Penn Cinema Riverfront 14 + IMAX — Local services in Wilmington

My wife and I had a rare night out with a babysitter, so we chose to see a movie. We chose the Wilmington Riverfront because we don't go there much, and all the amenities we wanted to hit up were in the area. Dinner was great, drinks were great.

The movie was another matter altogether. I have a hearing loss. All movie theaters are required, under a federal law known as the Americans with Disabilities Act, to provide "reasonable accommodation" to individuals with disabilities. For "ADA" standards, most movie theaters offer a receiver that you can plug headphones into that amplifies the sound and lets you enjoy the movie a bit more. This is what I personally prefer as it really helps me understand the dialogue better.

On this particular night, I asked for a receiver/headset, and somebody hustled into the back to find it. After a 10+ minute wait, he emerged to tell me the "system was down right now" and offered me a Doremi captioning unit. The way these work is they automatically connect to a system inside the particular theater you're in and broadcast captions on a small unit that you can prop up in front of you. I gladly took it into the theater, only to find out, as the movie began, that it did not work at all.

To make matters worse, the movie was "1917", a movie where all of the actors (obviously) have British accents. That wouldn't be a big deal if I had either the headphones or the captioning system, but as it was, I could not understand somewhere around 90% of the dialogue of the movie.

This is an egregious violation of ADA standards, and when I contacted management the next day to discuss my experience via Facebook, I was ignored. I followed up a day later, ignored again. It has now been 48 hours, and nobody has followed up with me.

This is my only recourse. I have never, ever had a worse experience in a movie theater in my life. No employees so poorly trained, no management so devoid of caring about my experience. I will never, ever, as long as I live, attend a movie screened by Penn...

Went to see No Way Home in Imax. Saw it a few days before in Dolby which was far superior! That was my first time at a Dolby and this was my first time at an Imax. The screen quality of Imax was so inferior I actually wanted to leave. After the movie, I checked out the standard auditoriums and the screens in those looked great!

This is an original Imax. (There is a new version of Imax called Imax Laser but only a few 100s of those exist across the country). The only good thing about the screen is that it was very large. The sound was loud but not immersive at all! The chairs inside of the Imax were great and they were the best thing about it! They're leather flip rocking seats so it's a combination of classic and modern.

The concessions were more affordable compared to some other chains except for the hotdogs which are expensive like most theaters. The theater itself was nice and modernized. It wasn't ghetto and the area seemed relatively safe and comfortable.

My review would have been a 4⭐ if I saw a movie in standard/digital. Those screens were crystal clear. But this Imax was a huge letdown so I cannot recommend it at all. I would especially advise people not to see a movie in Imax if it has a lot of dark or night scenes in it. If you want to feel like you're within the movie see it in Dolby. If it's a simple movie day/night see it in...

I haven't been to this theater in a while due to COVID, and let me say I'm not impressed. I don't know what happened to this place but the quality has gone down considerably since I was here last. The first item I want to address is the quality of the leather seating. I guess the quality of leather they used was either cheap or that they didn't bother to properly maintain it because the leather on all the seats is cracked. The arm of the chair next to me was also falling apart. (see attached photos) You would think considering I paid top price to see an IMAX movie this place would be better maintained. I guess not. If I wanted cracked leather seats I could have gone elsewhere and paid less. At least I would have known what I was getting for the money that I spent.

The second item that I want to address is the pricing at the concessions stand. The theater charges you an extra dollar if you buy a combo meal vs. if you buy everything in the combo separately. I guess this theater thinks that they can be clever and that customers won't notice that they are being overcharged. But I wasn't born yesterday. Buyer beware.

For the prices they charge at the box office and the concessions stand you would think that they would do a better job taking care of this place. But I guess not. That's all right, I will happily take my...