Considered the best movie theatre in Hong Kong is the AMC Pacific Place Cinema located in the Pacific Place Mall, a short 10 minute walk from our apartment. The theatre is considered Asia’s most technologically-advanced cinema, with state of the art three-way SRD-EX audio system. I'm not sure how it stacks up against the audio systems in the states. It sounds pretty good to me but what we really enjoy most is the soft 4-foot wide leather seats and there's enough leg room to not touch the neighbor in front of you with your legs extended fully. Oh they have three different flavors of popcorn: Salty, sweet kettle corn, and chocolate!
An adult ticket is a little under $10 USD and $6 USD on Tuesdays. With a Platinum AMEX card, tickets are buy 1 get 1 free on Fridays (we only watch movies on Fridays). Unlike in the states, going to the movies requires proper advanced planning because when you buy a ticket, you are assigned a seat. Below is a seating chart of the biggest screen at Pacific Place Cinema. As you can see, seats are more limited than in the U.S. Unless you're in the first 2 rows, there's no really bad seats; even the love seats on the side provide a pretty good experience.
In his book,
The Economic Naturalist, economist Robert H. Frank explains that due to the limited number of available cinemas and show times in Asian countries, it makes more sense for cinemas to provide this premium service. In a place like Hong Kong, demand will always be higher than the supply. Despite incurring the higher cost, cinemas here are willing to resolve the inevitable problem of waiting in line for hours sometimes in an attempt to secure the best available seat for a popular movie.
Assigned seating requires cinemas to hire ushers to show people to their seats or to resolve disputes. In addition, the purchasing process takes longer since people have to evaluate which seat provide the best viewing angle. And maintaining a seating system is definitely much more expensive. However, as in the states, the collective whole of movie goers end up wasting an exorbitant amount of time waiting in line for a movie premiere. With proper planning, you don't have to show up 1 or 2 hour early because you are always guaranteed a peace of mind knowing your seat is already assigned to you and only you.
Personally, I don't think they have to provide this service because people will still wait in line regardless since demand will always be high. Maybe the biggest reason is because the limited real estate in Hong Kong is not conducive to large crowds waiting in front of the theatres. Whatever the reason, the cinema experience is yet another advantage of living in Hong Kong...if you don't mind having Chinese subtitles flashing on the screen! I find it quite annoying since it provides no value to me =)
