Regal Live Oak — Local services in Live Oak

I understand that many movie theaters are still struggling to recover from the pandemic but there has to be some other way.

TLDR: Dont order popcorn unless its fresh, don't see a movie if its in auditorium 14 because you might aswell watch the movie on your tv at home when the internet is going in and out. Or do if you want free tickets.

Last week my family went to see Avatar 2 in auditorium 14. All the staff were polite and very attentive, no problems there. Popcorn was mostly stale which is to be expected for a movie theater with as little traffic as this one. Of course I wish it wasn't stale but logisticly that would mean throwing out buckets of unsold stale popcorn every day bc theres not enough people coming in to buy popcorn to warrant making a fresh batch every couple of minutes. I'm not really a popcorn fan but the rest of my family is so personally this didn't bother me.

Now you may be wondering why I specified auditorium 14 earlier. That is because that auditorium needs maintenance. I don't know if the curtains around the screen were supposed to move away and let the projector switch to a larger lens and make the movie larger. They didn't so I guess it was either broken or wasn't built that way. I know the other auditoriums in the building are larger and have larger screens (that aren't IMAX) so I did feel a little bit cheated that we were put in an auditorium with a smaller and lower quality screen.

The projector/projector system needs maintenance (I'm not an expert on projectors so im kindof guessing here). First off, there was a "dead pixel" on the movie at all times. In scenes where they were out in the daytime, you couldn't see it, but as soon as it was a darker scene, there was just a bright white pixel in the top middle area of the screen. Annoying but not a dealbreaker.

The dealbreaker was that the movie paused, multiple times. After about 15-20 minutes, the movie paused for 10 seconds and resumed. After a minute, it did it again, and again, and again. At the third pause I left to go tell staff that there was a problem with the projector, the lady I talked to said they would get right on it. I know most of the movie projectors these days are an automated system controlled by a computer so I was slightly scared that it wasn't going to be fixed without a restart of the computer controlling the projector (which couldve meant rewatching the beginning again). Thankfully, I returned to my seat and after another pause or two (i didn't get an exact count of the pauses bc I left to tell staff) the movie proceeded as normal.

After the movie was over, the manager compensated everyone in the theater by giving us free tickets to (most) any other movie we come back to see. I appreciate the gift but I will be looking for better movie theaters. Maybe one that doesn't put extremely loud product ads just before the movie starts.

Seriously, stop showing that unlimited movie pass ad just before the movie. That time is supposed to be for movie trailers, not product or service ads. Less product ads before the movie in general. Movie trailers can stay. I know nobody in the theater has any control over whether ads play or not so I'm pretty much preaching to the choir here. If anyone from Regal "corporate" reads this, please stop with the product ads. My family paid $50+ to watch a...

This is the worst experience I've ever had at a theater. For the pros first: the theater was clean, fast line to concessions and clerk was gracious at concessions. That's what I gave 2 stars for.

Cons: The movie started a little late - no big deal. Also weirdly no one checked our tickets - we looked for someone but there wasn't anybody to check. The hard thing was the amount of noise and threatening behavior by the audience in the theater during the movie. The theater was about 80% empty - probably about 5 parties in the entire theater. There were two families with a couple of kids under 5 (the movie was PG-13). The kiddos behind us were kicking and pushing on our seats, crying, talking, laughing/playing, blowing bubbles in their drinks, etc. for the whole movie. In hindsight we should've moved from our assigned seats since we were about to lose our minds by the end, but didn't want to make the parents feel bad and tried to just deal with it. An adult group in the theater was talking and laughing constantly (carrying on a continual conversation) at normal volumes (like you would at a restaurant) for the majority of their stay in the theater. When another movie goer politely asked them to please lower their voices (after they'd been talking and laughing for quite a while), they responded with, "We are just enjoying the movie. Shut the F* up! Go sit somewhere else if you don't like it!" Someone went and got a manager, who told them to leave. They ignored the manager and stayed another 10-20 minutes before they finally left. The other parties were from time to time also noisy - talking at normal volumes, laughing, etc. At some points it sounded like rush hour in a restaurant, and like I said, it was only about 20% full. I've attended movie showings where there was one or two groups in a full theater that were loud at moments or something, but never anything like this.

This was by far the tensest and most uncomfortable experience I've had in a movie theater. I think the movie we saw was really good but we agreed we'd have to rewatch it once it comes out since we were so uncomfortable we couldn't really pay attention.

At the end of the day, it was the other customers and not specifically the theater that made this a pretty terrible experience. However, if a reasonably courteous and safe environment isn't provided (or enforced, in this case) by the theater and staff, it's pretty hard for people to return. This is a bummer for us since we've seen this theater struggle since COVID and want to support it. But it's pretty tough to return after this.

Next time we will go to Alamo Draft House. Never appreciated their zero-tolerance policy for shenanigans more...

I always go to this theater since it's so close to my home. Though it's true their floors are CONSTANTLY sticky, it can be overlooked. But today I have never been so disgusted with this theater that I will never spend a penny there again. Tuesday I purchased tickets for myself and friends, since I always bring a min of 2 others with me at all times, to see a showing through fandango for the theater. On the way I received news my mother was in the hospital. 2 days later was the first chance I had to call the theater for a refund since I was unable to see the show. A box office associate told me the policy for a money refund is to call the same day but how could I when my mother is in the ER? So I asked for a manager to clarify. This ignorant, non-sympathetic man named Jerry came on the phone. He got on with a attitude to begin with and told me the same thing. THE POLICY I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH. It's the fact that this man said, "If you buy tickets for a major concert and miss the show, they won't refund you. That's how this business is. That's how it works. That's entertainment business. Most people know that." Could he be more condescending? When I told him that was unprofessional to say, his reaction was "well that's how it is". When I mentioned there are exceptions like worrying with my family about my mother in the hospital keeping me from calling the theater his comment was, "Sorry for you that's the policy." He had such attitude and no solutions. The box office attendant at least suggested that they can give me passes instead. But this "manager" who was rude and had the WORST ATTITUDE, showing no people skills and no sense of empathy is the one reason I will never return. I'll be going to...