The Showbox — Local services in Hopkinsville

The Showbox Hopkinsville – Review 🥂🍿

We visited The Showbox on 6.14.25 for a date night experience—me and my wife, leaning into the promise of dinner, cinema, and a little magic. We caught the live-action How to Train Your Dragon (surprisingly phenomenal, maybe the best adaptation I’ve seen in a while), and opted for the dinner theater setup.

Let’s talk atmosphere: this place is going for that old-school art deco vibe—black and gold everything, with an aesthetic that feels like it wants to be luxe. And mostly? It works. The layout is well-thought-out: comfy chairs, raised center armrests for cozying up with your partner, and blessedly wide aisles so you’re not elbow-to-elbow like in most theaters. There’s even a privacy partition at each seat that adds to the intimacy.

They’ve got a genius little “call your server” button, and ours—Kayden (apologies if I butchered the spelling)—showed up within literal seconds. Friendly, attentive, and on point. The young staff as a whole were eager to help and definitely trying to make it a great night.

Now the food… Mixed bag. The cheesecake? 🔥. The Butterbeer? Delightfully sweet, and honestly, a cute touch. The Shrimp Ala Vodka was flavorful and solid, though it definitely needed a slice of garlic bread to seal the deal. But here’s the kicker: the meal came out warm-ish, not hot-hot. Not a dealbreaker, but for dinner theater prices, it shouldn’t be flirting with room temp. We actually ordered Chicken Alfredo originally, but there was a kitchen mix-up, and they asked if we’d accept the shrimp dish instead. The head chef even came out to apologize and promised us a discount (said half off), but… pretty sure that didn’t hit the final bill. Still, I appreciated the gesture.

Another plus? When you book two seats, you get a large popcorn automatically. It’s little details like that that sweeten the experience.

But let’s be real—the plastic plates and dollar-store plasticware totally killed the “elevated date night” illusion. It’s hard to feel fancy when your fork bends mid-bite.

We came back the next day with our daughter to see Stitch (less impressive, honestly), and while the vibe was still chill, someone brought an infant to the movie. So… yeah. That changed the tone.

Final thoughts?

⭐ 4.25 stars. ✅ Worth checking out—especially if you’re a local or just passing through Hopkinsville. 🍽️ Go in with proper expectations: it’s fun, it’s fresh for the area, but it’s not quite “fine dining meets cinema” just yet. 🎬 I’d go again—but maybe not for a...

I absolutely LOVE what they are trying to do here! The whole environment and the nostalgia of the decor is awesome. The kind of personal touch and friendliness is amazing too; something that needs to be brought back. Even the bathrooms were a great experience. And THE SEATS! 😱 Those seats are just amazing! They got a lot of great things going for them here.

However…

it wasn’t the best experience coming in. Akin to the whole “people will forget what you did and what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel”.

We had already bought tickets for our matinee (Saturday after Thanksgiving), and there was only one line to go in. (Which, is very dysfunctional, awkward, and confusing - they gotta rework the flow for long term success) So I told my wife, we already bought tickets. We don’t need to wait to buy tickets. So we walked around the rope. Upon doing that, we were approached in a way that made us feel like we were trying to rob the place with how they pounced on us. Particularly my wife and mother-in-law with their purses. You would’ve thought they were trying to smuggle in Tommy guns to shoot the place up.

3 different people at 3 separate times within just a couple mins, with a concerned, fearful look on their face, told my wife and mother-in-law separately, that their bags were going to have to be searched.

I get it, people try to bring stuff in and cause you to lose out on your concessions revenue, and that’s where a large part of your money is made, I get it. But the entry experience needs a lot of work.

There was this fearful nervousness to the whole vibe that was just pretty offputting.

I could say more, but that’s the gist. It wasn’t a great experience coming in, but the place is done with such class and intentionality, that it really did help outweigh the experience coming in, which is...

(Tldr: pretty decent theater experience coming from a former movie chain worker. Needs: Different line formation, Better rules signage and Longer trailers? Succeeds : Customer service, Cleanliness and Quality of show )Saw the five nights at Freddy's movie. Theater is pretty nice. Wasn't't crazy busy. However if I could recommend possibly staggering your line from box office to concessions a little differently? The concessions (who I assume to be the owners) we're going through ordering processes as fast as possible but I was still standing by the ticket area having to shimmy around to let people get their tickets scanned. Full transparency paid $45 ish Dollars for tickets and $50 ish for snacks. For sure I would like to see some better rule advertising as I had to get my brother to run the blankets back to the car due to no outside blankets rule. My purse had to be visually checked, as someone who used to be in the movie theater biz I appreciated that. ( not because of snacks but more along the lines of safety) now my ONE ISSUE. I normally show up early to showings but having two teenagers with me I was walking in at 1:20 I don't know if your trailer package was short or if you had any trailers even playing because at 1:35 I walked into the INTRO playing in the theater and we had to book it to our seats! The screen was good! Projector focused and everything. The lights did not DIM after the movie they turned on like it was closing time at the bar. Blinded I stumbled out of the theater to see someone was being helped by your team to get out as there were a lot of people and they were in a wheelchair and that was very kind. I got my free refill on the popcorn and we left. I hope you read this and I hope everything goes smoothly for...