It’s getting hot this summer, and one of our favorite ways to beat the heat and get some much needed (and free) air conditioning is to hit up the local movie house. Basking in the glow of 24-frames-per-second becomes all the more fulfilling when the sun’s blasting like a death ray outside and you’re sipping on an ice-cold beverage (not always soda!) inside, enjoying all the joy and wonder that a movie ticket can buy (we’re speaking, of course, of the dark and the climate control).
With that in mind, here are 10 of the best movie theaters in the world that offer physical and mental escapes from the heat, news, and petty annoyances of everyday life.
New Beverly: Los Angeles, CA
The New Bev doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a major theater chain. The seats are small and a bit hard. The floor tends to get sticky from time to time. But the rest of the experience more than makes up for any of that annoyance.
Quentin Tarantino purchased the space — whose history included stints as a vaudeville house and a porn theater — in 2007 and made it the cinephile’s paradise of Los Angeles. The film program is amazingly well curated and deep. The projectionist is one of the best in the world. The cherry Coke is some of the best you’ll get off a fountain. And if that doesn’t sell you, this might: It’s a huge favorite among the celebrities. Patton Oswalt called this place his second home and Edgar Wright hosts his two-week film fests here. If you’re in L.A., a visit to the New Bev is a must.
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Arclight: Los Angeles, CA
Not too far down the road from the New Bev is another Los Angeles mainstay. If you’re in the epicenter of the U.S. movie business, seeing a film at the ArcLight Hollywood just makes sense. It’s where films are meant to be seen. The audio and visual components are state of the art, the concessions — which include a full bar and food menu — are delicious, the seats are big and comfy. Every single movie is presented by staff who then stick around to make sure your experience is exactly as it should be — interruption free. The ArcLight is the quintessential Hollywood experience. A trip to their famed Cinerama Dome is the best place to catch 70mm prints of some stone cold classics.
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The Music Box: Chicago, IL
America’s Second City is awash in stages and screens. What sets the Music Box Theatre above the rest is their devotion to all things movies.The Music Box is part of a growing trend of reintroducing the vertical business model to the film industry. Music Box Films distribute films nationally before selling them off to home service distribution. This helps support a theater laser focused on programming compelling movies and providing a pleasurable viewing experience. That means you’re only going to get high-end indie films, foreign films, revivals, and documentaries with an audience that loves the experience of seeing something flicker to life on the big screen.
The Music Box hosts great Q&As year round and there’s usually a festival of some kind or other going on. (The Music Box bills itself as “Chicago’s year-round film festival.”) The snacks are great. The bar is fully stocked. Most importantly, the movies are always good.
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Alama Drafthouse: Austin, TX
The Alamo’s ethos is simple — great movies new and old, awesome food and drink, and an experience you can both enjoy and take home. (Right now they’re selling locally made pint glasses for the release of Suicide Squad.) Alamo Drafthouse also produces and distributes their own films. They don’t stop there. Alamo curates cult classics and hits from every era and amps up the nostalgia to 11. It gets way too hot in Texas (and anywhere else the Alamo has expanded; the chain now has theaters in nine states), so a few hours hanging out at an Alamo Drafthouse, drinking, socializing, and maybe even watching a movie is a must for sweaty Texans and visitors alike.
Plus, they’ll shame you for using your cellphone or talking while others are trying to watch a movie. They’ll even turn your angry voice mail about getting kicked out for not following the rules into a wicked PSA.
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Nitehawk Cinema: Brooklyn, NY
Picking one theater in New York is a fool’s errand. Everyone will have an opinion and we doubt few New Yorkers are going to travel across boroughs to watch a movie when there are a handful of great cinemas within walking distance. We picked this one because it just works so hard to make an awesome moviegoing experience unique and memorable. Nitehawk Cinema has an amazing bar and kitchen. They think about their food and drink and make special menus for special shows, curating a speciality program of new indie films, foreign masterpieces, arthouse fare, and documentaries. Can you see the same movies at dozens of other movie houses around the city? Of course. But you won’t get the same care and menu at those movie theaters.
Kino International: Berlin, Germany
Built in the former East Berlin at the height of the Cold War, Kino International is a bit of a time machine. Its spacey chandeliers, geometrical furniture, wave-y walls and roofs, and seats that beg for someone (anyone) to sit on them at the fully-stocked retro bar make it a must for any design nerd.
Where Kino International stands above the plethora of other theater offerings in Berlin is their program of worldwide cinema and an atmosphere that makes you feel like you’ve taken a time machine behind the Iron Curtain.
The bar and food are not spectacular, but the low prices more than make up for that. The sound system and projection are still state of the art and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better viewing experience in the city. If it’s comfort and high-quality food you want, head across town to the Zoo Palast where a recent renovation brought them out of the Weimar era and into the 21st century. If it’s a genuine step back in time you’re seeking, Kino International is where it’s at.
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Lotte World Tower Cinema: Seoul, South Korea
We’ve brought you this venue before, but we’re bringing it to you again. Why? It has beds. Beds! The super-megaplex cinema experience is the wave of the future today, and let’s hope this trend continues. Multiplexes like the Lotte World Tower Cinema aim to provide the average cinemagoer with the highest end experience possible with comfort, food, and drink. (Movies are available too, if you’re into that sort of thing.)
Lotte Cinemas has tables, full reclining easy chairs, and, yes, even queen size beds for you and your moviegoing companion to relax in (in a completely platonic manner, of course). Besides being able to nosh on some delicious fried and salted squid with your beer, Lotte also allows you to wear noise-canceling headphones. (Beats by Dre!) So if someone just can’t help using their smartphone or narrating the plot, you can just tune them out. That’s a perk. Oh, and, they also have the biggest 35mm projected screen on the planet. So there’s that.
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La Cinémathèque Française: Paris, France
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Paris is another city where picking a single cinema to attend seems almost impossible. It has to come down to what you really want from the experience. La Cinémathèque Française isn’t just a movie theater. It’s a museum to film itself. One can wile away the afternoon studying film relics in the huge museum, and then rest for a couple hours and watch an amazing film from today or a long time ago. The curation is rife with cinema’s cultural touchstones, but it also gets refreshingly absurd and dirty as La Cinémathèque plays movies like Re-Animator and Nightmare on Elm Street 4! It’s truly a home to all cinema in a city where cinema came into our conscious as a medium to be loved and obsessed over.
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Иллюзион (Illusion): Moscow, Russia
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The Illusion Kino in Moscow is one of the city’s oldest theaters, offering a full range of films, food, bars, and entertainment. It’s been fully refitted and brought into the 21st century to allow respite from the relentless humidity of a Moscow summer. Where better to watch the Soviet master’s originals than in one of the theaters in which it appeared the first time around?https://www.instagram.com/p/1GYTuqskU0/
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The Regal: Mumbai, India
Filmmaking is huge in India. For every film made in Hollywood, India makes nearly four times that. So, going to see a movie in India means diving deep into a massive film-loving culture. Architecturally many of the cinemas on Mumbai streets are cut from the same cloth — art-deco and colonial built. The Regal is no different by that measure. What makes this theater special is its location in Colaba, where it stands in the post-colonial world of new Mumbai. Stepping outside the Regal, you’re amongst the chaos of a massive city. Inside, you’re locked into a world of art.
Intermissions allow moviegoers to find a chai-wallah, load up on caffeine, and maybe even grab a samosa before the second half of a film. Regal Cinema’s mainstays are bombastic Bollywood blockbusters and all the major Western releases, the bigger the better. Just remember: It’s going to be crowded.
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