West Warren becomes latest movie theater to go to assigned seating. It’s a new trend.
It’s a polarizing question among moviegoers.
Is it better to have reserved seating at the movie theater or a traditional free-for-all for the primo seats?
The theater industry seems to think the former, as more theaters nationwide are moving to a reserved-seating model — including, most recently, Regal’s Warren West ScreenX & IMAX theater.
The requirement to reserve seats is not universal at Wichita’s Regal-owned Warren Theaters, however; the Warren Old Town and the Warren East don’t currently have reserved seating (save for premium auditoriums like those in the Warren 21).
Ashley Slimp, public relations coordinator for Regal Cinemas, said the theater chain has been transitioning more of its theaters to reserved seating, after initially limiting the feature to theaters with recliner seats and in premium-format auditoriums.
The timing of the reserved-seating rollout at the West Warren coincided with the recent upgrade of one of its auditoriums to Regal’s premium ScreenX technology.
“Regal continues to roll out the reserved seating feature at select theatres, focusing on high-traffic locations where reserved seating provides the greatest benefit to consumers,” Slimp wrote in an email.
Wichita’s AMC Northrock 14 has had all-reserved seating since it opened last year.
Ryan Noonan, AMC’s director of corporate communications, told the Eagle reserved seating “just makes sense from a logistical standpoint.”
“I can’t think of too many entertainment options — concerts or sporting events — where you get a ticket but you don’t get a seat,” Noonan said. “It’s just the way entertainment is going, and AMC is proud to be a part of it.”
What do you mean by ‘reserved seating’?
The concept of reserved seating in the movie theater is closely tied to the rise of online ticketing.
Filmgoers are increasingly buying movie tickets online, eschewing the need to wait in line at the theater’s box office.
For theaters that have reserved seating, ticket-buyers select which theater seats they will occupy as they’re paying for their tickets — much like you would at a Music Theatre Wichita show.
Previously to get the best seats people would show up early and stake their claim, sometimes draping coats and other personal belongings over neighboring seats to “save” them for friends.
Proponents of reserved seating say it eliminates the stress of finding seats in a crowded theater, cuts the amount of time you have to spend at the box office and rewards people who plan their theater trip in advance.
“Reserved seating makes the theatre going experience 100 times more convenient, efficient and pleasant.,” Wichitan Dustin Parker said on Facebook in response to questions posed by The Eagle. “Now I can purchase my tickets on a mobile app, I pick my seat(s), I don’t have to play musical chairs with other people, I don’t have to ask anyone, ‘Is this seat taken?’ or ‘Can you please move down a few seats to make room for my friends?’
“I don’t have to stand in line, I don’t have to arrive early, I can arrive late and still get the seat I want.”
Julie Collins, who is handicapped and has a service dog, wrote that it “guarantees I’ll have a good place to watch the movies.”
“Takes so much stress out of the ‘getting there’ process,” she added.
But reserved seating isn’t without detractors.
Those who have reservations about reserved seating say it eliminates the casual nature of going to a movie — “Gone seemingly are the days of just getting in the mood to see a film that evening and getting a good seat,” wrote Mike Levand on Facebook.
They also say it makes it tough to meet up and sit with friends for movies where everyone is paying individually, that people don’t always sit in the actual seats they’ve reserved, and that booking online incurs a few dollars’ “convenience fee.”
“Not everyone buys tickets in advance, so if you show up to (the) theater and can’t get seats together because of assigned seating it’s frustrating,” wrote Rachel Ashley on Facebook. “I want to pick when I get into the theater.”
The moviegoing experience
Noonan, the AMC spokesman, said the theater chain is in the process of transitioning all of its theaters nationwide to a reserved-seating model.
“It’s an amenity that more and more guests ... are looking for,” he said. “It’s a trend AMC is embracing and the guests are embracing — and it’s certainly something the rest of the industry has taken notice of.”
Slimp, the Regal representative, said one of the major benefits of reserved seating is “the convenience factor.”
“Guests can purchase tickets in advance, then arrive at their convenience, knowing their selected seats will be waiting,” she said.
Other theater chains have started embracing reserved seating — including Cinemark and niche chains like Alamo Drafthouse.
Noonan said AMC has been shifting its theaters to reserved seating whenever it renovates a theater and puts in its Signature Recliners — which are in every auditorium at the AMC Northrock 14.
“In a lot of cases, when we do these renovations our seating capacity drops by as much as 50 percent,” he said. “We run into a situation when there are fewer seats in the building but there are more people coming to fill those seats more often.
“It became evident that reserved seating was necessary when we do these renovations.”
ArcLight Cinemas, a Los Angeles-based theater chain, has offered reserved seating since it was founded in 2002.
Its executive vice president of cinema programming and communications told The Chicago Tribune a couple years ago that reserved seating helps lure people away from their Netflix screens and other home entertainment.
“You can pretty much do anything on your own time now — you watch your television shows when you want to, the way you want to,” she told the newspaper. “As the world becomes more convenient, it really works to give people their time back and make their time their own, and having a reserved seat is a big piece of that.”
