AMC Rockaway 16

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The golden age of movie going has been over for a long long time – the ending was signaled long before AMC Rockaway was on the drawing board, just look at the original AMC Rockaway shoeboxes designed not to be too distinctive so that they can be easily converted to retail. Unfortunately we don’t have many chains around that are doing things differently like the excellent The Bridge in Philly.

As for digital I-Max, Justin you’ve driven the point home about digital – and my guess is this site won’t see a non-IMax 4K digital projector until the collation lead of AMC, Regal and Cinemark, headed by former Loews chairman Travis Reid can figure out the financing terms for the new equipment (which from what I heard involves taking out a loan backed by the future savings to the studios). The last few AMC sites to open have been all digital – not a good thing – why would you want film projection to die? Early adopters that have gone all or nearly all digital (Carmike, Rave, and a few smaller chains) have opted to go 2K verses 4K – and 2K looks artificial, like watching an HD TV, I don’t think its particularly a good thing and there are some filmmakers I wouldn’t like to see in digital projection (Guy Madden comes to mind first).

Just went to see “Cloverfield”, at 4:45…the film reels started 2 minutes late following the looped AMC moviewatcher ending; some girl wearing a biker helmet wanted to exchange the popcorn for some candy and I said no, which is a good thing since this theater is usually packed with nobodies and somewhat rowdy teens. The movie was ok but the sound was earth-shakingly good. After the movie was over, me and my dad went over to Fatburger and used the ticket stub for 10% off of a meal, which was a good thing since the Panera right next to it was packed. The only downside? Too much previews before a short movie. I’m amazed at how many indie films are playing at this theater…now only if the new IMAX digital screen will increase attendance!!!

I remember going to this theatre a couple of weeks ago and went through one of the worst movie experiences I’ve experienced. It wasn’t the great movie (I Am Legend) or the comfortable seats. It wasn’t the concept of stadium seating, which is a good concept. It was the amount of space in the “shoebox” theatres.
That day, I went with a friend to see the movie. As I walked down the corridor towards Theater 4, I noticed the number of seats on the walls. Theatres #1 and 8 had about 360, and Theatres #2 and 7 had about 250 (I don’t remember exactly what it was). However, Theatres 3 and 4 had 146 seats, and 5 and 6 had 123.
The tickets said that the movie was in Theater 4. My friend and I walked in ten minutes before the show started, and the movie was out for a couple of weeks already, yet the place was PACKED. We looked at the stadium seats- no room for two. We were forced to look at the front row (which I hate)– no room for two. We literally had to SPLIT UP to find seats. Yes, I had to sit next to a complete stranger. It could have been worse, for the person was rather nice instead of a complete asshole, but it was still disappointing that I couldn’t sit with my friend.

just went to see golden compass in one of the small screens, number 5, this past saturday at 1:30 and during the film’s darker scenes the light from the projection room appeared on the right of the screen. i sat in a seat near the front and the picture was ok.

my bad. The system which will be installed at this theater by around summer 2008 will be a new version of the Imax 3-D system that eliminates the need for bulky film, hence it will be digital and will charge $2-4 more per ticket. BTW, which of the 16 screens will be retrofitted for the IMAX 3-D, or will it be an additional screen? Only time will tell.

well it looks like loews because it was originally going to be one thats why if you look it has theyre signiture spotlight designs on the floors and walls outside and inside.

by scores i mean our rateing by secret shoppers and what not its a score based out of ten and thats how we get our rankings. and i quit the theater due to gas prices and distance. i didnt work at the old one but i did go there alot. as for 3d…well…the best i got is that theyre working on it

what you do mean by scores? And why did you get fired from the amc in rockaway? Did you used to work at the old AMC in Rockaway before it was closed down? Anyways, it seems that the theater is the number one attraction at the mall these days since it opened in late 2006. I’m sure this coming summer will be a good one for the theater.

He has a point: early digital was awful – it sucked the life out of the movie (when I had been going to see movies at the what was Crown Palace in Hartford I always bought tickets to the non-digital show – but this was years ago). I’ve seen improvements, last time I was in Hartford, Showcase/Cinema De Lux Buckland Hills has a digital package from Dolby that’s really great and really sharp (but that theater always had pretty flawless projection). AMC Rockaway doesn’t have great projection, in fact I avoid it for that fact – digital might save it as the systems become more sophisticated. I saw Beowulf at Garden State and thought the presentation was great, they seem to jack-up the brightness to compensate for the polarization.

I went to a new AMC theater in Cupertino to see Beowulf in 3D. 3D was overrated. It had some depth to it, but there wasn’t much popping out of the screen. The 2K digital projection is a little darker than regular film. That’s the problem with digital projection. The digital projectors of today are not quite that good at reproducing colors. Blacks are not quite black, but dark gray. Add to the fact that the 3D glasses are like sunglasses made the film very dark and dim. At least, with digital projection there were no scratches or dust, but I’ve rarely seen problems with dust or scratches at theaters in my area. The overall dimness of 2K digital projection is a big drawback.

New 4K digital projectors are out, but they are very rare and expensive. There’s one 4K projector at AMC Empire 25 in New York. However, most films are scanned at 2K, so you’re stuck with a lower resolution viewing anyway. Give it a several more years and then maybe digital projection will get better. However, as of now digital projection still has half the resolution of film and colors seem muted. Digital is over-hyped.

went out to see “No Country for Old Men”, a decent Coen Bros. movie that has a bad ending. It was in one of those smaller screens, and the crowd behaved fine. The worst part during my movie trip? The traffic getting out was a bit tough, since right now is the busiest time of year for the mall rather than the theater. Seems that Rockaway Mall is now making more money that AMC and that Clearview’s Parsippany and Succasunna theaters get more than the shopping centers since those theaters are not near big malls and have better projection and customer service than AMC, which employs a mixture of old and young customers with hard to read accents. At least they added the AMC 16 tag to the entrance sign to the mall.