Magic Valley Cinema 13 — Attraction in Twin Falls

The Atmos theater is comfortable and has excellent sound and picture. There was a fly on the projection glass for fully half the movie we saw recently, which was distracting and disappointing. Does the projectionist, or theater management, monitor the quality of the presentation we pay premium for? It’s hard to tell.

Also, with minimal effort, the red glow from the exit signs could be deflected from the screens in most of the theaters. In dim scenes, that glow really detracts from the in-theater cinema experience that I think the studios want us to have.

Now that this theater is a few years old, I fear that attention to detail and going the extra mile have lapsed somewhat. The old theaters in town became lackadaisical because there was no local competition. CinemaWest put them out of business. Has CinemaWest fallen into that trap now that they’re the only game in town? I hope not.

UPDATE 26 April 2022: I had hoped that CinemaWest management might reply to review or reach out for further feedback as they appear to have done on other reviews of their Twin Falls property. I'm confident that they wish to address the concerns that I have voiced (and that others have echoed) rather than have some (like a movie buff friend of mine) stop attending the theater at all. If there are reasons why these concerns cannot be mitigated, I welcome the opportunity to learn about those reasons. In the absence of a reply, it seems that the theater management takes it for granted that we'll continue to come no matter how badly the experience degrades.

I find myself less and less willing to spend $40 for a subpar experience, particularly when the experience in this very theater has been much, much better in the past.

The attached pictures show the apparent inattention of the projectionist, and the slight state of disrepair the facilities are in. The screen misalignment was in theater #2, the giant screen for which customers pay a premium price.

UPDATE 28 Apr 2022: I'm changing this to a three-star review based on the response of the theater management or owner. Thank you for addressing the concerns I presented. I appreciate it very much.

UPDATE 2 Aug 2022: The shift manager tried valiantly for about 30 minutes to correct the sound balance and volume in theater #12 (Thor: Love and Thunder) on Friday, but was unable to get the dialog and the rest of the audio to balance. Dialog was much too soft and remaining audio was occasionally BLASTING. The entire right channel of the surround system went out after he gave up fiddling with it and never came back on.

This was as close as I've ever come to asking for my money back. The experience was subpar for the...

In the past four weeks I've really been noticing some negative things happening at the theatre. Twice I've gotten charged for an adult ticket when I've specially asked for a child ticket with the child standing right next to me. They are 7 and 10 so they can't be mistaken for an adult. Then I went in asking for a gift card for a specific amount on it. After I got home I noticed they added 2 dollars more to the card and charged me for it. (Which is fine but that's not what I asked for). Then yesterday during spring break they have one of the children's movies in the tiniest theatre there is. It was sold out because of having less than 40 seats. With all the children out of school this week I was surprised this particular children's movie were in such a small theatre. We then got our tickets for the later showing and again was charged for 2 adult tickets instead of one being a childs ticket. While our ticket was being torn there was an off duty employee visiting with the ticket taker. They were both young men. The off duty boy was cursing loudly to his fellow employee regarding work issues. I rushed my granddaughter by him so she wouldn't have to hear his vulgar mouth. A woman sitting next to us left her coat behind so we took it to an employee who kindly took it for us to the box office. The kid behind the counter threw the coat 8 ft or so and on a pile on the floor. I indicated to him that that was pretty rude how he was treating this woman's expensive coat. He raised his hands to me saying, what?? Just stared at me. I have talked to management twice regarding the issues but it's obvious nothing has changed. I've been so disappointed by the lack of adult supervision there and lack of concern for customers by some of their employees. Be careful, they will...

The management I contacted lives in California (I have the email). In my experience, after attending this theater many times, is that the out of town ownership kind of shows. ie, the movie theater in Twin is intended to simply be a passive income-generating investment for a rich Californian. They have repeatedly demonstrated that their reaction to problems will disproportionately burden customers rather than ownership. When you arrive half hour early but still can’t get into the movie on time, that is the owner’s responsibility, but the burden is pushed onto the customer. When there are technical difficulties, they refund your money, but do nothing else after you wasted your time driving there and sat there for a half hour while semi-competent teenagers try to fix the problems on behalf of the owner (a main source of revenue). Reliable equipment and processes are the responsibility of the owner. When you have a popcorn machine down for two weeks, this is not the customers fault or responsibility. But the burden of waiting in line for an extra 20 minutes is. When you call the theater, there is no option to talk to a person. For example, if I wanted to rent an entire theater for a party, there is no one to talk to. They also refuse to give, or let you buy a small cup so you can drink water. And their ‘large’ popcorn is among the smallest larges I’ve seen. Many of the screens are small and give you the same aspect ratio you have at home.

To respond to the owner below: you have wasted no less than three hours of my time in the process of me paying you. I have contacted management multiple times about waiting 45 minutes to get into a movie and being late for the movie and have gotten no response other than meaningless words. Not even a $0.25 soda or...