Emagine Novi — Attraction in Novi

6/2023 Updated review:We travel 30-40 minutes or more to get to this location for the IMAX theatre. Every time, over 5 years now, I find this location lacking in picking up during customer attendance. Bathrooms are full of paper towel and toilet paper. The floors wet from use. The garbage bins cans literally over flowing during/after the end of a busy movie. No attendant to GE see. I have never observed anyone monitoring the drink stations nor paying attention to the onset of compiled items dropped on the floor by those less than considerate in bothering to pick up after themselves, then add the absence of adequate trash bins:napkins, popcorn, pretzel pieces, fries,candy,straws….. When you attend a later show say 7pm the location looks like the aftermath of a messy party but in reality they are open for business with customers standing in line or walking over popcorn/kicking their way through trash on the floor in the walk ways. Oh my the bathrooms. I know it is not staff making this mess,however, it appears a team of staff is needed to monitor the premises? It is a large establishment and I don’t know of even one manager can make up for the lack of/or possibly less than ambitious cleaning staff. My heart goes out to you if this is from being short staffed. The time necessary to clean up after a busy show takes time. Even if the inside of the show is cleaned after being left an absolute mess the outside adds to that teams time taken. There were no large bins available outside after Transformers. The small waist area was over flowing into the floor with soda, food and paper items. I have not observed staff “specifically” stationed at the soda area/bathrooms/nor generally used areas. Most days I see the need for someone, but see no one continuously vacuuming the general area,counter line areas, wiping down furniture from stray buttery popcorn…..Staff at the counters and check out are amazing but can not leave their post** Popcorn has improved. For a while there even Pre COVID the quality was questionable. Still more corn kernels/hard spots that when they first opened. Can’t blame the popcorn going down hill on COVID which gets blamed for everything anymore! Thank you for listening.

One year ago: Well. Typically I am not a fan of going to the Novi location. In the past is has always been dirty:smashed popcorn everywhere. Even upon arrival to the inside. Bathrooms rather over used and perhaps not wiped down in some time. Don’t know why there were no trays served with our food during Topgun! Today the floor looked vacuumed. The bathrooms to include the family bathroom were wiped down and seemed clean!! Food is always good at any Emagine. Popcorn...

You can count on a visit to an Emagine theater to always be a positive experience. And this last time was no different.

For people visiting this specific venue, you should be aware that the entire plaza is laid out in an unusual manner (with entrances on the other side of the building from the parking lot). This is peculiar to this location only and is part of the extended plaza complex’s intentional design to create a kind of artificial small-town/downtown “feel”. Nice idea, but I’m not a fan. (I think that this arrangement is tied to the plaza’s site design and not necessarily an Emagine thing).

Be sure you know where the main entrance is (on the East side of the building) when you chose a parking space so you can minimize your walk to the car and not circle the building in the winter in search of the entrance like we did on our first visit there). There are drop-off areas but they are much farther (100-150 ft from the closest curb) than entrances that you’d find at any other theater location.

This visit we watched an epic movie on their “eMax” theater. The Atmos Omni-directional surround sound was impressive and the reclining seats were very comfy. There were a couple of moments where the movie stuttered for a few seconds near the end but everything resumed just fine after that. To be fair, I’ve NEVER seen that happen before and I think it was a one-off fluke. I’d like to commend the usher who quick to help a patron who was walking around the theater in the middle of the movie using their phone as a flashlight. He quickly helped him find his seat.

The movie experience was terrific and we will definitely be continuing to go to Emagine theaters.

A couple of other notes regarding our most recent visit: Surprisingly, the staff seemed a bit behind keeping up with cleaning the restrooms which needed some attention (paper towels on the floor) but it was a Saturday and a lot of people were there, so it’s understandable (but unusual in my experience at that theater).

Also, I was hoping to get some snacks but the line was just too long. So give yourself extra time during busy days/nights. In fairness, it’s safe to say that most businesses are challenged to reestablish the staff levels that they had pre-COVID, so everyone is doing the best they can right now and overall, we had a good time.

EMagine is the best theater chain in SE Michigan and my family and I will definitely be returning. Highly...

I can see why theaters are dying. Saw Kingdom of the Planet of The Apes this afternoon. First the film didn't start at all for the posted 1:50 start. I had to ask an employee to inform management the screen was blank. Then no previews, and straight to the film. That was fine.

Twenty minutes after the film started, 1 adult, with 6 kids walked in, and they took up the front row. Even that was fine, but the adult looked at their phone more than the film. The three boys, around age 12(?), moved to the far end of the row, and talked through most of the movie. Loud enough at times to be obnoxious. Did one employee do a walk through? No! After talking through much of the film, they got up and left thirty minutes before the show ended.

After the film, I spoke to a manager about this. Understaffed was the excuse. The only remedy was to apparently leave the theater to report them, and after a first warning he claims he would ask them to leave if the noise persisted. In today's sensitive times, and those kids being minors, I find it a bit hard to believe, any action would have been taken.

At the end of the day, this person bought 6 tickets, and concession items, so Emagine made as much from them, as they did from the rest of us in the theater who arrived on time, and stayed silent. They were not very sympathetic. I can see why people prefer to watch these films at home. Any employee standing near the first row would have witnessed this behavior, had one bothered to check.

The rest of us deserved refunds. And who doesn't tell their kids to stop talking? The general public is just rude. Those kids were old enough to know better. Three employees were there to clean up the theater as the end credits were rolling. I normally don't complain about these kind of things, but Emagine really was a...