Scranton Art Haus — Local services in Scranton

Today, I decided to treat myself on a rainy Sunday morning to see "Killers of the Flower Moon" -- a 3.5 hours-long movie. It was just me and another couple whom I didn't know. HALFWAY through the movie, three strange men came barreling through extremely loud, talking, and sitting in random seats. It was rather shocking. I became very uneasy and frustrated. I left to talk to the staff at ticketing to let them know. The lady said they bought tickets for the later showing of the movie, and they must've snuck in, and that she'd take care of it. If it wasn't for the couple sitting next to me, I would have just left then and there because I would not want to be there by myself. And I trusted the staff to address it.

Two of the men happened to "leave" by the time I returned, but one of them was sitting in the back corner the entire time. No one from the staff ever came into the theater. The man in the back was quiet so I relaxed a little bit, clearly accepting it wasn't going to be addressed. I tried to enjoy the rest of the movie, but right at the end, the two other creepy men came running through again, being loud and talking. I completely missed the ending after watching it for 3.5 hours. I was back to feeling extremely frustrated and uneasy.

As soon as the credits came on, I jetted out of there because I was a little scared and went to the ticketing staff once again. (The manager was not there at that time, otherwise, I would've spoken directly to her about this issue.)

The lady said, "Oh, yeah, well it was 20 minutes until their next showing anyway and I figured the guy that stayed in there wasn't being loud, so..." I further explained that the other two creeps came back right at the end and that I didn't feel comfortable. And I totally missed the ending. She said she was sorry but didn't really seem like she cared. And the man sitting next to her joked that I could "just come back to another showing right at the end so I could see it, haha." It clearly demonstrated to me that they did not care for our experience, didn't offer any amends, and did not care that people were sneaking into other theaters to see other movies for the price of one ticket. Outside, I caught up with the couple in the same theater as me, and they said they also expressed their bad experience to the staff.

This is not the first time it has happened here with unruly customers at Art Haus, but we did not report it the first time (we addressed it ourselves) so I cannot blame the staff for that.

Scranton Art Haus is such a wonderful asset to the downtown and they've made it so amazing there, and yet I have never experienced such discourteous moviegoers this often in such a short amount of time here. I know that is out of their control, but having an indifferent staff does NOT help. Please do not dismiss customers when they express discomfort and feel unsafe. Please do not let people in "early" into other people's showings. It isn't fair for the customer or for Art Haus's profits. Lastly, at least TRY to make amends through a gift card, refund, or something.

I don't think I will be returning for a while, sadly. It is the second time in a row we've had unfavorable experiences and it pains me to say that because I love this...

Lots of kinks to work out. Definitely shouldn't have opened for Barbienheimer weekend without being fully staffed. The table-service-movie-theater model is a hard one to pull off, but even if they had the appropriate staffing when we were there last night, they weren't prepared for that kind of service. For starters, when we arrived, we were told to go into the theater & someone would take our order before the movie started, however the first servers didn't come through to take orders until almost 2 hours after the movie start time. There were no menu's in the theater so you had to know what you wanted before going in. The theater was too dark for the servers bringing the food in and there seemed to be no ticketing system because the servers had no idea who to deliver food to... they would come in, walk up to everyone, shine a flashlight in their faces & ask if they were waiting for food. Two or three people around me had their food arrive with beer spilled on it because the servers kept tripping because the theater was too dark. The whole experience was terrible and we ended up missing most of the movie. Only reason I'm giving two stars instead of one is the staff was mostly friendly... they just were put in a terrible situation by management letting the theater open with untrained staff, no where near enough staff working & a complete lack of planning for in-theater service. We won't be going back for a while until they get their...

2/15/20: Saw Sonic the Hedgehog. Movie was great, service was fine...except for the fact that I had to get up and miss part of the movie to report the family in front of us that were audibly talking throughout the entire movie and taking pictures with their phones with the FLASH on. Was so rude, distracting and annoying. The staff confirmed w/ me that I had the complaint and appeared to tell the family to stop...but they kept it up the rest of the movie. I wish movie theaters would hire security guards that are COMMANDED to kick out people who play on their phones and distract others with NO refund. would maybe teach them to not disrupt the people around them. The movie theater is NOT your living room couch! 2/5 stars

4/2024: so glad this theater reopened. It's great to have a theater within walking distance from me; adds some variety instead of having to rely on Cinemark and Regal. Tickets and food are reasonably priced, food is great, seats are comfy and the staff is awesome! Oh, and that marquee on the entrance is STUNNING! Long may it light...