Theater 13 at the Regal E-Walk has about 550 seats, NOT 350 as claimed above. The size of the screen is about 60' wide – exactly like theater 12 next door. Except that theater 12 will cost you “only” $13. Which is why you will NEVER see the current week’s big release showing on both IDENTICALLY SIZED screens. If you fo;;ow what I’m trying to say…
GILES:
Auditorium 13 is “converted."
They claim to have installed a new screen but it looks the same to me.
There ARE new seats and speakers and LOTS of neon at the entrance.
This has been my favorite theater since it opened in 1999. Is it worth $18.50? Absolutely not.
They are also being very shrewd. IRON MAN is being shown ONLY on one of their two big screens, so if you want to see it on the big screen, you HAVE to pay $18.50. Their other big screen (same size as the RPX) carries the regular admission price of $13 so of course they CAN’T book it into both big screens (although normally the current week’s big release is always on both big screens) because there is no REAL advantage to the RPX screen: give people no choice and they will pay you what you are asking for.
In my opinion, the E-Walk is once again the finest place in NYC to see a movie. (Sorry, Ziegfeld)
It’s well kept, offers some of the biggest screens in town, has THE BEST sound around, picture is almost always completely on the screen if not always in focus, the staff ranges from outright nice to at-least-not-openly-hostile. And really, these days – what more can you ask for?
I haven’t had anything to complain about here in over a year.
Good job, Regal.
For God’s sake – this is a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER! There is NO EXCUSE. NONE AT ALL. For sloppy presentation.
I saw NINE here on Christmas Eve – only because there was nowhere else to see it. Sure enough – it wasn’t really loud enough. NO EXCUSE. TURN THE VOLUME UP FOR THE FEATURE. SOMEONE is getting paid to run the digital projector – SIT ON THE FADER IF YOU’RE TOO LAZY TO PROGRAM THE COMPUTER. Lower the volume for the trailers if needed, but really – play the movie AT SHOW LEVEL. IT IS A SINGLE SCREEN THEATER.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
No one cares.
I LOVED this theater. It had five 400+ seat, big screen auditoria. Even the small screens were nice.
Now, there are two big screens left and the original small theaters are the medium sized ones. The three tiny boxes created to make this a 13plex are worthless. Haven’t been there in years. Anyone know how it is holding up?
For the life of me, I cannot understand how this can happen in a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER: A few posts above, someone complained that the commercials and trailers heading Star Trek were EXCRUCIATINGLY loud. I saw Star Trek here (on the Monday of it’s 1st week) and neither the trailers nor THE FEATURE ITSELF were loud enough. It was hardly the first time this has happened here.
IN A SINGLE SCREEN THEATER! In a DIGITAL CINEMA single screen theater—where they can set separate sound cues for each trailer if they care to.
Over the past 23 years I’ve gone out of my way to see every piece of crap they throw up on the screen here. Like another recent poster, I will no longer bother. I can get crap presentations anywhere – no need to go to the Ziegfeld for that. In fact, the presentation at the E-Walk on 42nd St is superior (sound-wise). And their two large auditoriums have screens that are bigger than the Ziegfeld’s as well. The 4 big screens at Kips Bay also. Hell, the Union Square does a consistently finer job projecting their movies.
Just angry that they can’t even get it consistently right and perfect in a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER. Seriously, their projection staff has nothing else to do. If they’re too lazy to program their expensive state-of-the-art equipment, the least they could do is adjust the volume manually between the trailers and the feature. There really is NO EXCUSE.
It’s been destroyed. I can’t say that it’s not nice, and it’s probably a more… efficient design, but it is completely devoid of character. You could be standing in a mall theater in Iowa. HOWEVER, it is still one of the best places to see a movie. And STILL superior to the AMC across the street.
A bit “off topic” but…
Funny you mention EVITA. I saw a screening of that at the old GOTHAM CINEMA and later paid to see it again at the LOEWS auditorium at Lincoln Square. Both times, were phenomenal experiences. Yes, the music was VERY loud, but the words were “just right” so it really could not have been turned down – whatcha gonna do? Lincoln Square is now a “we play all movies at 4.5” theatre. Such a shame.
SPIDERMAN 3 @ The Ziegfeld this summer was WAY too soft. Entire sentences of dialog were lost. I asked for more volume, and I got it (just a little-it STILL wasn’t loud enough, but better) for about 10 minutes and then it was turned back down. And no – it’s NOT my hearing, I hear very well ;–) In fact, I used to be the only person who was able to hear the infamous SDDS left channel dropout!
The UA EAST! I haven’t been there in years. It was awful last time I was there, but then it WAS a UA. Regal seems to do a better job. In fact, I find the most consistently fine presentations at the Regal Union Square, Regal E-Walk & Regal Battery Park. Aside from the Ziegfeld, those are pretty much the only theatres I attened. OH – and auditorium 7 at the Clearview Chelsea…
For HOWARD and BILL:
Was in the neighborhood and tried BLADE RUNNER again 10PM Sunday.
I got there just as the previous show broke – I asked some people about what they thought of the volume level. Surprisingly, a few said that they had trouble understanding some of the conversations and/or that it was “muffled” Oh oh…
Spoke with a manager beforehand – she assured me that the projectionist would raise the volume for me. And he did! What a difference it was! Good show.
There were, again, maybe 300 people there.
No use of the curtains though.
I’m sure MOST people thought it was loud enough. I’ve seen movies in full houses when the dialog is barely audible and no one will complain. Blade Runner was (for the 15 minutes that I saw of it) mostly audible, but you had to pay close attention. It just had no PUNCH. It was a PLEASANT volume. I’m sure you know what I mean. Had the house been completely empty, it would have been OK since the movie wouldn’t have to compete with people stirring about, munching popcorn, etc etc. Certainly nothing like the shows they ran of Dirty Dancing and Saturday Night Fever – those were PERFECT presentations.
I’m actually going to try again on Monday night.
4PM showing on Friday. Good sized audience… 300 or so. Treated to a blank screen for a minute or so as the digital projector fired up. The Ziegfeld’s digital picture is quite nice – clear and bright. Unfortunately, as is often the case here, it was NOT loud enough. The volume was clearly adjusted for the peak sound FX so as not to offend anybody’s ears.
This happened during their run of Hairspray as well. One of the very nice managers told me that they got so many complaints about Hairspray being too loud on opening day that they ran it between 5.0 and 5.5 for the duration of the run – which is the way I saw it there. Much of the dialog was unintelligible.
Today, rather than complain, I just requested a pass and left about 15 minutes into the movie when I realized that I did not want to see Blade Runner at a low volume. Ah well. So it goes.
S N F was also my first Dolby Stereo movie and it BLEW ME AWAY – at the old Loew’s Orpheum. It is the movie that has made me the movie theater snob that I am! ;–)
IRV: Actually, I was impressed with the use of the surround channels on S N F. Not just for the disco numbers but for the ambient sound as well. The surrounds were active throughout! One of the better surround tracks. And the Ziegfeld did it justice. You didn’t catch the chirping birds, overheard discussions and subways rumbling up the walls??
I lived in the neighborhood when this place opened as a ten-plex. It was actually very nice and had 4 large (500 seat) auditoriums and 6 small, single aisle auditoriums. It went to 12 by splitting two of the big houses and then to 14 by splitting the remaining two big houses. I happened by there recently and it is not pretty…
Anyone know how the Bay Plaza is these days? THAT was a GREAT thater when it had just 10 screens…
Kudos to the projectionist at the 10PM showing of S N F on Saturday. Not only was the picture and sound quality very good, he closed the curtains over the Paramount logo at the end!!!!! Not since Radio City when I was a kid…
DIRTY DANCING on Tuesday night had the best audio I’ve heard at The Ziegfeld in quite a long time.
I wonder why they don’t always show as much care with their first-run movies?
CASABLANCA on Friday night. Nice turnout. Whoever ran the show took extra care to frame the picture properly so I had high hopes…
Movie starts, nice and loud. Within minutes it is inaudible. I run out. Someone had complained that it was too loud. It MIGHT have been turned back up a notch but what ensued was 95 minutes of sound that ranged from completely inaudible dialogue to just understandable to loud music. No doubt it’s a bad print, but considering that whoever runs the show only has ONE show to run, they could have sat on the volume dial and adjusted it a little more. They do a better job of that at the Chelsea Classics every Thursday.
The picture however was quite good.
Hey Steve Marcus… I WISH it was an exaggeration – and if you recall, there were already a couple shootings here.
A friend of mine dragged me here again for DaVinci Code (she had a bunch of free passes from HER last disasterous trip here) – at the auditorium entrance we were frisked, scanned and my gym bag was thoroughly searched for video eqipment by a couple of goons. When we got into the auditorium, the stench of pot ALMOST overwhelmed the stench of vomit (or sewage or whatever it is.) It was a 10:40 PM showing – we walked into the auditorium at 10:40 maybe 10:41 and the movie was well underway. They had started EARLY. I asked one of the goons when and why the movie had started early: “Maybe ten minutes ago – it’s a long movie and we want to go home” was the reply. Would he do something about the people smoking? He would try to find security. Exactly. Consequently, people were still coming in at 11:00. Since we are usually innundated with 20 minutes of commercial and trailers, everyone knows that the movie never starts on time, much less EARLY!!!
The smoking and almost constant use of cellphones was of no concern to the goon who was standing right at the edge of the screen using some apparatus with a blinking red light to scope the audience. To be completely fair, the blinking light at the screen didn’t seem to concern anyone in the audience except me.
To end our most recent Empire experience: neither of the two toilet stalls in the mens room had a lock, one of them was stopped up. No paper towels, no water in one of the two sinks. No paper towels in the ladies room either. A bum was sleeping on the little bench by the restrooms. ALL the escalators were off on the way out.
The presentation (in theatre 6) was fine though.
I don’t have a beef with AMC. The Empire is the only AMC I have ever been to. However, it sure doesn’t make me wanna run out to find others just like it.
I never said the E-Walk was a paradise; merely that it is a more pleasant and reliable experience (in a good way) than the Empire. And quite honestly, since AMC has taken over the E-walk, there have been some improvents there (theatre 13 has had “ghosts” for years, it’s finally been fixed.)
I don’t think that my problems at the AMC have anything to do with the AMC corporation. I think it’s the people working at the thaetre level that are clueless and careless. They KNOW what kind of crowd they attract, and should staff their theatre accordingly. It is something the E-Walk has done since day one. Whenever they show slasher/horror/“urban” movies there, the place is overrun with security.
I’ll give Clearview a brownie point for trying, but the “renovations” are completely superficial. New seats, carpeting and candy stands… they slapped some paint on the walls and hung some drapes in the auditoriums (they did not even remove the old curtains – look up above the screen and u can see ‘em!) Same old screens and sound systems. Some improvement. Pffffffffffff
I saw Moonraker and Hair here when it was the single screen Pine Cinema. I recall that it was quite large with a big, curved screen. Not long after, it was the Pine Cinema Twin and I remember thinking how could such a big theater be twinned into two tiny little rooms??? What happened to all the space?? I can’t even imagine what this looks like as a six-plex…
Theater 13 at the Regal E-Walk has about 550 seats, NOT 350 as claimed above. The size of the screen is about 60' wide – exactly like theater 12 next door. Except that theater 12 will cost you “only” $13. Which is why you will NEVER see the current week’s big release showing on both IDENTICALLY SIZED screens. If you fo;;ow what I’m trying to say…
GILES:
Auditorium 13 is “converted."
They claim to have installed a new screen but it looks the same to me.
There ARE new seats and speakers and LOTS of neon at the entrance.
This has been my favorite theater since it opened in 1999. Is it worth $18.50? Absolutely not.
They are also being very shrewd. IRON MAN is being shown ONLY on one of their two big screens, so if you want to see it on the big screen, you HAVE to pay $18.50. Their other big screen (same size as the RPX) carries the regular admission price of $13 so of course they CAN’T book it into both big screens (although normally the current week’s big release is always on both big screens) because there is no REAL advantage to the RPX screen: give people no choice and they will pay you what you are asking for.
There was another theater in Jackson Hts (NOT the Corona Plaza) up until at least the late 80’s. Anybody know what it was called?
ALL the theaters in Times Square ALWAYS closed early on New Years Eve.
In my opinion, the E-Walk is once again the finest place in NYC to see a movie. (Sorry, Ziegfeld)
It’s well kept, offers some of the biggest screens in town, has THE BEST sound around, picture is almost always completely on the screen if not always in focus, the staff ranges from outright nice to at-least-not-openly-hostile. And really, these days – what more can you ask for?
I haven’t had anything to complain about here in over a year.
Good job, Regal.
For God’s sake – this is a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER! There is NO EXCUSE. NONE AT ALL. For sloppy presentation.
I saw NINE here on Christmas Eve – only because there was nowhere else to see it. Sure enough – it wasn’t really loud enough. NO EXCUSE. TURN THE VOLUME UP FOR THE FEATURE. SOMEONE is getting paid to run the digital projector – SIT ON THE FADER IF YOU’RE TOO LAZY TO PROGRAM THE COMPUTER. Lower the volume for the trailers if needed, but really – play the movie AT SHOW LEVEL. IT IS A SINGLE SCREEN THEATER.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
No one cares.
Oh! Also, at least one theater was THX certified.
I LOVED this theater. It had five 400+ seat, big screen auditoria. Even the small screens were nice.
Now, there are two big screens left and the original small theaters are the medium sized ones. The three tiny boxes created to make this a 13plex are worthless. Haven’t been there in years. Anyone know how it is holding up?
For the life of me, I cannot understand how this can happen in a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER: A few posts above, someone complained that the commercials and trailers heading Star Trek were EXCRUCIATINGLY loud. I saw Star Trek here (on the Monday of it’s 1st week) and neither the trailers nor THE FEATURE ITSELF were loud enough. It was hardly the first time this has happened here.
IN A SINGLE SCREEN THEATER! In a DIGITAL CINEMA single screen theater—where they can set separate sound cues for each trailer if they care to.
Over the past 23 years I’ve gone out of my way to see every piece of crap they throw up on the screen here. Like another recent poster, I will no longer bother. I can get crap presentations anywhere – no need to go to the Ziegfeld for that. In fact, the presentation at the E-Walk on 42nd St is superior (sound-wise). And their two large auditoriums have screens that are bigger than the Ziegfeld’s as well. The 4 big screens at Kips Bay also. Hell, the Union Square does a consistently finer job projecting their movies.
Just angry that they can’t even get it consistently right and perfect in a SINGLE SCREEN THEATER. Seriously, their projection staff has nothing else to do. If they’re too lazy to program their expensive state-of-the-art equipment, the least they could do is adjust the volume manually between the trailers and the feature. There really is NO EXCUSE.
Was always a twin. One side was decorated in blue, the other was red. They were the same size. Very much like the twin in Farmingville… College Twin??
It’s been destroyed. I can’t say that it’s not nice, and it’s probably a more… efficient design, but it is completely devoid of character. You could be standing in a mall theater in Iowa. HOWEVER, it is still one of the best places to see a movie. And STILL superior to the AMC across the street.
Hi AL and HOWARD.
A bit “off topic” but…
Funny you mention EVITA. I saw a screening of that at the old GOTHAM CINEMA and later paid to see it again at the LOEWS auditorium at Lincoln Square. Both times, were phenomenal experiences. Yes, the music was VERY loud, but the words were “just right” so it really could not have been turned down – whatcha gonna do? Lincoln Square is now a “we play all movies at 4.5” theatre. Such a shame.
SPIDERMAN 3 @ The Ziegfeld this summer was WAY too soft. Entire sentences of dialog were lost. I asked for more volume, and I got it (just a little-it STILL wasn’t loud enough, but better) for about 10 minutes and then it was turned back down. And no – it’s NOT my hearing, I hear very well ;–) In fact, I used to be the only person who was able to hear the infamous SDDS left channel dropout!
The UA EAST! I haven’t been there in years. It was awful last time I was there, but then it WAS a UA. Regal seems to do a better job. In fact, I find the most consistently fine presentations at the Regal Union Square, Regal E-Walk & Regal Battery Park. Aside from the Ziegfeld, those are pretty much the only theatres I attened. OH – and auditorium 7 at the Clearview Chelsea…
For HOWARD and BILL:
Was in the neighborhood and tried BLADE RUNNER again 10PM Sunday.
I got there just as the previous show broke – I asked some people about what they thought of the volume level. Surprisingly, a few said that they had trouble understanding some of the conversations and/or that it was “muffled” Oh oh…
Spoke with a manager beforehand – she assured me that the projectionist would raise the volume for me. And he did! What a difference it was! Good show.
There were, again, maybe 300 people there.
No use of the curtains though.
Hey HOWARD.
I’m sure MOST people thought it was loud enough. I’ve seen movies in full houses when the dialog is barely audible and no one will complain. Blade Runner was (for the 15 minutes that I saw of it) mostly audible, but you had to pay close attention. It just had no PUNCH. It was a PLEASANT volume. I’m sure you know what I mean. Had the house been completely empty, it would have been OK since the movie wouldn’t have to compete with people stirring about, munching popcorn, etc etc. Certainly nothing like the shows they ran of Dirty Dancing and Saturday Night Fever – those were PERFECT presentations.
I’m actually going to try again on Monday night.
4PM showing on Friday. Good sized audience… 300 or so. Treated to a blank screen for a minute or so as the digital projector fired up. The Ziegfeld’s digital picture is quite nice – clear and bright. Unfortunately, as is often the case here, it was NOT loud enough. The volume was clearly adjusted for the peak sound FX so as not to offend anybody’s ears.
This happened during their run of Hairspray as well. One of the very nice managers told me that they got so many complaints about Hairspray being too loud on opening day that they ran it between 5.0 and 5.5 for the duration of the run – which is the way I saw it there. Much of the dialog was unintelligible.
Today, rather than complain, I just requested a pass and left about 15 minutes into the movie when I realized that I did not want to see Blade Runner at a low volume. Ah well. So it goes.
S N F was also my first Dolby Stereo movie and it BLEW ME AWAY – at the old Loew’s Orpheum. It is the movie that has made me the movie theater snob that I am! ;–)
IRV: Actually, I was impressed with the use of the surround channels on S N F. Not just for the disco numbers but for the ambient sound as well. The surrounds were active throughout! One of the better surround tracks. And the Ziegfeld did it justice. You didn’t catch the chirping birds, overheard discussions and subways rumbling up the walls??
I lived in the neighborhood when this place opened as a ten-plex. It was actually very nice and had 4 large (500 seat) auditoriums and 6 small, single aisle auditoriums. It went to 12 by splitting two of the big houses and then to 14 by splitting the remaining two big houses. I happened by there recently and it is not pretty…
Anyone know how the Bay Plaza is these days? THAT was a GREAT thater when it had just 10 screens…
Kudos to the projectionist at the 10PM showing of S N F on Saturday. Not only was the picture and sound quality very good, he closed the curtains over the Paramount logo at the end!!!!! Not since Radio City when I was a kid…
DIRTY DANCING on Tuesday night had the best audio I’ve heard at The Ziegfeld in quite a long time.
I wonder why they don’t always show as much care with their first-run movies?
DAVID: DVDs. It ain’t pretty.
ED: The picture isn’t bad at all – a couple reels are a little scratched. The soundtrack is unforgivable though…
CASABLANCA on Friday night. Nice turnout. Whoever ran the show took extra care to frame the picture properly so I had high hopes…
Movie starts, nice and loud. Within minutes it is inaudible. I run out. Someone had complained that it was too loud. It MIGHT have been turned back up a notch but what ensued was 95 minutes of sound that ranged from completely inaudible dialogue to just understandable to loud music. No doubt it’s a bad print, but considering that whoever runs the show only has ONE show to run, they could have sat on the volume dial and adjusted it a little more. They do a better job of that at the Chelsea Classics every Thursday.
The picture however was quite good.
Hey Steve Marcus… I WISH it was an exaggeration – and if you recall, there were already a couple shootings here.
A friend of mine dragged me here again for DaVinci Code (she had a bunch of free passes from HER last disasterous trip here) – at the auditorium entrance we were frisked, scanned and my gym bag was thoroughly searched for video eqipment by a couple of goons. When we got into the auditorium, the stench of pot ALMOST overwhelmed the stench of vomit (or sewage or whatever it is.) It was a 10:40 PM showing – we walked into the auditorium at 10:40 maybe 10:41 and the movie was well underway. They had started EARLY. I asked one of the goons when and why the movie had started early: “Maybe ten minutes ago – it’s a long movie and we want to go home” was the reply. Would he do something about the people smoking? He would try to find security. Exactly. Consequently, people were still coming in at 11:00. Since we are usually innundated with 20 minutes of commercial and trailers, everyone knows that the movie never starts on time, much less EARLY!!!
The smoking and almost constant use of cellphones was of no concern to the goon who was standing right at the edge of the screen using some apparatus with a blinking red light to scope the audience. To be completely fair, the blinking light at the screen didn’t seem to concern anyone in the audience except me.
To end our most recent Empire experience: neither of the two toilet stalls in the mens room had a lock, one of them was stopped up. No paper towels, no water in one of the two sinks. No paper towels in the ladies room either. A bum was sleeping on the little bench by the restrooms. ALL the escalators were off on the way out.
The presentation (in theatre 6) was fine though.
I don’t have a beef with AMC. The Empire is the only AMC I have ever been to. However, it sure doesn’t make me wanna run out to find others just like it.
I never said the E-Walk was a paradise; merely that it is a more pleasant and reliable experience (in a good way) than the Empire. And quite honestly, since AMC has taken over the E-walk, there have been some improvents there (theatre 13 has had “ghosts” for years, it’s finally been fixed.)
I don’t think that my problems at the AMC have anything to do with the AMC corporation. I think it’s the people working at the thaetre level that are clueless and careless. They KNOW what kind of crowd they attract, and should staff their theatre accordingly. It is something the E-Walk has done since day one. Whenever they show slasher/horror/“urban” movies there, the place is overrun with security.
I’ll give Clearview a brownie point for trying, but the “renovations” are completely superficial. New seats, carpeting and candy stands… they slapped some paint on the walls and hung some drapes in the auditoriums (they did not even remove the old curtains – look up above the screen and u can see ‘em!) Same old screens and sound systems. Some improvement. Pffffffffffff
I saw Moonraker and Hair here when it was the single screen Pine Cinema. I recall that it was quite large with a big, curved screen. Not long after, it was the Pine Cinema Twin and I remember thinking how could such a big theater be twinned into two tiny little rooms??? What happened to all the space?? I can’t even imagine what this looks like as a six-plex…