Regal Brier Creek — Attraction in Raleigh

I didn’t want to be that person and leave a review, but the experience me and my boyfriend had here really hasn’t sat well with me the more I think on it. As a current employee at another Regal location, the interaction had with a floor staff member not only alarmed me as a worker, but left me and my boyfriend feeling uncomfortable, unsafe, and unwelcome—all things I would hate to have any of my own guests I’ve taken care of feel, unintentionally or otherwise.

Me and my boyfriend both went to see the 4:00 showing of the 20th anniversary screening of Brokeback Mountain on June 22nd. We were really looking forward to the event, but upon walking in, a floor staff member quickly changed this. As we walked past the concessions line, this employee came up to us, stuck his hand in my boyfriend’s service dog’s face, and asked to pet her. My boyfriend politely declined and informed him that his dog was working (she had her service vest on and visible), but the employee dismissed my boyfriend and told him that he only wanted his dog to sniff his hand as he continued to reach for her. My boyfriend told him no for the second time, repeating that his dog was working. The floor staff member was a bit taken aback by this, obviously not liking nor understanding that my boyfriend told him no. He then decided to say the following: “Normally when I see service dogs, they’re usually calm. Your dog is so excited.” This comment was not only extremely odd and off-putting, but simultaneously invalidated my boyfriend’s requests and his disability. The worker said his comment in a way that heavily insinuated my boyfriend was faking his disability because his dog wasn’t calm—even though before the worker came up and interacted with her, she was calm and doing her job.

After this comment, I felt extremely uncomfortable, and my boyfriend was visibly upset. At that point, I turned to him and told him that we should leave and head toward our auditorium. I had to stop and use the bathroom first; my boyfriend informed me that while I was in the bathroom, the employee kept pacing around and hovering near him, which made him feel even more uneasy and anxious. Not a great start to a showing we both had been looking forward to seeing, as we were celebrating his birthday that weekend.

The actual theater and movie were both great and we had a wonderful time otherwise, but the interaction with that employee was absolutely unprofessional and uncouth. As a current Regal employee, the lack of professionalism, customer service, manners, and overall social skills was actually shocking. Furthermore, if that worker had decided to distract my boyfriend’s dog at the wrong time (i.e. when my boyfriend was having a medical emergency due to his disability), he could have prevented his service animal from doing her job and put my boyfriend in more danger and distress due to her impaired ability to alert and assist him.

Bottom line is, when a disabled person continually has their requests and wishes denied at the hands of an able bodied person, it’s ableism. Point blank. And it’s appalling that this behavior is not only normalized, but tolerated, especially among employees at Brier Creek. Next time we decide to see a movie together, it will be at a different location. We all hope to live long enough to where we will, in some way, be disabled; if we don’t show compassion for the currently disabled, no one will show compassion for you when you become disabled. Please do better and...

This is an email I sent to Regal in which no one responded to appropriately. I also filed a Non-Discrimination Ordinance Complaint with the City of Raleigh. That complaint was referred to Campbell University for further review. I have since been informed that when representatives from Campbell University reached out to Regal Theaters in an effort to resolve the matter, their multiple attempts to contact your organization went unanswered.

I am extremely disappointed by the lack of engagement and response to this serious concern. I am requesting a formal acknowledgment of this communication and a clear explanation regarding Regal's lack of cooperation during the resolution process.

Dear Regal Cinemas Leadership,

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to address a series of unfortunate experiences I have encountered at your Brier Creek Theater, which have significantly impacted my movie-going experience and caused me considerable inconvenience.

On August 26, 2024, I attended a screening of the gospel movie The Forge in Theater 3. Upon entering the theater, I was met with an extremely uncomfortable heat level, which made it difficult to breathe. I promptly reported the issue to the concession stand, where I was assured that someone would be contacted to address the problem. Despite my follow-up requests, no immediate action was taken. After some time had passed, a staff member informed me that it would take approximately 20 minutes for the air conditioning to be effective. Given the discomfort, I was unable to stay and requested a refund, which was granted. Unfortunately, I also noticed unsettling behavior outside the theater, including a person in a red shirt with black pants smirking with one leg up on a bench and a strange occurrence involving a tomato on a handicap parking space. As a community and disability advocate, such incidents are concerning and impact my sense of safety and comfort.

Additionally, prior to this visit, I attended a showing of the Indian movie Sarfira. The volume in the theater was excessively high, and despite my requests at the concession area and directly to an employee to lower it, no effective solution was provided. The dismissive response I received, especially after disclosing my disability, was disappointing. Without my son’s noise-canceling headphones, the noise level was intolerable and could have caused potential hearing damage, as indicated by my Apple Watch. Although I was able to mitigate the issue somewhat with the headphones, no resolution was offered...

0 out of 10, would rather watch a movie on my phone than go here. Being 100% honest, do not waste your time or money here.

The theater is dead, I'm surprised it still has customers. Let me break down my experience this weekend as our visit panned out.

Haven't been to this theater in years, at one time it was the place to go. We walk up and see the ticket booth outside, no visual indicators any longer that it isn't in use. We were kind of confused, as were a few others behind us. An employee ended up coming into the ticket booth, but only to point us inside. Why isnt there a curtain or even a sign to say tickets are purchased inside?

The theater itself was pretty clean. The seats were all worn out though, obvious wear in the seat bottoms and the headrests. I'd venture to call it more 'gross' than worn.

The movie itself looked ok, visually. The sound was way down, and I am by no means hard of hearing. That was the lowest volume of any movie I've ever seen in theater.

There was a scene after the credits for our movie (Saw X). During the last cut scene, one of the theater staff came in early, before the movie was over. He(?) decided to comment out loud of what he was thinking. Lots of "aww nawww" and "unn uhhhh" variations were heard, he was talking loudly as if he was alone. Ignorant even if ONE customer was in the theater, I didnt pay $10 a ticket to hear dramatic reactions from someone who probably shouldn't watch a movie like that anyways. Thankfully I didn't miss any parts of the movie, but it was very distracting and actually made me mad.

Walking out of the theater to leave, the place had suddenly become trashed. There was popcorn and other kinds of litter all over the hallways and in the main lobby.

I'd rather drive to yuppity Cary to see a movie in theater, but honestly this experience has likely ruined me from wanting to go to any...