Great Lakes Crossing - Early Years and Construction Memories

[compn]

i cant seem to find a comparision between the two.
i'll try going by memory here.

star theaters i think had more of an idea for a movie going experience.
their idea was to make it a movie night out. not just another theater.
star theaters wasnt as good as the really nice theaters like alamo drafthouse.
but they tried a lot of new things.

star theaters vs amc theaters list. things star theaters did that amc did not:

bright moving spotlights with logos and ads inside and glitter/sparkles in the floor and even the cement sidewalks outside. it sounds kind of dumb, but if you've ever been in a dingy poorly lit amc theater lobby, the difference is staggering.

star theaters all had nice sized arcades, candy vending machines, hot foods.
i even saw designer vending machines at star southfield like dippin dots ice cream.

star theaters had midnight cult movie showings in the summer. classic stuff like evil dead, scarface, rocky horror picture show, the thing, etc.

star theaters partnered with other stores and restaraunts , like a shopping mall. so the star southfield had a johnny rockets inside of it. along with a candy shop and some other stores. yeah johnny rockets sucks, but at least they were thinking of people who wanted a burger and a movie.

star theater used to organize the trailers, so if you were watching an r-rated matrix, you'd get trailers for r-rated films. or if you watched animated films, animated trailers. amc seems to want to show you the smurfs trailer no matter what film you are watching.

star theaters used to play foreign films or indie films and give you surveys to fill out how much you liked the film. i realize the movie studios switched over to gofobo and other focus group things. amc sticks to the hollywood stuff 100%.

star theaters used to clean their seats and floors too. they used to have movie trivia and news over the loudspeaker/radio playing in the lobby, big screen tvs playing trailers and behind the scenes. movie posters, and cardboard cutouts. it was a feast for the eyes and ears, and kept you busy looking at everything.

this review on yelp sums it up

The Star Southfield is really just a shell of its former self. When it first opened this place was the best. They had displays of the actual costumes from Men in Black, Jerry Maguire, and The Mask [[they are still there is display cases), very lively restaurants, and an arcade. The crowds were extremely lively and respectful, and it was just a really great place to see a movie. Now, whenever I go in it's almost always empty, and when there is a crowd its usually rowdy high-schoolers. The restaurants can't stay open and usually rotate every couple of years when an owner wants to try and open a new one.

dont get me wrong. in the 90s i racked up over 300 films on my amc theaters member card. but it seems like amc was sold to people who just dont care.

i've seen a film or two at the great lakes crossing star theaters and even that has dropped in quality after amc bought them.

amc didnt take the sparkles out of the floor, but they did stop shining lights on them. amc didnt get rid of all of the arcade games, but year after year the games have been dissapearing, leaving only 5 or 6 now. its quiet in the lobby now, they arent playing music or movie news. the indoor spotlights are gone or permanently turned off. the streamers and wind mill things were removed.

amc theaters sucked the fun out of star and made it into another generic theater.

hope this doesnt all sound like nitpicks. the picture quality has also gone downhill, but i've seen many theaters stop caring about that.