42nd Street Entertainment Center — Attraction in New York

This incredibly ugly and misshapen heap of lukewarm entertainment venues was a gigantic mistake. Buried in all of this is the 110 year old Liberty Theater, the remains of the Eltinge and Candler Theaters. The Liberty was turned into an event space and restaurant (supposedly a diner, utterly ridiculous) and is predictably closed, its facade hidden under a Dave and Buster's. The Eltinge was designed for a revolutionary New York character, Julian Eltinge, who was a cross-dressing character actor until the 20's. Renamed the Empire it eventually floundered until it was literally raised up and moved down 42nd Street to become the lobby for the depressing AMC flagship cinema chain. The paintings (restored) in the lobby show Eltinge performing his favourite roles. The ancient painted asbestos curtain of the Liberty survived into the 90's. You can see it in photos of the lobby of the Hilton Times Square. The Eltinge and Candler fully faced 42nd Street as the Republic and Times Square Theaters do across the street. The Liberty, Lyric, Apollo, Selwyn and New Amsterdam had thin 25 foot wide lobby corridors which led to their respective theaters which wrapped on 41st and 43rd Streets as the real estate became too expensive on 42nd. The AMC and Dave and Buster's are tired and missplaced. Understaffed, with lobbies hovering over the street, their food, cleanliness, visibilty and viability are questionable at best. The Apollo was merged with the Lyric and the Selwyn is now the American Airlines Theatre. The Republic is now the New Victory Theatre, the old one being on the site of the Reuters Building. The Candler is where the McDonald's is and the New Amsterdam was restored in the 90's by the great, deceased Hugh Hardy and Dick Blinder of Beyer, Blinder, Belle Fame. Only John Belle is...

We LOVE the Regal Times Square movie theater! Everything from VERY comfortable, easy-to-recline seats, plenty of leg room between rows (you do not need to move at all to allow anyone to pass in front of you), really nice employees and a VERY helpful manager, and great special pricing options (we always go on a Tuesday when ALL SHOWS are $8.00. Reserve/pay online and choose your favorite seats!) In the heart of Times Square, on 42nd Street off 7th Avenue, the theater is super easy to get to an a dozen different modes of public transportation. As you enter the sparkly, clean, modern lobby and start the ride up on the escalators, you can jump off for a quick run into the Five Below store located on Level 2 and grab a few snacks/drinks (discretion needed, though) before heading up one more flight to the theater floor. Heads up, the concession stand, while well-stocked and staffed by friendly employees, is VERY EXPENSIVE (see previous Five Below note). The theaters are ALWAYS very clean, the seats are wiped down and there is never any litter or weird substances anywhere. Even the restrooms are squeaky clean and well-maintained. Not only does this theater show many first-run movies, they also host a wide variety of special showings from Fathom, etc. (ex:, the yearly Studio Ghibli series) and also concert movies, which are priced separately and are usually around $20-$30 a ticket but always worth the extra cost to enjoy these specialty films in a comfortable environment with a fantastic sound system and special options like 3D. We see movies here regularly and won't go to any...

AMC movie theater needs their seats to be upgraded. They look very dirty, old and not very comfortable. There was only one person helping with purchasing of tickets but you can purchase on your own. Being a premier stubs member has it's benefits...one would think. They had a separate line for premier members to purchase food and the regular line. They only had two people taking orders and doing all the serving on their own. They kept calling people from the the regular line while the premier members waited. It was poorly staffed and there were a lot of people there for the morning shows. I got popcorn that was burnt and didn't taste good. Luckily I didn't pay for it as it was my birthday gift. I thought I was going to miss my movie waiting so long and I got there 30 min before my movie. When I got to my seat I saw this guy in the row above me laying across all the seats. The theater wasn't crowded but that's not his home and his foot was on the seats. I guess there isn't enough staff to do a check on all the theaters before or during the movie to see if there is any kind of disturbance. I haven't been to this theater much because of the decline of appearance, staff and some of the...