The Riviera Cinema — Local services in Farmington Hills

I wound up here due to the simple fact that this location was the only theater in the area that was playing a particular film that my son and I wanted to see, at the time we wanted to see it. I personally had never even heard of this theater mostly because I have a few others that are in closer proximity to my house, so it normally just makes sense to go to those places.

When I pulled up, I was actually kind of shocked by just how small this place is. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I have just a general idea of what the size of a movie theater should be or normally is, and this place is bite size compared to that, and that's okay. Honestly, for may reasons a smaller theater can make for a much better movie going experience overall. In this particular case though, we'd bought IMAX 3D tickets, and it certainly didn't look like they'd crammed a full size IMAX screen/experience into such a small space, and it turns out I was right. There are only a handful of actual IMAX theaters around here, and this isn't one of them. That being said, it was perfectly fine for the price, and my son had no idea so it wasn't a big deal. This was his first time watching a bigger than normal screen, and his first time watching a 3D film, so he was happy regardless.

When you walk in, probably the first thing you'll notice is just how cramped things seem to be. It's kind of hard to explain, but when you walk in, I'd be willing to bet you get this same feeling. There is just a lot of stuff, in a very small area, and I think if it was very busy, it could become quite overwhelming and they also have it set up to where you can buy movie tickets from the concession counter which I found to be interesting. In my opinion that just adds to the congestion that accumulates there but it is what it is. Much like every other theater, the concessions here are outrageously priced, and I get it, they have to make money some how and most of that doesn't come from you buying a ten dollar movie ticket. That being said, the concessions here, in my opinion are subpar to many of the other theaters in the area. They're just simply okay, and to me, definitely not worth the price. While we're on the subject of concessions, it also took a very, VERY long time for us to get our food. We spent probably twenty minutes waiting for pretzel bites, chicken tenders, and a drink. The employees were apologetic about the wait, but it wasn't really that busy and I really couldn't wrap my head around what was taking so long. Luckily IMAX theaters have preassigned seating, because we definitely would have gotten the short end of the stick seating wise had it been normal theater seating.

Speaking of the employees, here they are all friendly, professional, and accommodating. It's always refreshing to run into a friendly personable staff in a customer service environment. An establishment will always get extra points from me for positively interacting with my kids as well, and this place checked that box.

For the drinkers out there, this place also has a small bar (which seems pretty standard for theaters nowadays), though I didn't partake as I was with my kid so I chose the pop route instead. I would anticipate the bar prices here reflect the inflated prices of everything else in a theater setting.

When all is said and done, though cramped, this place is clean, the staff is friendly, and they offer a fairly seamless movie going experience. I don't think I would go out of my way to come here again unless I end up in the same situation that brought me here in the first place, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. I'd be willing to say that if you found yourself here, you'll have a fine time, just bring some extra funds if you plan on eating or...

I really love the idea of this theater. It's "powered by emagine" so the food and drink concepts are similar to other Emagine theaters in the area. I'm not typically one to buy theater concessions, so I have little insight to offer there.

I, unfortunately, seem to have regular unpleasant experiences with other patrons. Theater management tolerates a plethora of generally unacceptable theater behaviors to the extent that they're commonplace. The last time I was in, I encountered someone puking on a trash can before the show. During the show, a gaggle of children arrived 20 minutes into the film and proceeded to run up and down the stairs, throwing popcorn everywhere in the process. They were rowdy and noisy for about an hour then got bored and left before it finished.

On other occasions I've had patrons around me spend the movie on their phone with the screen brightness on full sunbeam or just generally having a conversation (loudly) for most of another film.

In general, the theater isn't well maintained. The screens outside each theater meant to identify the films and next sometimes aren't updated (they tend to display the current time and indicate there's no shows scheduled). The lighting in the hallway is dim and even though I'm fairly certain it was renovated a couple of years ago the seats aren't holding up (possible due to the excessively tolerated abuse).

All-in-all, it's a functional theater that nobody cares about. The patrons abuse it and it doesn't seem like the staff have any incentive to keep the place up. It's a shame because it could be a nice. I might go again. It's still possible to get seats on short notice (which is difficult in Novi) and it's not objectionable (nothing actually seemed unsanitary or smelled unpleasantly) this theater wouldn't be my first choice on any given evening because I can assume something out of the ordinary will disturb...

I DO NOT make complaints, but I was highly disappointed walking into the cinema yesterday around 5pm to be greeted by a young lady who didn’t seem as if she wanted to be at work. I shrugged off her unpleasant aura and ordered a pizza for me and my daughter along with a couple of slushies. She did inform me that they were out of boxes at the moment & if it was ok to put the pizza on a tray. I was fine with that. She proceeded to get my movie screen and seat numbers to where my pizza should be delivered and informed me that it would be 10-15 minutes to receive it. I should also mention that no one else was in the concession stand area besides a woman and 3 other children who were sitting down on the side. (I’m assuming she was waiting on food or a movie) I get my slushies, go to into the theater and realized by 5:30 I hadn’t received my order. I went out to refill my slushies and noticed that it was busy, so still giving the staff the benefit of the doubt, I went back to my seat. 5:55pm rolls around and still no pizza. At this time my daughter begins asking where the pizza is. I then leave my daughter to go inquire and the young lady who helped me did recognize that I placed the order but neither staff members were apologetic about not receiving the pizza or the wait. I understand things happen and ppl make mistakes but when I make mistakes I’m big on customer service so that even though there was a hiccup, you’d want the consumer to come back. With the purchase of tix, slushies & the pizza I spent $50 in your establishment and the customer service wasn’t at its best. If you’re wondering, I did receive the pizza around 6:15ish. Signed, Highly...