Ladies and Gentlemen, your St Louis Park Showplace ICON theatre
by Matt Gamble on Nov.18, 2009, under Editorials, Movies, Previews
For those of you wondering what I’ve been up to these past few weeks while the site has run silent, I’ve been working like crazy out at the new Kerasotes Theatre in St Louis Park that is scheduled to open this Friday, November 20th. The Showplace Icon Theatre will be a bit different from your standard movie theatre experience, which is why I am so excited to tell you about it.
So just what is so special?
Bathroom attendents
Yup. Each of our bathrooms will have an attendant to make sure everything is clean and fully stocked throughout our operating day.
Reserved seating in every auditorium
That’s right. Every seat in every auditorium is reserved. Which means you will get to pick and choose where you sit in any theatre. Like sitting up in the corners? No problem. Have an entire party and want to be sure you get seats together? Done. And just in case you are worried about finding your seat, we will have ushers in every theatre to assist you.
We want to be a theatre that caters to both adults and to families that are seeing a film together. While we enjoying having kids and teenagers alike, what we don’t want to be is a theatre where kids can simply be dropped off and allowed to run around all day. We want people to come to our theatre to watch movies.
One of the primary goals for the Showplace ICON is to remove as many distractions as possible from the theatre going experience. A common issue is people trying to avoid watching the ads before the films, so they come late to purchase tickets and then wander in during the film and try to find seats, disrupting the film for every one else. With our reserved seating groups will no longer have to worry about finding the seats they want, and everyone will know where they will be sitting o that eliminates any potential seating issues. Thus the only reason to now show up late would be to try and miss the ads. Which brings me to my next point.
And by no ads I mean no digitally projected Coke sponsored “special presentation” during admission and no ads before the trailers. All you will have is a blank screen until we roll trailers and start the film. Once you enter the theatre we want you to enjoy the movie you paid to see and not being forced to watch ads. And since the feature will start 5 minutes after we start we won’t let people into the film once it starts so you can enjoy what you paid to see, the movie.
Both sound and projection are 100% digital and you are about to experience film like you never have before. No more having to worry about films being out of focus or brain wraps causing the prints to melt. And in the case of emergency, we can actually pause the film and rewind if need be.
One of the biggest complaints about 3D films is that the image can be dark and muddled, our 3D screens are specially made with a silver additive that allows them to reflect images much better, allowing the light to be reflected back at the audience, which makes the images appear bright and colourful and which in turn helps eliminate eye strain and the headaches they can cause.
While previously mentioned, we are the first theatre in Minneapolis that uses 100% digital sound, and oh the noise, noise noise it is capable of. Multiple channels in each theatre and the crisp, clear sound makes for a listening experience just as impressive as the viewing experience.
If you are 21 and over you can enjoy a drink or some food at our upstairs bar and lounge. Nuff said.
This is possibly our coolest feature in the entire theatre. Both theatres 1 & 2 offer VIP seating for an additional $5 charge for people 21+. What this is is balcony seating for both of those theatres which have leather love seats and tables so that people can bring their drinks and food in from the bar and lounge to enjoy while they watch their movies. Its an incredibly comfortable, fun, relaxing and cool environment to watch the biggest movies out today.
Those are just some of the many features you’ll find at our theatre, along with other ammenities like real butter for your popcorn, pizzas at the concession stand and an easy to find floor staff and management team willing to help fill your every need. But the best reason to come to the Showplace ICON is our main house, which is Theatre #1.
Now I’ve been to almost every theatre in the Twin Cities. I love The Uptown, The Heights, The Riverview, and The Parkway just to name a few. And I’ve seen some impressive theatres that offer great picture and sound at them and other theatres around town, but I’ll put up our main house against any of them and not think twice about it. The seating is around 450, which is big but not huge, but the size of the auditorium is massive, possibly even bigger then The Uptown. The screen is just as huge, topping out at 70ft, making it large enough to be a mini IMAX screen. And if that isn’t impressive enough, the sound system in that house has 3x the power of the Metrodome. Then add in the VIP seating the lounge and all of our other amenities an you have a viewing experience that simply can’t be matched in the Twin Cities, and possibly anywhere else in the country. Starting this Friday, its a great time to be a film fan in Minneapolis.
I hope to see you there!
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Showplace Icon keeps upping the digital ante | Where the Long Tail Ends
June 27th, 2010 on 10:19 am[...] little fanfare, the Showplace ICON Theatre at the Shops at West End in St Louis Park has added an additional two 3-D screens, upping its total [...]
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November 18th, 2009 on 4:35 pm
SUPER psyched to check this out. Screen #1 sounds awesome.
And these two things are the greatest ever:
- After 7pm every one 16 and under must be accompanied by their parent our guardian
- No admission to a movie after the first 5 minutes
Now you just need Millennium Falcon style cell phone signal jamming and we’re set.
November 18th, 2009 on 6:32 pm
Wow. It looks like I’m going to have to make that long trek out to SLP! They have reserve seating in all the cinemas in Hong Kong and I’ve always thought it is brilliant. Can’t wait to check it out.
November 19th, 2009 on 1:40 pm
We do have people watching the crowd for cell phone use during the film, so we should be able to keep that to a minimum as well. We kind of made up our announcements last night so we should get better at reminding people about that as well.
I think you’ll enjoy it Kathie. The theatre is pretty damn slick. If we don’t beat the Riverview for the City Pages Best Of awards this year I’ll be pissed.
November 20th, 2009 on 5:05 pm
Really looking forward to this place. I hope you guys do well.
November 21st, 2009 on 11:37 am
Was at AMC Rosedale last night and people sit there and text on their iPhones through the whole movie. Quite annoying. I recently took a trip to Thailand and they also do reserve seating at different price levels (standard, love seats, and VIP balcony). I really like that…
November 21st, 2009 on 3:57 pm
You should add “Marketing Manager” to whatever your title is there, Matt. I’m sold.
Couple things, though:
1. Will this place really be sustainable? Besides the audacity of opening in this economy (though box office numbers have not been hit, so maybe it doesn’t matter), it seems like this is a very staff-heavy place. Even higher ticket prices would make me wonder how you can afford so many people at every hour. The mark up on concessions and alcohol must be outrageous, no?
2. All the time rules and regulations and reservations and jamming signals sound great, but I’m waiting for the only solution that really matters: punishing (violently, if possible) people who talk. I pray for the day when idiot talkers will be blacklisted at every theater and banned for life. Fingerprint scanning will be required for entrance. Easy.
Or just do what I’ve longed for for years – personal headphones at each seat. The third option is muzzles.
Aside from these three solutions I can’t think of any other way to combat what is far and way the biggest problem at theaters.
3. I’m not tipping the bathroom attendants, even if I do take a mint.
November 23rd, 2009 on 12:25 am
I thought “no ads” meant no trailers. So does this mean no seating 5 minutes into the feature, or into the trailers?
I wish I could agree that Kerasotes is good at doing theater checks, but I haven’t found that to be the case at Block E or IGH. In fact, Block E has employees who take their breaks in the auditoriums while the films are running, and they sit there talking on cell phones. Nice.
November 23rd, 2009 on 8:17 pm
Are you planning on installing a cellphone jammer or should I still bring my own? That’s of the main reason why I stopped going to the movies.
November 25th, 2009 on 4:19 pm
@ Andrew James: While I agree cell phone use during a film is annoying, I don’t think jamming the signal is necessary – after all, what if there’s an emergency? Say Mom & Dad are out enjoying a film and the kid at home is rushed to the hospital; the babysitter needs to get in contact with the parents.
LOVE the after-7pm teenage-and-younger rule!
I echo the question posed by lori re: 5 minutes.
The only other comment I have is: Wow! Can’t wait to come visit.
November 27th, 2009 on 9:55 am
I will definitely make it up to see this at some point soon (The Road- perhaps). Though I’m not sure that anything can help make 2012 more palatable. This seems like the perfect venue for the all the cgi heavy features clogging screens these days…and with Avatar coming… (how many screens will it occupy?)… I hope the plan is to have at least some screen space available to foreign and indie features.
December 6th, 2009 on 1:23 pm
Will there be audio description (a.k.a. descriptive video service – DVS) for blind patrons? My uncle and his wife are both blind, but really enjoy movies. It’s difficult to find places that provide such a helpful service, especially for movies they want to see. Last weekend they were hoping to go to The Blind Side, but in the Twin Cities the only two movies with DVS were The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Twilight: New Moon. I always feel rude describing for them when other people are around us. I am already looking forward to watching movies in this new theater, but having audio description would make it an A+++.
December 27th, 2009 on 2:44 am
Just got back from seeing Sherlock Holmes at this theater. LOVED IT. Really great experience, so, so hoping that it succeeds and due to location and the way it’s run, it will be our new primary theater.
However, two points:
There was no bath attendant present when we went (10 p.m. on a weekend)
The bathrooms are not well designed, esp. only 3 sinks and 2 dryers for a whole bathroom? And dryers are too near sinks.. I’d be hip to hip with someone at a sink when I was drying!
December 29th, 2009 on 5:51 pm
Now you just have to manage to sell tickets. We were there today to see “Avatar”, and it took ten minutes to sell tickets to the four people ahead of us in line. There were about 20 people behind us, and they were being told it was too late to get in to see the movies they wanted, and all because of the inability of the two ticket sellers to manage the systems.
January 12th, 2010 on 11:31 am
FINALLY made it to your sparkling corner of the movie world last night, Gamble (funny, right off of Gamble Dr.? – you clever cat). I asked a couple of people (I’m assuming your higher-ups) if you were around but they said nope, “which is funny, because it seems like he’s here every night.” Very nice people, treated us well and let me poke around in the VIP section of #1 since nothing was showing at the moment.
So on to the theater itself:
- Bathrooms: Nice enough, but no bathroom attendant anywhere in sight. But I think I originally misunderstood that – they’re not meant to be in there, right, just assigned to check in on it throughout the day? If that’s the case, doesn’t seem like a big deal in the first place. But it was in good shape anyway.
- Concessions: Didn’t get any but liked the selection and was surprised the prices were comparable to AMC. I’ve never like that Kerasotes tax breakdown, though, where candy cost $3.72 or something but actually costs $4.00. Is anybody showing up tax exempt and paying $3.72? Seems like a cheap way to make people think they’re paying lower prices.
- Seating (theater…#14? Avatar in 3D): Not bad, decent leg room. Did look like the VIP seating in #1 had some major leg room, too. There were only a dozen people at the movie so the reserved seating and ticket buying worked like a charm. In the future I’ll obviously go right to the kiosk instead of waiting at the box office. I never understand how many people wait in line at AMC when it takes 23 seconds at the kiosk.
- Projection: Pretty amazing visual clarity right from the trailers. Of course I have my own issues with 3D anyway, but suffice to say anything in 2D probably looks pretty spectacular. Sound was great.
- Screen size: Even in that small theater it seemed pretty shockingly tiny, like barely bigger than one of the mids at the Lagoon. Of course I was sitting in Row K so that’s not really fair. Also, screen #1 did look nice and massive. I’ll make sure to see the big movies there from now on.
- Staffing: Pleasant, punctual, not in your face. There was still probably a 1:2 ratio for employees to patrons in the theater; I’m just really surprised you can keep staffing that high. But always better to have more people than too few, I suppose.
- Parking: Got in on the first level, which I imagine is pretty rare on weekends. Definitely better than Rosedale and maybe even Southdale anyway.
Overall I was pretty impressed with the Showplace. It seems to deliver on everything you promised and as that area gets built up I’m sure it will become a mainstay. For me it still might come down to price, but either way hats off on what appears to be a really successful addition to the local movie scene!
January 21st, 2010 on 6:35 pm
I LOVE THIS THEATER! Saw Sherlock Holmes in the VIP. Went to the bar first, had a drink, got some bacon popcorn, took it and our drinks into the theater, and the attendants helped us carry our stuff in and get settled. Screen is amazing, sound even more so. No ads, people. NO ADS! about 5 minutes of trailers, which I happen to love, and this is the 5 minutes that people are allowed late seating. After that, the theater is closed to entry.
Left Sherlock Holmes, went over to a young woman near the bar, and bought tickets for the next showing of Up In The Air. It was playing in a “regular” theater. Still comfortable, not nearly as amazing as the VIP, but still NO ADS! Attendants make it a point to announce, personally and quite emphatically, that patrons need to turn off their cell phones before the show starts.So no annoying light from texting patrons, and I have no doubt that if someone was being disruptive (talking, texting, etc.) all one needs to do is find an attendant and they would take care of it.
Break-in period is still happening, but they admit that. A little slow with processing information and tickets. Some things were not completely smooth, but the kinks will be worked out, I’m sure. The bar is great, albeit a little overpriced, but I just see that asthe way they are able to afford having NO ADS! And trust me, reserve seating is the real deal. (You can get the seats in advance through Fandango, and decide which show time to go to if you want particular seats…)
Also, they charge adult prices for anyone bringing an infant, at any time . So it is unlikely that we will be seated near the family that couldn’t find a babysitter so brings their baby and two year old to “Eli”…
It seems like this theater will attract people who actually care about the experience. It costs a bit more, but IMHO, it’s absolutely worth it. I do hope, as someone else said, that they will give indie and foreign films at least one theatre in the place.
I hope Minnesotans will support this experience. I think it’s a gem!
February 17th, 2010 on 3:45 pm
@ Andrew James: I don’t think jamming cell phones is necessary at all. Can’t people just be responsible and respectful with their phones? Do we need to treat everyone like children?