The newest trend in The Woodlands recently has been so called “luxury movie theaters.” These theaters are movie theaters where you can press a button to get food or drinks during the movie. Many also offer a menu with lunch and dinner, free refills on drinks, bigger or more comfortable seats, and overall a better movie experience. Cinèpolis Luxury Cinema recently opened on Kuykendahl and has gotten fairly popular in the past few weeks. I recently went there to see the new Barbie movie with a group of four (including me) and we were disappointed in some aspects of the theater.

Firstly, the food was mediocre. Between the four of us, we ordered their crispy wings with buffalo sauce, the chicken quesadillas, the nacho supreme, and one infinitely refillable drink each. The wings were good, but a little greasy, not to mention their buffalo sauce was a little too sour. The chicken quesadillas, in my opinion, were soggy and did not have enough chicken. However, the nachos were much better and even had elote on them. Overall, the food was not bad, especially for the lower prices, but we could have gone to a restaurant after the movie and gotten better food.

Cinèpolis also has buttons on the chairs that you can push for service. During previews, we never had to push them because someone came to us, but once the movie started, we would push the button and nobody came. We could see the waiters going to other seats, but nobody came to ours, even when all four of us pushed the buttons on the front of the chair. That was disappointing because the “bottomless beverages” cost us $9 each and we had the impression that people would come by and refill them if we pushed the button on the chair. After the movie, I wondered if we were meant to fill them ourselves, but there was not a place to do that in the whole theater or lobby. I even checked to see if I was pushing the wrong button, and I was not. I understand that it is a newer theater and people might still be in training, but it seemed weird that they went to the other people in the theater and not any of the four of us.

Overall, luxury theaters like Cinèpolis seem like a good idea on the surface, but because of the issues I had there, I would not recommend this one or consider it luxury at all.