Landmark Pasadena Playhouse — Local services in Pasadena

Just went to the newly reopen Landmark (old Laemmle) theater and very impressed with the renovations! The new interior is sleek, clean, the cinemas themselves have awesome new, spacious, and comfortable seats. Great spacing between chairs, easy to get in and out. I appreciate there are fences between rows, don't have to worry about my seat back ever getting kicked. The movie we saw had no technical problems, sound was great, couldn't see any pixelation on the screen (a problem I had with the Laemmle's old projectors,) nice DARK paint job making for very little ambient light reflections around the room, and subdued lighting before/after showings in a nicer transition than big bright flood lights coming on. Between the new seats, decor, and technical upgrades, this was probably the most comfortable movie experience I've had in a while at a cinema. The time / renovations Landmark put into the cinema were worth it! All for a little cheaper than nearby AMC theaters too! I'll be coming back for future movie viewings for sure!

Only nitpicks I can think of are that while the new projectors are bright, they don't have the best black level leading to some slight muddiness in DARK scenes, but that's more of a limitation of the projection technology and not just a problem here. Also, if you're watching a quiet movie and you happen to be next to a showing of a loud action film, you will hear some slight low whumps now and then bleeding through the wall. The sound isolation is very good overall though, our cinema was dead quiet on its own, we just heard some very quiet booms from Avatar next door lol -- That's going to happen in smaller cinemas like this so like I said, this is...

had a really weird experience here that rubbed us the wrong way and don’t think we’re coming back. My sister and I scanned our tickets in and were told we had to wait and have an attendant walk us to our seats. We watched groups of other people get scanned who were immediately waved through the entrance.

We asked why we were singled out for being monitored to our seats and then told our show was a full house (it was not) and the staff wanted to be sure everyone was sitting in the correct seat. We didn’t see staff accompanying any other guests coming into our screening.

We’re also not sure what the logic was … if we accidentally sat in the wrong seat, we have no problem being corrected? If a stubborn guest refused to remove from the incorrect seat I don’t see why someone couldn’t inform staff to clear that up? Being singled out by the attendants to monitor us to our seat felt like we were being profiled (we look young and are also POC)

I recommend going to an AMC (they have better sound quality & always the correct aspect ratio! the one in Burbank on Palm has the actors show up sometimes)

or a Laemmle - great cinema that screens a lot of independent films, which is what this theater replaced. The Laemmle Pasadena was unfortunately a pandemic casualty and always a wonderful experience; we miss it and wish it...

The lobby is a big disappointment. No one greats you at the door and you need to buy tickets at a kiosk. The lobby is very dark and there are tables and chairs awkwardly placed across from concessions. Would be good for a corporate event but for day to day seems odd. The lobby feels empty and cold, zero warmth and not welcoming. When we approached concessions they said they didn't have any popcorn. It was 740 and we asked why and the attendant made a batch. Kinda odd. However, Thursdays is 2 for 1 popcorn and they do have good butter so all good. The pop machine is self serve and around the corner. Again, kind of weird placement etc. The restrooms were not changed at all! The theaters got the biggest upgrade. I love the new seats and layout. Like a premium economy seat with all kinds of adjustments. I hope they clean them and wipe down the controls between showings and maintain them when they fail. I was very happy about the seats as the Santa Monica Landmark has the worst seats ever in a theater. The pricing is a bit higher than I'd like to pay. I'm sure we will be back often if they have good films but will most likely will just drive to glendale for the laemmle. One other question, will they be using the movie...