8 replies to this topic

[kirite]

We had lunch here today. This is a cool place. My Asian chicken breast sandwich was much better than popcorn, and my spouse's blueberry muffin was even better than buttered popcorn. After lunch we saw the new German film "Barbara" followed by a Q&A with the US distributor.

This place bills itself as a "film center" and it is very different from a multiplex. Culture comes to Merrifield!

[lion]

We finally ate some dinner at the Angelika before seeing a film last night.  I had the chicken breast sandwich which was pretty damn good and my wife had the ham sandwich which she liked equally. We were impressed with the sandwiches and deviled egg appetizer. 

 

it's really enjoyable how the entire film center runs there. 

[DrXmus]

Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much.

[darkstar965]

Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much.

 
Maybe not material but Angelika isn't so much a "behemoth" as it is the result of some interesting history.  Angelika's current owner is an Austrailan company called Reading International (RDI on AMEX) which has ties back to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1800s.  Globally, Reading International is about a $250mm business with theaters in Oz, NZ and here.  They acquired the original Angelika Cinema (NYC) in the mid 90s.  Today, Angelika in the US is actually a small fry relative to the big operators like Regal, Carmike and AMC.  Reading/Angelika don't even crack the top 10 in the US and are smaller than their main competitor for the still undersized foreign and independent film market, Landmark.  Like restaurants, theater exhibition is a very challenging business.  FWIW.

[lion]

Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much.

 

Honestly, I liked how Angelika caters to adults compared to others places especially Tysons.  

 

We got our dinner with alcohol when upstairs to the lounge and sat down and had a nice time before the movie started.  Since the seats are pre-selected we went before the movie began.  There were no screaming kids or teenagers using cellphones throughout the movie. That's worth a couple of bucks. 

[TheMatt]

Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much.

 

As near as I can tell, to get two adult tickets at Tysons Corner at around 2:25 PM costs $20 (hover over, say, the 2:20 PM time for "Stand Up Guys"). Frankly, I don't mind paying an extra $1 per ticket for reserved seats plus the ability to avoid Tysons Corner Center. Same for "late" shows (after 4 PM) where the difference is $12 v $13.

 

Now on the weekends, the matinees are better at Tysons Corner since they do $6 pricing everyday compared to Angelika which does it only on Mon-Thurs.

[weezy]

For the 55+ crowd, every Thursday every show & time is $7 at the Angelika.

[darkstar965]

For me, Angelika and Landmark are the two coolest theater operators in America (of course not including many very small--1 or 2 screen--independents).  It's exceedingly hard to build a business exhibiting films.  Even tougher for the foreign, independent and generally more interesting (at least to me) movies upon which these two focus.  While they are not mom & pop operations, they're also not Regal or F1000 companies. They do a good job on total movie-going experience and generally exhibit life-enriching stuff (thought to be riskier commercially) instead of the more vapid mass market fare on 20000 screens nationwide.  This is all imho obviously as different strokes applies bigtime with movies.

[MsDiPesto]

Honestly, I liked how Angelika caters to adults compared to others places especially Tysons.  

 

We got our dinner with alcohol when upstairs to the lounge and sat down and had a nice time before the movie started.  Since the seats are pre-selected we went before the movie began.  There were no screaming kids or teenagers using cellphones throughout the movie. That's worth a couple of bucks. 

 

And that alone is well worth the price of admission, IMHO.