. We were pretty sure they didn't put on any. There was only salt to put on it. So many other theaters have flavored seasonings that it seems like a minor thing to add. The selections seemed to border on overwhelming, but were really just lots of minor variations listed out.

Seats: The heated seats were not needed. It was warm enough without them. It was hard to figure out how to turn them off (with a tiny button between the seat adjustments) at first, but once I had it was...

The theater was very nice inside and had comfortable recliner chairs and a great sound system altogether. However, my experience today has made me decide to not return until there have been some changes made...

Firstly, I would like to mention that the popcorn here was fairly similar in flavor to its predecessor, Celebration Cinema. However the size of the popped popcorn was very small compared to Celebration's, and could be described as what you would normally find at the bottom of the popcorn bag, rather than the large fluffy popcorn you would EXPECT at the top.

I also asked them if they had any popcorn seasoning, and they said they only carry salt and pepper. I thought this was quite strange, as Celebration Cinema and AMC Theaters both carry multiple kinds of seasoning, since lot's of people don't want just plain popcorn. They also don't allow you to put on the butter yourself, and they ask you if you want it put on and do it behind the counter for you.

When I ordered my bucket of popcorn to split with my cousin, I asked the employees if they had any small containers to separate the popcorn for each person's individual serving (something that Celebration and other theater's do for convenience). They had none, so I asked if I could have a small popcorn bag so we could separate them. The employees told me that they couldn't do that because they supposedly "keep inventory" of how many bags they sell (even though these plastic bags probably cost them less than a nickel each, so I didn't see what the issue was). I let it slide, despite the fact that I have mild ocd when it comes to food, and prefer not to share out of the same bucket as someone else. When the lady went to get the popcorn, she had accidentally put it in the large popcorn bag. When I reminded her that we ordered the bucket, she grabbed one and poured the popcorn into the bucket (from the large bag she just filled) and then topped it off with more popcorn to completely fill the bucket. After we checked out and paid, I asked her if we could just have the plastic bag that she JUST filled since she has to throw it away anyways (since that's what you have to do in the food industry of course). She STILL told me that I could NOT have it for the same "inventory" excuse as before.Since our movie was starting soon, I didn't want to sit and argue with the clearly apathetic employee about the bag, and decided to go to our theater.

My cousin knows that I had ocd, so he took the liberty of finding an empty popcorn bucket from a nearby trash bin, just to make me feel more comfortable (despite me assuring him that he didn't have to do it and I could have just dealt with it).

What bothers me is the FACT that he had to do that JUST to make me happy, when just as easily the employee could have given me a small popcorn bag to strive for customer satisfaction. And even out of pettiness, my cousin went back to the concession stand with the bucket from the trash and had it filled back up, allowing us both to have our own popcorn buckets.

If you are the owner reading this, please do yourself a favor and get on the level of every other movie theater in the area. Things such as reclining seats, premium sound systems, and high resolution projectors are expected of theaters nowadays--it's the reason why you get two stars instead of just one. But what determines whether or not I want to go to your theater or a theater like Celebration Cinema is which offers MORE. Why would you pay $10 for "A" and "B" when I can go somewhere else for the same price to get "A", "B", AND "C"...

I would love to return to this movie theater given the fact that the business is new and put a lot of effort into making it comfortable, but there are a few things that would make it more enjoyable and want to go here over other...

I went to see The Marvels with my kids today at 5:30 in theater 1. This is my first time here under new ownership. I used to go here all the time with the previous. The outside looks similar to the old looks aside from a new Phoenix sign.

Some of the entrance doors are sticky, squeaky and jam due to metal to metal contact. They required an unusual amount of force to open. From my memory these doors have been like this for many years. Even with the prior owners. I've always been told that first impressions are very important. Door issues like this don't exactly inspire confidence with regards to delivering positive first impressions.

I found the drinking fountains unusually backed up, dirty, stained and they looked unsanitary/unfit for public use. A sure turnoff to image of any establishment.

The seats were oily and littered with straws, popcorn, candy and napkins much more than what I have ever seen in a movie theater. The first impression I got was "yuck!" It looked like all the usual refuse found between the cushions but was excessive and looked as if nobody had cleaned them for at least 3 days. I brought this to the manager's attention.

We couldn't help but notice that the heat on and off button was very sensitive in all of our seats. They required an unusual amount of dexterity to operate. It was also too hot for all three of us at all settings. This forced us to constantly play with the control up and down. We ultimately decided that turning them off entirely was the only sensible decision. We didn't want to fiddle around with it any more. This was disappointing because this feature is something that lures customers in. Having to turnthe heater off is counterintuitive to the whole idea.

I couldn't help but notice the picture quality which was very good for what I am used to. It was detailed, crisp and the color seemed fresh and accurate. Contrast was excellent in my book. However the sound was another thing. It was ok in spoken parts but was unpleasantly loud and overly abrupt with action scenes. My guess is that the speaker setup wasn't analyzed properly when Dolby Vision was implemented. Looks like there are other reviews from customers from months or years back stating similar if not the exact same loud problem I experienced.

Aside from all this the kids and I enjoyed the film. It was great fun. Best wishes to your staff this holiday...