We watched the “Simpsons” movie yesterday at the Regal multiplex at Union Square in New York City, and for the entire movie, the right third of the screen was out of focus. We never got up to complain to management for several reasons:

• we were being stupid and lazy
• we were in the center of a full theater and didn’t want the hassle of climbing out and back in
• we really thought someone else closer to the aisles would eventually do it
• we thought maybe the lucky anonymous person with the QA remote (previously discussed here) would push the right button

Afterwards, we sought out a manager. Trouble was, there was nobody staffing either of the two customer service desks in the complex. Eventually we went home and emailed the complaint to Regal via their online feedback form.

But this begs the question: why isn’t there a website dedicated to ranking and providing feedback on movie theaters? Some are notoriously bad and you know better than to ever go there; some, however, seem to fluctuate in quality, and if you could cross-reference recent customer feedback on your local multiplexes before deciding where to go, it could dramatically improve the experience.

A search turned up the CMPAA, a consumer organization devoted to getting those awful pre-show ads out of the theaters. Even some studio execs have said publicly that the ads are overkill (although it’s not like they’re attacking their own business model, so they probably considered it an easy win to come down on the side of the audience for once). But the CMPAA doesn’t focus on cleanliness, audio and visual quality, or crowd control, just ads.

Do any readers know of a website or organization like the one we’re describing?

(Photo: Getty)

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