I took my wife out for a rare date night without our children. I was hoping I could talk her into checking out the new Emagine Theater in Rochester Hills. The combination of her wanting to see "Black Swan" and the chance to have some of the theater's delicious Olive Oil cooked popcorn were enough to seal the deal. I'll have more on "Black Swan" in a future post, but for now let's concentrate on Metro Detroit's newest big screen venue.
Let's start with the first decision you're going to face when buying your tickets: should you upgrade to premium seating for an extra $2.50?
The extra wide leather seats offer small tables for food and lots 'o leg room, so much that your fellow theater goers won't have to move when you get up in the middle of the movie to use the bathroom or load up on more snacks. The placement of the Premium section was all the way in the back of the theater, which is not the best place for optimum sound quality. Generally speaking, the rear surround speakers are too loud in the last rows, unless you have extra high ceilings which is not the case in the room I was in.
Next to the box office is their Cocktails consession stand--not really a bar since there is nowhere to sit and enjoy your drinks. This is probably the most unique and popular feature offered by the Emagine chain and the lines were just as long as the regular concession stand lines. My only complaint with serving booze is that it seemed to make all the drinkers around me extremely chatty during the movie, although this hasn't been a problem at the other Emagine Theaters.
The big innovation here is the Food Consession, which looks like a restaurant's kitchen with a stove for their small pizza's.
The pizza was good, but by no means gourmet, and the soft pretzels were just right. But this place is strictly BYOM (bring your own mustard), which is one of the kinks I'm sure they'll have worked out. Having been open only a week, I was pretty forgiving of the lack of mustard. The olive oil cooked popcorn was light and didn't leave the container or my fingers covered in yellow grease. I'm not a big popcorn person, but I was won over when I could practically taste the olive oil the moment it was handed to me.
Be warned, because, unlike the AMC and MJR chains, refills here are $.25.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that D-Box motion seating will be installed in time for the release of "The Green Hornet" in mid-January. Right now the Emagine Canton is the only other movie theater in the Detroit area to offer this. I saw "Prince of Persia" there with the D-Box seating and it's a lot of fun--think of a less intense version of the flight simulator rides at amusement parks.
Emagine Royal Oak is scheduled to open this year near my house, so I'm really excited about not having to travel very far for a deluxe movie going experience. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of films out at the Emagine Rochester Hills.
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