Photo: ~C4Chaos, Flickr
Customers sit in gigantic recliners with small tables and each has its own dedicated server on hand to bring $49 bottles of sparkling wine, $14 platters of fried calamari with ginger and lemon or a $19 New York strip-steak sandwich, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Pasadena, Calif., theater is the fourth in the U.S. for Aussie cinema chain Village Roadshow, which has two Gold Class theaters in suburban Chicago and one in Redmond, Wash., home of Microsoft.
"We've never experienced anything like this," theater customer Tina Galloway told the paper.
"Our secret agenda in America is: Not only are we going to make money, we'll make a lot of money. . . . This will shake up those exhibitors, and there are a lot of them, that have poor offerings," Graham Burke, chief executive of Village Roadshow told the Times. "You go into some of these places and there's gum on the floors. Gold Class is the opposite. [Customers] get treated like royalty, like a king."
The company plans to open up to 30 new Gold Class Cinemas around the U.S. in the next five years, the Times reported.
Each theater has between 24 and 40 seats and other menu items and shows standard Hollywood fare with "Up in the Air," "Avatar" and "Invictus" on the schedule.
The menu, provided in a full-service kitchen that is operated by Chicago-based Levy Restaurants, includes lemon grilled chicken satays, portabello sliders and duck tacos. The cocktail of the month for December is the Ginger Collins.
[Via Los Angeles Times]
Have you ever been to a Gold Class Cinema? Let us know in the comments below.
12-24-2009 @6:49AM ken said... WHY NOT ? YOU WILL PROBALY EVEN HEAR THE SOUND TRACK INSTEAD OF SCREAMING
YOYO`S.YOU PAY $7.00 FOR A BOX OF POPCORN HAVE A 20.00 SANDWICH AND ENJOY! ! !
Reply
12-24-2009 @7:48AM scharabo said... What is new about this concept? Dinner theaters have been around for a quite long time. Perhaps the concept is a tad different with gourmet food (for $19 many households could put several days meals on the table) and really nice seats. Comes down to a movie is a movie. Rent a DVD and you can watch it in the comfort of your own home for a couple of bucks for the entire family.
I doubt you could get out of there for less than $60 a person.
Reply
12-24-2009 @7:59AM falling said... I wish there was one of these near me! I know my husband and I would go several times a year if not once a month...his two favorite pastimes are going to the movies in a theater and good food and I love not having to cook. A date night we could both really enjoy! Right now the economy is slow, but I bet once things pick up these theaters are a huge hit! Actually, even as slow as the economy is now our theater is filled every single night so they may even do well now if they chose their locations wisely.
Reply
12-24-2009 @8:16AM Beth said... I don't WANT to eat gourmet food at the movies, or listen to others doing the same....I want to watch the movie! I want to do it in a QUIET theatre, WITHOUT kids, and WITHOUT listening to some fool shake their damned trough of popcorn nearby. For heaven's sake, aren't Americans fat enough? Now you want to give people a place to eat like pigs in the dark without guilt? This is insane. Give me a kids-free theatre and I'll pay (one with headsets would be HEAVEN), but I won't pay for anything else.
Reply
12-24-2009 @8:33AM hawk said... THEN DON'T GO!
12-24-2009 @11:10AM Cinema Dude said... Not to mention -- DECENT movies. If I want gourmet food, I;ll rearch out a resturant to my liking; if I want to see a movie, I'll search out a theatre with decent sound and image (i.e, good presentation) with reasonablely patrolled rooms so I don't have to be the one telling goons to please stop talking on the cells or to each other. I can go to the eat first THEN go to the theatre. Where is it wrtten that we have to stuff our faces in order to enjoy a movie?
Seems some smart exhibitor could get ahead of this curve by offering, not waiters for the patrons, but strap-on feed bags so each patron can eat nonstop for the entire 2 & half hours.
12-24-2009 @1:46PM John said... This is a little to much, but to those that say they don't want to hear some one eating popcorn, popcorn candy and hotdogs go hand in hand with the movies, my suggestion to you would be to keep your sour ass at home.
12-24-2009 @9:46AM HUGO said... ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS... THEY'LL GO "BELLY-UP", WITHIN SIX MONTHS.
Reply
12-24-2009 @11:11AM rick said... we go to a drive in movie all the time....we are fortunate enough to have one of the very few left......it will be a cold day in hell when i pay $29 just for a movie ticket......the hollywood homosexual producers havent made a movie woth 25 cents in 20 years...i go to a drive in and take my own food and dont pay some crazy price the theaters charge you and rip you off
Reply
12-24-2009 @1:02PM cyn said... where are there still drive ins. i live on Long Island and we haven't had one in about a decade.
12-24-2009 @11:12AM Scott Kochman said... The Gilson Theater in Winsted CT does this all at regular prices.
Reply
12-24-2009 @1:03PM cynthia said... don't u think if one can afford to go to one of these theatres they could afford to have a home theatre. waste of money and time. and at home u can pause the show to go to the bathroom.....lol
Reply
1-02-2010 @9:53PM Fred Ryno said... Hey, great....Obama finally has his audience. They will be passing out a Pulitzer Prize with every admission then will be watching Al Gore's movie as the cartoon.
Reply
12-24-2009 @12:56PM George said... I won't pay $5.00 to see a movie now, why in the world would I pay more money or buy overpriced wine?
Reply
12-24-2009 @1:49PM JEREMY said... This,my friends, is the reason why we are blessed to have HOME THEATER. WE CAN PLAY WHATEVER MOVIES WE WANT,EAT WHATEVER WE WANT,STOP THE MOVIE FOR BATHROOM BREAKS,AND TALK ON THE PHONE WHILE WATCHING THE MOVIE. HOME THEATER BEATS GOURMET SETTINGS SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY!!!! ALL OF YOU READING THIS POST, BEAR THIS TO MIND. ALL IN FAVOR,PLEASE RESPOND..........NOW!!!
Reply
12-24-2009 @2:03PM Karen said... I guess people will never cease creating clever ways to part other people from their money. I went to see Avatar the other day and I think the tickets were around $14, but I thought the movie was well worth it! So, for double that price I can sit in a recliner like the one I have at home, and drink $49 wine, instead of the $9 bottle I have at home, have a $25 steak dinner or whatever, which would serve 4-5 people at home, ,,,,WHY??? would you spend that kind of money?? For status?? I just don't know,,,,
12-24-2009 @2:50PM RobTheBlogger said... While i like the concept, they're too late in the cinema world since it's slowly dying out. I haven't gone to the theaters in years. Why should i when i can just buy the movie and watch it on my home theater? Theaters are better than watching at home but with the crying babies, smelly crowds, and expensive tickets, it makes going less appealing.
Reply