Best-Theaters-in-New-York-for-a-Date - GigaBrain (2024)

I second syndicated!! Even if you don’t see a movie in the theater their main bar is AMAZING. It’s huge and they play films on the projector. Sometimes silent films sometimes cult classics with subtitles. This way you get the movie “experience” but can still talk and vibe. Also TONS of fun bars to hit up after if it’s going well.

Nitehawk all day, it's got great date vibes.

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Syndicated BK is really great, the tickets are cheap as a second-run theater, the food isn ’t overpriced, and I find the service to be less-obtrusive than at Alamo. Easily accessible off the L too. Just buy tix in advance because some of these showings lately have been selling out.

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BAM is class, tons of good bars for before or after as well (Rockwell Place, Fulton Hall, FancyFree)

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Fanciest theater I've gone to here is Regal Battery Park

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AMC Kips Bay is the best, hands down. Regal Battery Park is also pretty nice and usually pretty empty. Lincoln Square is famous for its IMAX but their regular rooms are pretty small.

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The Alamo

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Here I thought this was actually an interesting question about proper theaters (many built when the average New Yorker was much shorter…).

Lincoln Square IMAX is the only real IMAX. Kips Bay is my go-to because they often have a lot of showtimes, and the seats are nice. 19th street only has a couple screens but I think is underrated. Generally speaking I avoid basically everything else, unless I wanna see something in 42nd Streets Dolby, which is pretty rare (although 42nd deserves a mention for the sheer number of screens/ showings they have in a day. Wanna catch a Bollywood movie or something that’s been out for six weeks? 42nd is your best bet.)

The best premium screens IMO are the IMAX and Dolby at Lincoln Square, but the other screens really need a remodel. Empire has 25 screens so there is a wide variety of what is being shown there, but only the Dolby and Prime screens have recliners. Kips Bay also does have indies and recliners. I also like 34th Street.

A fun perk to the Prime theater at Empire 25 is that its on the very top floor, so you get some cool views out to Times Square as you go up the escalators.

You simply have to see the Lincoln Sq IMAX screen. Sadly there isn’t anything playing on it until Rogue One on the 28th.

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If she’s cool, Alamo Drafthouse in DTLA.

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AMC Century City for mainstream. New Beverly for cool factor.

The Village in Westwood is iconic. There’s also the Aero which is great.

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While it’s probably not anything wildly exciting as a movie theater by itself, the one at The Grove is nice, then gives you a ton of options right there if you two want to extend the date with a drink, coffee, bookstore, etc. The views from the top floor of the parking garage are actually really solid and you have pan pacific park right next door for a stroll.

Angelica East 70MM no brainer. The space is awesome and it’s a huge screen. If you can’t do Lincoln Square IMAX, it’s the next best.

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My advice, don’t sit towards the front in any imax. Ideal seating is a couple rows down from top in the middle. If you can see 70mm, I’d go with that.

the only way i could see Oppenheimer in 70mm IMAX was front row center seat opening night (literally all that was left, would have had to wait a week otherwise) and it was fine, are those seats recliners? Because that's a must.

Latte Da's shows are outstanding. Highly recommend dinner at NE Social beforehand. Otherwise the Jungle Theater, or Theatre in the Round.

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Chanhassen Dinner Theater

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Hennepin Theater Trust operates a few stages. The answer to your question probably depends on what you want to see, tho. Look for shows coming up that interest you, and that will point you to the venue.

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ACME for standup. Guthrie for theater.

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Come From Away has great seats for cheap through TKTS day of, and so does Hadestown if you go early to beat the line! I was just in NYC a week ago :)

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This is the way. I got a great seat to Hadestown for $75 a couple hours before the show by setting up price drop alerts on the Stubhub app.

Hadestown and come from away are two excellent choices. I saw the Hadestown tour. Honestly the reccomendations always going to be when buying tickets AVOID http://broadway.com(they charge ridiculous fees) and go through the official Hadestown website and use their vendor (for my tour tickets it was ticketmaster but I think the show in new York uses a different vendor)

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Yes, I’m somewhat worried about the seats I may be able to purchase through lotto/rush, TKTS, or even from the known ticketing sites. While I noticed they may drop closer to the date, am unsure if I’d be better off paying a bit more for the privilege of choice. Thank you for the tip, will keep this in mind!

Thank you! We didn’t get there early enough for Hadestown tickets but we got Come From Away and Wicked, both day of! It’s easier if you are okay with single seats or your group splitting up a bit, because single seats are the ones that don’t sell and then are the cheapest :) but our seats were seriously amazing and less than $100 both times!

I've been monitoring the prices to check the trends of prices going up and down, and I've seen such big discounts on the day of, but sometimes for some plays, they go up much higher than I expected. Will try to set price alerts on StubHub, thank you for the tip! Maybe I'll try it prior to flying out to see how likely I can find good seats for lower prices. Thank you again!

Cool, another rerelease I don't have! I'm not a big fan of the original version of A Change of Seasons but it'd be good to have a copy at hand to compare and contrast with the 1995 release of the song.

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Hell yeah! I'm pretty sure I still have an old MP3 copy of that, but I love the fact that all these recordings are being released for a wider audience now. I could almost spend all my time listening to DT this year and not run out of anything new to listen to!

Wow is this previously unreleased materials?

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*1993 not 1995

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Is this the one that has the original version of "A Change of Seasons" on it?

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DT is the gift that keeps giving

I live in upstate New York so I guess I’m a little bit closer to the action, but I’m not right there. But it’s just obsession lol. Like others have said, http://Broadway.com and other related sites, I listen to Broadway podcasts and YouTubers, I have a lot of friends and family who are into theater that I can discuss with etc.

The Times covers Broadway and off-Broadway in depth.

I get weekly emails from TheaterMania, which tells me everything that’s happening on Broadway, including ticket deals. I also listen to the Broadway Channel on SXM. That’s not always 100% up to date because they do replay shows, but when it’s live, Julie James and Christine Pedi and Seth Rudetski have the scoop.

I’d like to thank the Broadway station in SiriusXM

I have read http://Playbill.com regularly since the early 2000s and only joined the Reddit Broadway and this community fairly recently. I also signed up for the http://Broadway.com and TheatreMania email newsletters and read theatre reviews (mainly on http://NYT.com and Vulture). I don’t (yet) live in the tristate area but try to visit the city 1-2x a year and see as many shows as I can in 7-8 days (with rush and lottery playing a big part in making it possible), as well as see touring productions when they come to my city.

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Comedy clubs? Sporty activity? Performance/music?

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That is a great one but it also depends on the person (they might hate the idea) but at least it's a good way to to filter people. More ideas here.