AMC Tysons Corner 16
7850 Tysons Corner Center,
McLean,
VA
22102
7850 Tysons Corner Center,
McLean,
VA
22102
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 160 comments
It doesn’t surprise me the Brandywine location hasn’t repaired any broken seats. That company is super cheap and has a habit of entering a market strong and then cutting back once they are in. Usually they would enter markets where there are no other choices though. They would even open brand new locations prior to digital with 20 year old projection equipment.
Supposedly the AMC Prime locations use the same speakers installed at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The price does seem kind of steep though and I wonder how much of a competitor Dolby will be to IMAX. Maybe the best route they can go is try to get some chains to convert their house brand big screen formats.
Sounds cool, Giles. Thanks for the review. :) Now..the question to be answered is..is it worth the $20 admission price for the lovely reclining seats and state of the art presentation?
I saw ‘Batman V Superman’ here on the AMC Prime / Dolby Cinema screen this morning and I have mixed feelings about the conversion.
The flaws:
One) The light from the floors immediate to the screen, it casts a red light onto it, and for the many dark scenes in this movie it is VERY noticeable, there’s no way to remove them, but there should be a way to reduce the brightness during the movie. From an IndieWire.com article: “The interior design is purposeful, and meant to virtually eliminate any light or color interference. The designers have even utilized new low ambient LED lighting for the aisles and stairs, which still comply with safety, but greatly reduce the amount of light that could interfere with the projection experience.”
this isn’t the case here.
Two) I guess I forgot about the rumbling seats, but in this case, it was downright annoying (to me) – other’s may get a kick out of it, I just want to enjoy the movie without the physical interruptions.
On the plus side, I like the seats, they don’t go far back as the IPic “Bethesda” seats. Since now there are walls in between the rows, it’s nice not to see the patrons in front of you (or even behind you).
Sound seems the same to me, as it should, there was nothing wrong with it in the first place (outside of some of the action movies being a tad too loud sometimes). There are new surround speakers on the walls with red lights behind them, they look like the mini versions of what you’d see at a music venue/club. Lights also illuminate the ceiling speakers.
Screen is also larger and slightly curved.
Unfortunately due to limited space and zoning, Dolby couldn’t install their curved ‘video wall’ entrance
Interesting. I saw the trailers for the format. Thanks for the link, Giles. The sound trailer looks like a 4K sequel to THX’s Life trailer. It should play nicely on the BIG screen.
The vibrating/reclining seats don’t look all that impressive. I wonder how it compares to the DBox at the Egyptian? Do you really need a touch screen to put up the footrest and/or recline? I was thinking you could order concession fare on it. As nice as they are, its only a matter of time before they break due to abuse. The Brandywine Crossing theater has numerous unrepaired reclining seats when I saw the last Star Wars movie there. I suppose they are pricey to fix or replace. And if they aren’t wiped down with regularity, who knows what the previous patron may have done to, or on it, during the last show…
$20 Pricing is steep during prime time, but the matinees are a more reasonable $13.09. Thats more my price. :) With a combo purchase, for one person you’re spending almost $30! I’m not too thrilled about Batman v Superman even though it is ruling the box office at the moment.
According to AMC’s website, Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime is now open and showing Batman V Superman. Also opened this week at AMC NorthPark 15 in Dallas. https://www.amctheatres.com/amc-prime
it’s on the top banner of AMC Tyson’s webpage
https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/washington-d-c/amc-tysons-corner-16
“Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime – Opening Soon”
I actually stopped by the theater last week and noted that auditorium 11 is boarded up, obviously for the construction going on behind it.
the manager on hand though was the least helpful that I’ve talked to in the past – he really was clueless and monosyllabic.
in terms of the seating I assume they will look something like this:
http://cdn.highdefdigest.com/uploads/2015/10/08/660/Dolby_Cinema_at_AMC_Prime_Interior_.JPG
Giles, where did you see the Prime theater info for Tysons? I don’t see it on the website.
$20 is getting steep. They’d better have massaging reclining seats and concession concierge service for that price. Out of curiosity, I may try myself just to say I’ve experienced it. Two or more would be a budget buster for me, too.
I absolutely love the ETX theater and have enjoyed several presentations here making the drive into VA worth it for me.
I’m surprised ‘The Jungle Book’ advance tix aren’t up for the Dolby Cinema screen, but ‘Captain America: Civil War’ is; for it’s May 5th 7:30pm and 11pm screenings.
While I’m sure the seat number was reduced, looking at the seating chart for ‘Civil War’ what was done doesn’t look as severe.
Prime time ticket price is $20.19
holy @#$% !! – I just noticed the tix pricing for the LA / NYC ‘Prime’ theaters which the manager speculated Tyson’s theater could be comparable to (which for prime time evening will range from $20 – $21.59 (Ipic Rockville takes the cake for the most expensive ticket pricing in the DC metro area – it helps to be a member which bumps down the price considerably), ouch! – you can expect me to be at the matinee screenings. ($20 for the AFI’s 70mm engagement of ‘Hateful Eight’ was the exception and worth it), but $20 on a continual basis – yeah, I don’t see that happening on my income.
the ETX auditorium is now closed and will begin it’s conversion makeover to a Dolby Cinema / ‘Prime’ screen – the manager I talked with today noted the reopening is undetermined but she stated mid-March to early April at the earliest.
It’s always been ETX – but changing over to a ‘Prime’ theater was quietly murmured to me (which is completely different: mainly laser projection, different seats) – that conversion may or might not happen at a future date, but it didn’t in the time frame mentioned to me – because for a largely sold out show last night, AMC might think otherwise in reducing the seat number in it’s second largest auditorium at this location.
^ well that didn’t happen (thankfully)
just saw ‘The Revenant’ – didn’t know it was on the ETX screen here. Visually and aurally it was amazing, from the music to the overall sound design – this was a top notch Atmos mix and stunning presentation.
Spoke with a manager here this afternoon and he revealed that the ETX screen will be changing over to ‘Prime’ theater: recling seats (thus reducing the auditorium capacity) and ‘Dolby Cinema’ laser projector system. He stated ideally they’d want it up for ‘Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2’, but that it would definitely be up for the December release of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
On New Years Weekend, I caught the final Hobbit movie in IMAX-lite HFR 3D. The trailer for the Dec 2015 Star Wars movie was exciting to see on the B I G screen, but I’m holding reservations until I see more of the finished product. :) The Avengers sequel trailer looks just like the first one..not too exciting.
The movie started out okay but with a mirror-like distortion that I had thought was ‘normal’ but became annoying. About 1/3 of the way through, they stopped the show to ‘reboot’ the system. When they restarted the movie, what a difference! Since I don’t patronize this venue regularly, I can’t say for certain, but it seems that they frequently have some projection issue or breakdown. Sound and picture were their usual decent standards.
I really hate the reserved seating policy in this auditorium. While its good for those like me who may travel far and plan ahead to see a movie and want that perfect seat. It turned out the patrons sat in my seat. Fortunately, there were many empties so I ended up sitting 2 seats away. When its dark, you can hardly see the seat numbers. When the late comers would come, they too, got frustrated finding the correct seat, or found someone sitting in their seat and ended up sitting somewhere else. Thankfully, this wasn’t a sold out show or there would have been some commotion for sure. Then there were no AMC ushers anywhere in the auditorium or standing by to help people find their seats as was my experience at the Rave Fairfax multiplex years ago.
Also, the third tier seating section up is not so good to see the movie as your line of sight just about gets cut off. If you have a patron with a big head or is tall, you may get your view cut off. Not a good design. Unfortunately, the company I was keeping wanted seats that high not realizing it was TOO far up.
Lastly, the $19.00 single admission price is quite high. For that kind of price, everything should be PERFECT. No excuses to have the projection system rebooted. Its understandable the venue/format is top grade, but back in the day, they never charged extra for 70mm booked films.
saw ‘Transformer: Age of Extinction’ a second time but this time in IMAX – that sound was totally unacceptable – it was soooo loud – I had to put my fingers in my ears, something I never do – it was just ear piercing. And it never achieved or replicated the outstanding Atmos mix.
Also, has anyone noticed that some of the auditoriums have a vibration issue (and it has nothing to do with the amping of the bass channels/speakers) – like you’re feeling a minor earthquake, saw ‘Get On Up’ and it happened several times, very very odd.
I remember the first Transformer movie and was quite impressed with its soundtrack..enough to be aurally tricked into believing sound above, in addition to surrounds when the bots would fight in Bow Tie’s #1’s THX theater. It was missing in the IMAX (real) at the UA/Regal King of Prussia venue. I don’t know if I wanted to see another one. It seems more like a rehash of what was in the previous movies.
A Michael Bay movie that doesn’t sound like trash?! Hersey!
score another film where the Atmos mix delivered a truly stunning presentation – “Transformers 4” – used the overhead ceiling speakers to constant and surprising result – thumbs up – it’s one of the few ‘loud’ movies where the mix was nuanced and created with care and attention to how Atmos does (and should) sound.
I don’t know what it is – but I’m finding that it’s become a total crap shoot depending on the movie if and how a movie is presented on the ETX/Atmos screen. ‘Maleficent’ (Atmos) sounded and looked great (image at Cinemark Fairfax Corner was too dark), and then you have the complete opposite; ‘X-Men Days of Future Past’ looked great, but the Atmos mix front channels sounded so front heavy and blaring to such extremes that it essentially muffled and obscured all the other speakers – it sounded jumbled and just loud for the sake of being loud. And yet the 7.1 mix of ‘X-Men’ at the Angelika was better nuanced and was considerably less bombastic.
Yeah, it happened again and yesterday at the Magic Johnson venue…all AMC theaters. I wonder if its the start of a pattern. I hope not and they catch the idiot that is doing this. You’d think movie theaters would be ‘safe’ as it is a destination point to ‘get away’ cinematically speaking.
I wanted to see the newly released X Men movie as it is playing in the ETX theater in 3D. I am not so sure about that now.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/05/tysons-corner-theater-evacuated-after-bottle-explosion-during-godzilla-showing-103239.html
scary…found out on twitter. The theater reopened one day after the incident.
Today, I saw the Hobbit sequel in IMAX 3D HFR since the new Jack Ryan movie will be taking over the IMAX screens on Fri. This time the experience was much better than the first movie. Maybe the day shots had to do with it because the water looked so crisp and Smaug’s fire breath was so vibrant and not artificially so. The 3D shots were the usual arrow coming at you and severed head landing on your lap. Still cool. :) The HFR helps but not markedly better than when I saw Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D (I only saw it BECAUSE it was in 3D..not a gore fan in the least).
Unfortunately, I got there and missed a few moments of the movie. Not sure if they had some new IMAX HFR trailers or something. I forgot about the assigned seating until the ticket taker told me my assigned was 200 something. Knowing the matinee would be low in attendance, I was going to sit where I wanted to sit.
I’m hoping to catch up on the holiday movies now that I have more free time..hopefully before the Oscar nominations come out.
as of the 6th of December – all the auditoriums have reserved seating.
both ‘Frozen’ and ‘Thor: The Dark World’ exhibited no ghosting, double imaging. I think the projectionist has perfected the merging of the two projectors finally.
‘Frozen’s Dolby Atmos absolutely shined – third best Atmos mix of the year, after 'Oblivion’ and ‘Gravity’
There seems to be a constant problem with the ETX screen (alignment of the two projectors). Actually I thought the Atmos mix of ‘Man of Steel’ was pretty dynamic and intense – notably when Zod’s helmet malfunctions, the whole auditorium was a buzz with sound emitting from every nook and cranny of the soundfield – it was the ‘wow’ moment of the Atmos mix. I personally find that the volume level seem to mask any attempt to convey and pinpoint over the head sound effects from the ceiling speakers.
Saw ‘The Wolverine’ on the ETX screen – no problems thankfully, in fact, the very prevailent out of focus flaws I’ve had encountered at past screenings weren’t present. The Atmos mix was hit and miss, good effective use of the surrounds, but the front screen sound seemed subdued and not that well utilized. ‘Iron Man 3’ in Atmos seemed pretty pedestrian, ‘Wolverine’s was slightly better but not by that much.
has anyone heard of the actual dimensions of the ETX screen? No one at the managers desk seems to want to divulge this info or even know what is it – the generic ‘it’s three stories high’ answer seems like a cop out answer. Other screens advertise their specility screen dimensions here though it just makes AMC seem elitist.
I caught ‘Man of Steel’ here in ETX last Sat night. My ears are ringing. Hahaha. I dragged my cousins here to get out of the doldrums of the usually substandard MD cinematic presentations (ok ok..not ALL are bad) they go to (we won’t name the bad plexes they go to in case they happen to read this posting). We arrived early enough but I have to tell you that even the seats here take a toll on the touche. Or, maybe its just me getting older. I know I could sit through any of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies at the old Senator Theater without feeling discomfort on their seats that were probably as old as the theater, itself. On the other hand, perhaps those movies were more engaging. Even with all the amazing fight scenes between Superman and Zod could not get my mind off of how uncomfortable I was feeling towards the end.
Having given the reviews a cursory glance, I did read enough to set my expectations low. The Richard Donner version of Superman forever sets the standard, for me, as the best comic movie adaptation. I’m not a fan of Chris Nolan’s dark interpretation, though many say its truer to the comic’s roots..fine, of Batman. I enjoy going to the movies and there’s a time to see and enjoy the darker toned films but I want to have a good time. To paraphrase what the late Roger Ebert said about movies is that we sometimes want to see them to get away from it all. If I want to be reminded how dark the world is I’d just as well watch Fox News at home for free. :)
For the $17.50 paid to see a film here in ETX, one should expect top notch everything. The projector went kablitz during the preview of next year’s 300 sequel. Then they restarted the trailer and it went out of focus. They started to play with it going in and out, out of focus, move to the right, move to the left. It was funny to hear the reactions of the audience..‘perfect’ ‘oh no..move to the right..’ ‘move to the left.’ Finally, some kid probably 8 or so, exclaimed ‘get it right, people’ to the laughter of the 400 or so in the audience. They didn’t play the Atmos sound trailer. AMC can do better to educate people as to why they should pay more for these premium sound systems by showing the trailers that show off what these systems can do. When I was in line to get my tickets, there was a pair of guys, in front of me, who couldn’t decide which showing of ‘Man of Steel’ showing to see. There were the 3 versions; IMAX(lite), ETX and the other DP showings. I told them to go for the ETX since its $1-less then IMAX, you can choose your own seat and the sound should be superior to IMAX.
I’m thinking they may have some problem with the set up here. What I forgot to mention in the previous post when I saw ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ in ETX, was that they had problems showing the preshow video as it had no sound! A patron came out to complain just as I was coming in and the female ‘manager’ that responded said they were having problems with their systems but that it would have no effect on the movie. Hmmmm.
Soundwise as I said before was loud. I’d have to see the movie again in a different sound chamber to tell you the difference. As with my previous experience with Atmos, its more like right and left separation with dialogue. Surrounds were good..I’m not sure if it was the soundtrack or someone’s actual cell phone going off, right rear, during the Daily Planet office scene.
Visually, I loved the look of the movie. The design aesthetic from the Krypton planet sequences to those little droids that resembled 3D etch-a-sketches come to life were real cool! While the Superman fight scenes were engaging, they seemed more like updated versions of the Neo/Smith fights from the final Matrix movie. I get it..its a live version of what you’d see in a comic book. Okay.
Whatever romance there was between the updated Clark and Lois did not have much spark. Maybe it was the tone of this movie that prevented a more comfortable, cozy and more romantic meeting depicted in the Donner directed Superman. In the inevitable sequel, maybe they’ll do better.