Marcus St. Charles Cinema — Attraction in Saint Charles

Marcus Theaters is keeping up with the times in their St. Charles attraction off of state highway 94. They feature reclining seats, large screens, and catered attractions with waiter service. The concession stand includes a bar, and there is an arcade outside the lobby. I can't speak for more than just the standard auditorium and standard concessions, though.

I had a pretty negative experience at concessions. The full detail of my experience is at the very end of this review if you want, but, digressions aside, my Kit Kat bar and soda cost $11.34. Definitely bring your own stuff and avoid concessions if you can, and god bless you if you don't have time.

The auditorium itself was very nice. The heated seats recline, yet still leave enough room for someone to make an exit in front of the seats for the restroom. The table that is included with each table was pretty sticky, which is gross, but that's movie theaters for you. The picture was crisp, and the audio wasn't overbearing.

That said, my ticket was 17 dollars, and concessions was about 11, so was it a $28-29 experience? Not really, unless the film you're seeing is worth that money alone. There were just a few service failures that, if corrected, could have made this a 4 or 5 star experience easily, but that ticket price is crazy high for a Thursday night showing.

Concession story: I asked for a small popcorn, and the cashier replied with "would you like a drink, too?" I said no, he handed me a drink cup anyway, and before I left his counter, moved on to the person behind me. I was slow to fully process what had just happened, and 15 seconds later, by the time I had, he was already 2 or 3 orders past mine, so I decided it wasn't worth it and moved on. The concession cashiers seemed super stressed, and there was a guy in a fourth line on his own that had apparently been waiting an hour plus for his food using the pager system they have. When one of the cashier's left to check on that guy, it took about 20 seconds for the person next in that cashier's queue to start literally screaming "HEY, THIS WAS A LINE. WHAT THE HELL." Only in the service sector, am I right? For your reference, this was my experience shortly before the 7pm showing of 1917 on...

If I could give manager Kyle 5 stars I would, but Marcus Theatre clearly has no idea how to provide the services they offer. That man runs around and fixes problems he’s given like no other, even when he’s not included on the plans. Group sales plopped a huge problem in his lap and then basically shrugged and didn’t bother to get back in contact with him all night of the party and the weeks leading up to it.

I paid $528.26 for a group theatre for my kiddos birthday party and it was the most disjointed and frankly awkward system. I attempted to pay the bill multiple times and kept being told the system wasn’t ready. I came with cash and card, and had to beg to pay because the date for RSVP’s came and went and group sales still hadn't figured out how to allow me to pay.

And don’t even get me started on how absurd it is that Kyle reached out for support from group sales twice during the nearly 3 hours we were there and they never even bothered to reply to their manager that was trying to help a kids birthday party run smoothly. It was clear that group sales did not communicate to Kyle considering they didn't even inform him I had paid! He had to verify that I even paid because group sales communication is so poor.

We also had a confusion because Kyle had the understanding drinks and popcorn wasn’t included, but I was under the understanding on the contract that every package comes with it. I had been waiting back for an email on how to do drinks and popcorn pick up or selection, I still haven’t gotten that email back, and the party happened 1/29. Maybe if group sales had bothered to respond to the email we could have clarified things and not left a customer and a manager in the dark to duke it out and figure out what’s going on in half an hour before the movies start

So, truthfully, 5 stars to Kyle for not only running around the theaters fixing things, grabbing ladders and tools, but also managing to host a birthday party with no information on it while doing that, but I’d give a generous 2 stars to Marcus Theatre and how they communicate with literally anyone else. I added an extra star for having the service to offer, just needs major...

Nice loungers but wasn't sure how to work the buttons for heat or massage(?)... there are two buttons. Seats are pleather, very comfortable with room for a large person to sit in. They also recline to any comfortable position you want. Went to see F9... good movie, but not the best of Fast & Furious. The movie just needed a lot more action and suspense.

I would have given this theater 4 stars, but the entire time we were watching the movie, the lights were never turned off or dimmed, resulting in a haze from the glare of the lights on the screen so the picture was not crisp. I could have gotten up after the movie started to ask someone to turn off the lights, but the whole point of going to the theater is to watch a movie in its entirety. I certainly didn't have a pause button!

After the movie we stopped at the ticket counter and told the clerk who was barely audible. He called someone and then said, "He's on it." We waited a few minutes, thinking a manager would come talk to us. After waiting 4-5 minutes, I asked the clerk again and was told "He's on it." I asked, "What does 'He's on it mean?'" The clerk gave a quirky look and said again, "He's on it."

We went back to theater 13 to see if a manager had gone there. Nope, but the lights had been dimmed. No manager, no apology... nothing! Very disappointed since this was the first time we had been to a movie in years! I think we will stick to streaming movies on-line or try a different theater chain.

The popcorn was good though, but so is Orville Redenbacher...