Landmark Cinemas 10 Shawnessy — Local services in Calgary

As a movie lover, popcorn lover and overall fan of going to theaters this was one of the most irritating experiences. I will note I have not been to this location in a few years as I moved away, I am just visiting family and we decided to go to the last showing of F1. There was a couple other movies at that time and we where not in an empty theater. We show up and only one of the 3 self serve tills worked. One was "broken" the 2nd was frozen and even the person ahead of us said "we tried to find someone to help but no one will come over. We just waited for our turn. No biggie. The layout was confusing especially 1st time since they changed everything. No signs about butter but all pre bagged popcorn in warm doors. My family and I where like, um do these have butter or not. After going to the till we asked about the butter and they said it was not working but they could butter the popcorn...ok, strange but we figured it out. When I went to pay and the person said you can pay on the pin pad, I said oh I have cash. He said oh we do not accept cash. I said well I only have cash. He said are you sure, we don't take cash.

Are you kidding me?!?! A movie theater that doesn't take cash. I said well what are we going to do, I get it for free or. He called the manager and he came and rang my order in. I corrected the price, it was actually 2 bucks more because I got butter and gave my money.

Sitting in the theater about an hour into the movie I went out to refill my pop. The machines/screens where code locked. No one to be seen to help. The "concession" side was roped off too. I walked around until I saw this manager who I dealt with earlier came out from the back. I said hey can you help please, to pop screen is locked i am just trying to refill it. He said "I cant at this time of night" I said are you kidding me? Thats why I paid/bought a large pop to refill. I can buy another. He said "i don't have the codes" Now I know for a fact he was the manager.....and he is telling me he cant unlock the pop screen? There was another hour and half of the movie. There was another movie playing at this time too, every thing was closed. I understand even half hour before the end of the last movie, but a hour and a half. So then I had to go back, super thirsty from eating popcorn ( thats one of the best parts of going to movies popcorn and pop) for another hour and a half. I get it, 1st world problems, but the whole experience was disappointing and irritating. There was no notice of, hey your movie is long and we close concessions at this time, make sure you have everything. Again if it was half hour left of the movie I'd be like oh yeah that makes sense it's almost over and closing. If in fact the "manager " didn't have codes for the pop machine, why don't they... or was it the lack of customer service and not...

Just aweful. About a year ago before the reno this was my favourite theater. They had good seats, friendly stuff and a good selection for popcorn and snacks. It's all gone

They likely wanted to drastically reduce the number of staff and make it all automated to save money but I suspect in the long run it'll cost them money because of how terrible it is now.

The biggest change is how you buy popcorn. In a traditional movie theater you go up to the till and pick a combo (to save money) and get a popcorn and a drink and maybe a candy. In the new place the popcorn is already popped and bagged and placed in a shelf to make sure the popcorn bag isn't full (wouldn't fit otherwise) and then sits under a heat lamp until some poor sap picks it up. The bags are 80% full at best and any combo you may want is a hidden trade secret that you can't see anywhere near the popcorn. Speaking of popcorn it's stale. It's really stale. I feel like some 16 year old kid pops a massive amount at the start of his 8 hour shift. Puts it all in the window under the heating lamp (which drys it out) and then watches YouTube on his phone for 7 hours and 34mins. The drunk dispensers are also programmed to give to the most fizz scientificly possible. It took me about 5 trys to fill up a medium because it kept fizzing up and if have to wait for it to go down. They also have this new disgusting method of keeping there lids in a machine to the side of the drink dispenser that was extremely dirty. It looked like someone had poored a coke on the machine which made every life sticky and this happened to the first 3 life machines I went to. I also understand how this would happen because the lid machine requires 2 hands to use and if you try to use one you will spill your drink.

Also the sound sucks. We saw Star wars and I could barely tell there was a war on. It's quite. If you turn on you tv to a comfortable volume to have a conversation with a loved one it's about that loud.

Basically the extra time spent to drive to Chinook or Seaton is well with the extra few minutes, you get better sound and significantly better snacks (I'm guessing a solid 20% more popcorn and drunk).

Save your money go elseware, unless you have small kids that cry during movies, in which...

Allow me to preface this review by saying that the staff on the floor were incredibly helpful, apologetic and understanding. They did their best to amend the situation, and offered a full refund when the problems went unresolved.

Now for our experience. My husband, baby and I went to go see a movie that was advertised and sold as a “Park the Stroller” movie on their website. Here is the verbatim description of these showings from the Landmark website:

“To ensure your experience is "baby-friendly," we'll raise the house lights and lower the volume of the movie. Baby talk and other parenting requirements are encouraged PLUS stroller parking is available and latecomers are welcomed.”

When we walked into the theatre, the previews were playing at regular volume and the lights were off. I kept my baby outside the theatre as it was so loud I was concerned for his hearing. When we asked the staff about it, we were told the lights would come up and sound would be lowered for the movie itself. 10 minutes later, the movie started and this did not happen. My husband went to go ask again, and the young woman working admissions said she would go ask the manager, which she did. 5 minutes later, there was a slight increase in the lights, but no change in the volume. We let the staff know that there was no way this was a baby friendly experience. The admissions and cashier were so apologetic and kind about it, and offered us a full refund. The only reason this review is not one star is because of their kindness and understanding, and their endeavour to have it fixed on our behalf.

To explain why I am so frustrated, we adjusted our son’s nap time and planned our day around the movie time, as I wanted to try out breastfeeding in public in a safe, baby friendly environment. This whole ordeal took 1.5 hours out of our day by the time all was said and done, which if you’ve ever been a new parent you know is a massive amount of invaluable time. I’m extremely disappointed that this experience, which was touted to be baby friendly was anything but. I expected better from Landmark, which generally has an audience’s positive experience as their priority, and can only hope that this was an anomaly and not the norm for their Park the...