All Manhattan AMC Theatres Will Offer Reserved Seating
Sept. 1, 2016, 3:05 p.m.
As for reclining seating, Kips Bay will join the 84th Street and 3rd Avenue in the cushy seat company.
The AMC at 84th Street and Broadway
Thanks to all the excellent TV programs, and a world of other entertainment you can enjoy via various screens in the comfort of your own home, people are venturing to movies less often. Which is why some theater chains are rolling out flashy bells and whistles—reclining seats for everyone, please!—to entice customers to shell out big bucks for some Grade A, Hollywood-certified crap. Now, AMC Theaters have just announced that all of its Manhattan locations will offer reserved seating.
According to a press release, customer feedback about the reserved seating at some locations—like 84th Street & Broadway and 3rd Avenue & 11th Street, which both also have reclining seats—has been so "overwhelmingly positive" that they're bringing reserved seats to Manhattan: "This marks the first major market where AMC offers reserved seating at all locations."
"As we look at markets where we can begin to make reserved seating prevalent, there's no better place to start than Manhattan, where a trip to the movies often means a subway or cab ride," John McDonald, executive vice president, U.S. Operations, AMC, said in a statement. "Reserved seating lets moviegoers pick the exact seat they want when they make their movie-going plans and provides our guests with the confidence that their specific seat will be waiting for them when they arrive at the theater."
Cushy seats at the 84th Street and Broadway AMC Theatre (Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
AMC's locations in Manhattan are: AMC 84th St. 6 (Upper West Side); AMC Village 7 (East Village); AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13; AMC Empire 25 (Times Square); AMC Loews 34th Street 14 (by Penn Station); AMC Loews 19th St. East 6 (Flatiron); AMC Loews Orpheum 7 (Upper East Side); and AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9.
The AMC Kips Bay 15 is undergoing renovations to upgrade to all reclining seats theaters, and will offer reserved seating when it reopens in the fall. AMC has no further plans to upgrade other entire Manhattan theaters to reclining seats (one of the AMC Empire 25's theaters has reclining seats). Renovating for reclining seats tends to decrease the theater's capacity by 50-70%, but as a movie theater industry trade expert said, "You cut back seating capacity and you see an increase in ticket sales. It's more comfortable, more attractive, with a fresher feel. People are more interested in going."
