Revisiting old BKO posts has been a source of all sorts of good material this week…here’s a post from March 2008 about an Australian entertainment company called Village Roadshow that was making plans to build a bunch of super-premium movie theaters in various locations around the United States. A $35-dollar ticket would include luxury seats, valet parking, and table service.
Well, here’s a first-hand account of what that experience is like from True/Slant blogger Piet Levy posted back in November 2009. On the plus side, the ticket price has dropped to $25, and the plush reclining seats do look awfully comfy. Levy says the food is somewhat inconsistent and pricey, although $18 for a lobster roll is about what you’d pay in any restaurant that isn’t in Maine (and even some that are) and the price of ordinary movie snacks at the multiplex these days isn’t that far behind. He gave it a B+ overall, but it sounds like he enjoyed it quite a bit.
The initial plan, as I posted in ’08, was to build 50 of these around the country, but so far there are only six: one in Pasadena, California, two in the Chicago area, two in Texas (Austin and a Dallas suburb), and one in Redmond, Washington (no doubt where all those millionaire Microsofties go to the movies).

