Silky Otter Cinemas Queenstown — Local services in South Island

I’m never one to review something but unfortunately my experience at Silky Otter Queenstown has been consistently negative. As someone who much enjoys going to the movies, this place drops the ball a lot. It manages to take a classic movie theatre system that works and completely messes up the basics of a movie theatre experience. My first negative experience happened a month back when I paid a premium for theatre quality popcorn and had to sift through countless un popped kernels ( as seen in the provided photo ) this sadly wouldn’t be the first time either. As said I never tend to make negative reviews or be a “Karen” but after reoccurring problems I’ve had too. Tonight me and my partner went and we got 2 drinks both Coke Zero sugar, however upon further inspection we realised my partners was full sugar. She took her drink to the counter and nicely said “I believe this is full sugar not zero sugar” but was gaslit by staff saying it was zero without further inspection. Pretty bad in comparison to the simple solution of being offered for the drink to be exchanged for Coke Zero instead of regular coke. Upon being at our seats I dipped my finger in the coke after already confirming the difference to mine via taste and it was sticky to the touch…. (Clearly sugar) But that’s just the tip of the iceberg the cinema has become a mess and what ever system they had has clearly become flawed. Us and 8 other attendees had to wait to be seated as 10 minutes prior to the movie starting they had not finished cleaning the theatre. Upon entering it there was still food on my seat and it had clearly not been cleaned properly. Waiting for food or service at the till is always a nightmare too compared to the traditional methods other theatres use.

As a local I don’t recommend this place to anyone it’s a complete bust of a cinema as an alternative to reading cinemas closing down.

I really love going to the movies but sadly we don’t have a simple, reliable option here in Queenstown anymore and I was really hoping Silky Otter would be the solution for that.

But the reality is it’s just a well dressed operational front completely killing the basics of what makes a movie theatre great...

The movie itself and seats were fine but there were fundamental problems with the basics and customer service: the self service kiosks don't let you order if the movie start time has elapsed the guy assumed my little one in a pram was over 3yo (🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️) by saying "adult and 2 kids?" So I asked what counted as a kid and he said 3, my child doesn't look even close to 3 he asked about my membership, when I said I'd tried to sign up but it hadn't worked and he couldn't find me, he didn't sign me up and give me the deal that my friend had, just went on to charge full price I ordered popcorn (don't know why I bothered at this point) and waited 10 mins Im not kidding you, already got there at the movie started time and several of us had to wait 10 whole mins (all of us with impatient kids in tow) for a box of heated and popped corn kernels, it's wild how hard they make it seem went back to order a drink and the guy genuinely sighed and looked like he might refuse to serve me (felt more like a car experience from my 20s than a movie with my kids) the recliner seats make the weirdest noise when people move them, super distracting Anyway like I said, the actual act of watching a movie in a seat was fine, but the rest left a lot...

New cinema with comfortable seats, however my partner and myself had a headache due most likely to (strong smelling ) chemicals emanating from the seats, typical of new products being kept In packaging foams. This is something that needs attention as the smell is strong and those chemicals are proven times and again to be air pollution no more no less.

Also like many in summer I commute by bike around QT. This place is brand new and doesn't have any bike parks. This needs addressed just the same. As below no problems for the big Utes, but we're in 2025 not in the 80s. ABC of user friendlyness is bike parks provided just like car parks in this brand new year and Brave New World...

So overall really...