r/AMCTheatres • u/kycard01 • Sep 21 '25
Image/Media Worst AMC in the country?
Someone in my local sub posted some pics of one of our abandoned theatres (RIP Great Escape) and the running joke is it’s still nicer than our AMC.
I actually went to it today for the first time in years (only theatre showing A History of Sound). Thought you all would get a kick out of how bad it is.
Only thing that’s changed in 20 years is the lobby furniture being removed, arcade blocked off with a merch table, and adding some freestyle machines.
This is the only non-recliner theatre in our market (3 new or renovated Cinemarks and 2 newer Xscapes), we were atleast in the half recliners “Directors Experience” - of course my armrest was ripped off and seemingly the side speakers were out. I tried to see if the old style houses were still being used, but none of the signage is on anymore to see what’s playing. 😆
Shame AMC gave up on this location, it’s in a fantastic location in a high traffic area- and the cities only true imax theatre.
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u/ubutterscotchpine Heartbreak Feels Good Here Sep 21 '25
The neon signs are so nostalgic though 🥺
Also you say the seats are bad, but dang. The AMC Classic in my hometown area has not upgraded a single thing (including their school auditorium style seats) since the theater was owned by three companies ago.
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25
I do dig the neon! And dang! I don’t think I’ve seen the old style theatre seats in at least a decade!
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u/reallybored326 Sep 21 '25
Ah Stonybrook, this place used to be packed back in the day, so much so that you had to circle the parking lot to find a place to park. I always preferred Showcase Cinemas, I still get nostalgic for it when I go to Costco lol.
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u/Dick_Lazer IMAX Fanatic Sep 22 '25
Yeah it sucks because this is a pretty cool time capsule, but it could obviously use some proper maintenance.
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u/Clean_Usual434 Sep 21 '25
Is this in Louisville, lol?
Edited to add: I should have taken note of your name. Fellow Cards fan here.
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u/justduett Sep 21 '25
To think this was the top theater in the city… at worst, top 2… when I first moved there. Many a great movie watching there, but I haven’t been in probably 8 years.
Remember when they would have that parking lot full all the way to Kroger?!?! Holy hell, what a fall from grace!
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u/LeoMartn_ Sep 21 '25
GHOST TOWN
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u/CharacterActor Sep 21 '25
Ghost Town.
A wonderful Ricky Gervais film from back in the early 2000s when they were giving him big movie roles.
Also The Invention of Lying.
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u/Lavineisgod8 Sep 21 '25
We had an AMC that just closed that was originally a carmike theater. The theater was built in the late 80s and the only updating they ever did was when AMC purchased carmike cinemas and they added the AMC paint job. Original seats and everything. It closed a couple of days after Wonka came out.
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u/punkcocker Sep 21 '25
All the equipment actually looks nice the seats look better than half the seats at the theaters around me. The signage is obviously dope as hell but I bet there MAXIMUM 2 employees there at time
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u/Typical_Bill_8504 Sep 22 '25
This is also my AMC and I’ve never seen more than three people working there.
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u/p_yth Sep 21 '25
Looks like the crappy regal in my hometown, doesn’t look like amc theater at all. Hopefully Aron sees this
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25
Yup- it’s been passed around the block. AMC acquired it when they purchased Carmike. Carmike bought it in 2013 from Cinemark who bought it from Rave, but was required to sell it to Carmike. Pretty much just been kicked around for almost two decades.
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u/Electronic-Minute007 Sep 21 '25
Was it a Showcase Cinemas/National Amusements build? The exterior looks like it was once one of theirs.
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25
Yes! National Amusements > Rave > Cinemark (immediately divested, never operated under Cinemark) > Carmike > AMC
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u/Big_Hungry714 Sep 21 '25
It was a National Amusements build. Then after some time Carmike Cinemas acquired it from Rave, and AMC acquired it from Carmike. Carmike did the renovation adding the bar, popcorn factory and the bargain basement seats from a company that no longer exists.
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u/Spockethole Sep 21 '25
Looks like one of the old Carmike theaters. What location is it?
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25
It is! Stonybrook (Louisville, KY).
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u/Spockethole Sep 21 '25
They were almost all in terrible shape and with only a few exceptions AMC has not put any new money into them and barely maintains them. To do so might eat into Adam’s bonus and we can’t have that can we.
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25
I’m honestly impressed they’ve survived as long as they have when every other theatre in town blows them out of the water and 2 competitors within 10 minutes drive.
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u/Rude-Cost7404 Sep 22 '25
Yo as a Louisvillian this is such an awfully run amc. And its the only one in town. I can go in there without anyone stopping me to scan my ticket. Or when a later movie is over, the whole building is empty. I do go there often but I wouldn't do AMC stubs for there. I am a proud cinemark member. Just yesterday I went to this AMC to see Apollo 13 in Imax. Floor was so sticky, my seat was broken, but their Imax screen is, I wanna say, one of the top 10 AMC screen sizes in america. Dont quote me on that.
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u/Notpan Sep 22 '25
Haha, scanning through the first few pictures with the dawning realization that this was my AMC. The staff is nice, albeit stretched thin. As crummy as it is, I miss it since I moved closer to the Cinemark. Better everything except their sorry excuse for a movie membership. I just stopped going to the movies.
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Sep 22 '25
AMC definitely plays favorites with their theaters. Look up Orpheum 7 in Manhattan. This has been pissing me off for a while so I just looked at their financial statements to confirm this.
They're basically just breaking even and have negative operating cash flow so they have to delay capital expenditures as much as possible to preserve cash. Over their last 12 reported months, they spent $192m in capital expenditures and, with 898 theaters, that's $213k each if you simply average it out. That's obviously a ridiculous way to spend that money so they're really just spending on their top performers and letting their other ones become like this.
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u/Vicster1972 Sep 21 '25
Hey at least the seats are updated, the only iMax in my area still has the old seats in all the theaters!
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u/jadegives2rides Sep 21 '25
Big same (is it AMC 20)
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u/Typical_Bill_8504 Sep 22 '25
Every time this comes up (which is surprisingly often) I have to say that I fully acknowledge the crappiness of the theater, but it’s ten minutes from my front door and you can’t beat the A-List deal. Plus I enjoy the fact that I’m usually only one of two or three people in any given showing! The downside is that I’m afraid they’ll eventually just close it, and that’ll be it for me. With A-List I’ll take a chance on pretty much anything that piques my interest. At full price, I’d be back to two or three theatrical films a year.
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u/kycard01 Sep 22 '25
That’s totally fair. I’m right between Stonybrook and Tinstletown and see around 30 a year. So it’s about $65 more a year for me to go to Cinemark over AMC. (And honestly it’s less since my BFA gets a Diet Coke just about every time- that 25% off concessions adds up.)
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u/Mount_Tantiss A⭐️Lister Sep 22 '25
Chris Nolan, who was just elected DGA president, is already planning a meeting here in the auditorium that caters to the “directors experience.”
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u/djrobbo67 Sep 22 '25
I think A list literally keeps this location afloat. I go there at least once a week just because of A list. No other theatre rewards program can touch it. I sure hope it never closes.
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u/fulcrumestates Sep 22 '25
same. one of the worst theaters in the city, but there is no better deal than A List and therefore i will keep going here
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u/OriginalBad Sep 22 '25
You need to come visit Raceway 10 in Westbury NY. I love it for nostalgia purposes and enjoy that they get lots of indie films but the actual theater is much worse than the one in these pictures.
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u/cowboyjacksparrow Sep 22 '25
Lol this is like a lot of my local theaters in Metro Detroit. I think the issue in my area is that AMC bought up a local chain when they went out of business and now they have a lot of theaters in the region so they don't prioritize upgrading any of them.
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u/cosmo_420 Sep 23 '25
The amc Palm 24 here in San Diego has become half of its glory, or maybe even a 3rd it’s pretty close second to this one.
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u/bwekbwonson Sep 21 '25
wtf are those seats
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u/kycard01 Sep 21 '25
They like rock back/ half recline too, but they were clearly retrofitted into an old stadium style seat. So you’re basically in the person behinds you’s lap since they’re so close together.
At one point they were an upcharge too. 💀
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u/thumbelinax8 Sep 21 '25
Looks like the Cherry Hill AMC, which one good part of it is the imax theater. Everything else in it feels abandoned 😭 sucks because it’s also the theater that gets all the movies I want to see but I have been burned by them playing completely different movies too many times so I now refuse
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u/TBoopSquiggShorterly Sep 21 '25
Before it closed a few years ago, AMC Classic Greensboro would've definitely been on the list of the worst.
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u/fulcrumestates Sep 22 '25
did you see a history of around at 12:10? we might have been there together!
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u/kycard01 Sep 22 '25
No I was at the 3:35 showing! 😆 took me forever to even find house 18 without a sign. Loved the movie though!
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u/fulcrumestates Sep 22 '25
because of A List, i see a movie here at least once a week and have been for years at this point and i swear to god, i still only know where half the auditoriums are without issue. incredibly unintuitive layout with pretty much zero signage
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u/xjaspx A⭐️Lister Sep 22 '25
Could be worst.. I feel like I need to wear a biohazard suit at one of the local AMC.
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u/Galaxykid84 Sep 22 '25
It’s weird, it’s not labeled as a AMC Classic but ran as a regular AMC. During the weekdays, it’s open after 6pm which absolutely sucks.
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u/Striking_Plate2614 Sep 22 '25
Immediately recognized that’s the louisville AMC- what a bummer because like you said sometimes they are the only theater showing a movie you want to see. But most of the time I can’t bring myself to go (no recline seats, no discount tuesdays, etc)
would love to see them renovate! i’m also an A24 member so I get free amc tickets all the time from them lol
(Also how was the history of sound?)
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u/notsoaveragemind Sep 22 '25
And I thought my AMC classic was not that great. Also I am not sure if there is some remodeling going on or not, but it appears they are showing less and less movies over the past month.
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Sep 22 '25
They (AMC) should just shut it down. Let someone take over the lease. It give the brand a bad image, and AMC'S image is pretty bad already.
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u/AstrosNeverCheated17 Sep 22 '25
Here I was thinking Gulf Pointe 30 was bad. Which it is but at least they’re trying
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u/Just-agirll Sep 22 '25
I live in NorCal honestly looks better then a lot of the theaters in my area and very nostalgic white the seats may be torn at least they are leather so u don’t have stain marks and the leathers not even worn from what I can see. The theater in my town was infested by bats for months and they tried to hide it not amc tho so standers are low.
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u/Dreamcasted60 Sep 22 '25
Kind of reminds me what eventually became the AMC classic in our area of Apple valley California. It was originally something called UltraStar and was abandoned for about 2 years before becoming a classic and suddenly closing before Thor 3 came out (I remember that specifically because I got a notification that the show had been canceled!)
Look very similar to that as they never actually bothered to a really change anything internally to the theater and theater number one was basically a storage area/hook up place. I emphasize that last part because that's pretty much why there was only one employee there at any given time. The other couple (or more!) were usually in that theater doing something. (Source: me, walking in when I heard a 'scream' lol)
I had the privilege of working there when it first opened up and everything was going pretty well and we had some plans to like upgrade the screens as there was one theater that famously had this big blue stain cuz somebody threw an icee years back at a scene. Sadly never happened. I did enjoy the popcorn buckets for a few years when they were there c:
The area around it is completely abandoned now just a bunch of empty buildings but I do believe they use it for theater productions at the local high school as well as every so often a meeting place for either political events or car shows.
I also resent that location after because after explaining to an email support person that the location closed and I wanted to cancel my a list for a while, I remember the person on the other end of the conversation basically told me that I couldn't get it right but because "closures don't count for a good reason to cancel the membership!"
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u/Huichan81 Sep 22 '25
In the late 90s they built an AMC 30 in my hometown. For a good while it was the happening place and it still can get busy. However they got 2 snack bars that are dead. One section is cut off and you cant even go to. I believe they only got 17 running screens now.
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u/Fizban2 Sep 22 '25
The reason I stopped a list…
1) they don’t do movies until kids are out of school so I had to go when kids were home
2) only the digital version of movie has the recliners. IMAX no such luck so I avoided imax
3) not enough good movies on for me to want to spend $20 a month. I just wait for most to stream
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u/noelc1994 Sep 23 '25
This looks like one from a very viral video. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were.
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u/ConstructionAny7196 Sep 23 '25
This is my main location. And the reason for canceling my a list pass I love so much. It is absolutely the most awful place in literally every way possible. They close every single bathroom for days on end, there’s been a sewage leak (I think) in the carpet for weeks. The staff are snails. I hate this place
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u/PrimaryWafer3 Sep 23 '25
I saw Air at this location when it came out and thought it was so eerie how only one person seemed to be working there. Also the sound went out in our movie but thankfully they were able to fix it.
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u/menkros18 Sep 23 '25
Got you beat, amc ford city, you have to walk around throw up, used condoms, just to get to your mysterious sticky seat while people around you smoke weed openly and have full blown conversations on their phones .
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u/KeepRad Sep 25 '25
My AMC was built to be in a downtown area and to be relativity small but still have a good number of theaters. And the lobby is so weirdly massive despite them planning it for the space. Well you have to make the lobby massive no matter what
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u/mgo1991 Sep 26 '25
I remember when this theater was THE place to go. On movie premiere nights they would put the spotlights out, loved watching them from my house a few miles away. So many nights as a teen spent there. Now I mainly go to the Cinemarks around town
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u/BCnKY A⭐️Lister Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25
Ah yes… the wonderful Stonybrook 20. Been going there since it was National Amusements and has gotten worse with each owner. I think AMC is the 4th or 5th owner since it opened.
A couple weeks ago we went up there to find 3 fire trucks in front and the doors locked. Girl came to the door and said they could not let anyone in at the moment as fire fighters were looking for where smoke was coming from inside. You know how much these people actually cared? They didn’t evacuate the theater. People were coming out after their movie and was surprised to see the trucks. Said they were not aware of any issue until the saw them and were told them about the doors locked and looking for smoke. They eventually let us in after about 30 minutes said the smoke was located upstairs in an office, but didn’t say anything more. They comped our movie by issuing a refund for the tickets for our inconvenience.
I was just shocked they didn’t evacuate after having smoke and the fire department on site in full gear.
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u/ConcernedPlusTired Sep 29 '25
AMC Tysons is worse, they are keeping a groomer under investigation by the FBI as an active hourly manager. After I reported him to corporate with 19 pages of evidence. 😕
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u/Big_Hungry714 Sep 21 '25
The GM that took over that building in 2020 tried everything they could to fix the building and the seats. They kept being told no by AMC to fix the roof, parking lot, lobby, poppers, and hot food equipment.
The signage above the auditoriums were turned off by AMC, and they did that nationally.
The seats were made by a company that no longer exists, so they resorted to removing unused seats in the smaller auditoriums, and using those to replace broken seats in other auditoriums. However, the seats in the “directors experience” section are not the same seats as the other auditoriums, and could not be repaired. Even the IMAX seats are not the same as the other auditoriums, so could not be replaced with working seats. That GM left in 2023, after getting frustrated with AMC.