AMC Mazza Gallerie 7

The Mazza Gallerie was opened by GCC (General cinema) in 2000. Later, AMC bought GCC and rebranded the name.

When I saw movies in 2001, I was told that Theater 3 had 262 seats and Theater 4 had 300 seats.

Visiting this past weekend, I was told Theater 1 also has 300 seats. 12-22 Friday evening's first show of "The Good Shepherd" looked like it sold out, in its opening weekend. Sound was only from behind the screen. Red fabric was at the top of the side walls and the back wall of the auditorium. The rest of the side walls are off white with sconces that have lights on top of what look like corkscrews. The seats are luxury seats.

The theater is on the 3rd floor. The lobby continues to have a red tent like ceiling. A hall to the right of the lobby leads to the auditoriums and to a bar.

At the Mazza Gallerie, I asked Sunday how many seats in Auditorium 2? One staffer told me 300, another told me 350. So, I counted. Lower section (where almost nobody sat) had 5 rows of 25 seats each which totals 125. Upper section has 8 rows of 22 seats which totals 176 but 6 seats missing (for wheelchairs) so 170. And, upper section has 2 rows at top with total of 29 seats (and many spaces for wheelchairs). Grand total is 324 seats.

Film projection was fine until near the end when it looked like a bit of black rain was added to the picture. A friend who operates a different theater suggests to me that means the film projectors were not cleaned. The upper section looked full for the 2 PM movie, so AMC was making enough money to give an even better presentation.

Staffers said Auditorium 1 is the biggest so it probably has more seats than I suggested in above comment. I've seen movies in each of Auditorium 1 to 4. I glanced at Auditorium 5, which was not a large theater. I recall when it opened, that the 2 auditoriums in the bar area were sat to have the smallest seating capacity.

I thought I had posted comments about my experiences here but they've GONE! I've seen Panic Room, Day After Tomorrow, the first Transporter and, according to my Moviewatcher records, Fracture, earlier this year. I'm sure there are more, but thats the most I can remember now. The last film I saw in the Adult over 21 section with the nicer seats. I've never had a bad experience here presentation wise but they seldom play the THX trailer before shows even though they tout certification. They used to have a THX poster at the top of the escalator to tout the high presentation standards for certification.

One nice thing about the location of this theater is that you're surrounded by various stores to suit your shopping interests and some nicer chain restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory and Maggianos, both across the street.

On another note, this place is next to another closed favorite theater of mine, the Jenifer, which is in the very next block next to Booeymongers...and two blocks further the much larger and treasured Cinema. How times have changed.

I wanted to eat lunch in Maggianos, but they told me they eliminated the sandwich bar 8 months ago!

For a few years, the Jenifer was closed, marquee intact. Marquee gone now.

I went to pay my respects to the former KB Cinema, but on Sunday, the furniture store (what it is now) was closed! Cinema was never closed on Sundays...That was one of my all time favorite moviehouses.

Auditorium #7 is looking worse for wear - plastic cup holders are missing from quite a few chairs, scratch marks on the wooden arm rests are becoming prevailent - the upkeep of the theatre is embarrassing to say the least. 'The Mummy 3' looked great (for 35mm) but the sound was terribly lacking - it wasn't even in 5.1 surround sound, I honestly can't think of the last film I've seen/heard in this auditorium that was 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.

Aren't 6 and 7 the auditoriums with the leather love seats that serve alcohol during the week? If so, thats pretty bad they aren't keeping up with maintenance. They charge more for those auditoriums don't they? I wanted to see Mummy 3 there..thinking since its gone from my favorite THX plex in Annapolis. I guess I'll have to go to Tysons.

Giles, you should fill out a comment card on the THX website about your bad experience. Since the place is supposed to be THX certified, the presentation should not have been so lackluster especially one like the fx-laden Mummy.

Thankfully it was only the first show of the day (a Saturday 11am) for $6 - but regardless, yes, for an auditorium that is supposed to be comfortable and nice, it's looking ratty - I'd be livid if I had to pay the higher evening 'Club' price and I got stuck in one of the seats that had no cup holder.

I should have complained while I was there, but I had to fly out of the movie to meet a friend for lunch. I'll definately check out THX' website - thanks.

I need to realize that complaining to the manager is always the best route, because one it lets that person know first hand what the problem(s) is/are. He said he'd look into why films weren't being played back in 5.1 since the auditorium should in fact be decoding it in Dolby Digtial. He said the missing cup holders are replaced regularily since some of the larger sized cups actually pull up/off when the drinks are removed. Not really much of a response to the wearing arm rests, I might have to go one up and complain to corporate. I asked tangentily about future DLP at Mazza, and he gave some rather lame explanation, "certain AMC's are testing the technology/audience response", I almost wanted to say, well if you had at least two systems here,you could rotate/book at two films at the same time - it's not THAT impossible. I didn't say, well AMC's relunctance, slow roll out of DLP/LCoS systems isn't helping one bit, I still have to trek out to National Amusement in Fairfax Virginia to see something in digital, because they have six systems - oh well, time will tell.

You know I could have sworn that the Moviewatcher site, which links showtimes to the AMC home page indicated that there was a DP presentation of a movie several weeks ago at Mazza. I didn't make much of it as I had seen the movie. I'm guessing it was Kung Fu Panda or one of the other animated films but have not seen anything since. Perhaps, it was a mistake. If you have noticed, it seems that at least one auditorium in the newer AMCs has digital. It seems they are moving slower than Regal here to outfit their plexes with all digital auditoriums.

for awhile they were listing 'Iron Man' after it left the Uptown as being a DLP presentation at Mazza, but I never confirmed if that was truly the case though.

Saw 'Sisterhood' over at Cinema De Lux in DLP over the weekend and wow, the couple of scenes that took place in Greece - the cinematography was top notch - made me want to go there, more than 'Mamma Mia!' did

comparing Mazza to the relatively newer Tysons Corner cineplex I figured out what I can't stand about the former - the drink holder part of the seat is too close to one's fore arm, and it's not comfortable (at all) in my opinion.

Either it's the movies or it seems like the sound levels in Auditorium #1 are raised - both 'The Soloist' and 'Wolverine' sounded great with both effective 5.1 soundmixes. Unfortunately the 35mm (mass produced) print of 'Wolverine' had problems - there were waves in the print, not that the projector could have fixed this, but I'm looking forward to this not being the case when Sony intalls it's proposed Sony 4K systems nationally (of course I could have trekked down to Georgetown where the only DC engagement of 'Wolverine' is presented digitally)

a Sony 4K digital system was installed in Auditorium 2 for 'Saw VI'

and even though 'Saw VI' was shot on film and then transferred back to digital for digital projection, Sony 4K's system was very very impressive - it retained film's intended grain and the lossless 5.1 soundmix was gut rattling - thumbs up!