I'm very fortunate, as I live close enough to York to visit the 'Everyman' (Previously the Odeon) to see major releases. The 'Everyman' is absolutely superb. It has a large, gorgeous (proper) cinemascope screen that is fully masked for 1.85:1 films, and opens up for 'scoped movies (the way every cinema should). The auditorium has great acoustics.
They have completely renewed and restored the cinema, and all the original Art Deco elements have been reinstated. Seating is very comfortable - the old seats have been replaced with sofa style seating. It is expensive, but everyone is very respectful and it doesn't seem to suffer from anti-social idiots that can ruin the experience.
My only real criticism is that they provide an at seat food & drink service - whilst this is supposed to be done before the film starts, that's not always the case. I do find food being delivered by staff, once the main presentation starts, to be annoying.
The Dolby Cinema on the outskirts of Leeds is also close enough for special occasions. Whilst the cinema is superb, on the one occasion I attended, there were idiots playing with the 'phones during the film... which I just cannot tolerate.
I miss The Empire Leicester Square. It used to be great. Now it's a travesty, destroyed to make way for a pretend IMAX theatre and a second Impact theatre which is utterly terrible.
The Fox Village in Westwood Village, Los Angeles is the only THX Ultimate Cinema in North America. It's a large, old school movie theatre that has been loving restored. It always has a great crowd for big movies. It's my go to movie theatre in LA - and it has Dolby Atmos.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is now a pretend IMAX theatre, and they often show 3D conversions, so I'm not as keen on it as I once used to be. However, the auditorium conversion for Laser IMAX has been very sympathetically done. They installed a bigger screen, and installed stadium seating a few years ago, but they did this in a way that has kept all the original features of the cinema intact. So I salute them for that. The auditorium is so big, and so high, that is suffers from excessive sound reflection which they don't seem to be able to tame. It's loud, but it can be hard to hear dialogue.
The El Capitan is Disney's flagship theatre across the street from the Chinese. It's been fully restored to its former glory. They often have special events (Laser light shows etc.) and live organ music before big movies. It features Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, but like the Odeon Leicester Square, it's a bit of a compromise because it's a protected building and has old fashion seating, and the screen isn't huge. But the sound is good, and the Dolby Vision looks stunning.
My dedicated home cinema is small, but it's great for the two of us. We get absolutely immersed in the experience. The JVC RS440 projector (purchased in 2018) is the biggest single step up in performance that I have ever experienced and it still blows me away. The picture quality is amazing. But I still want to see certain movies at the cinema. I can't imagine seeing Top Gun 2 on anything but the biggest screen possible with an enthusiastic audience.
Seeing 'No Time To Die' on the big screen made me realise just how much I'd missed going to the cinema during the pandemic.
Regards,
James.