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First Impressions: iPic Fulton Market
Back story: At the iPic Fulton Market cinema in the Seaport District’s Fulton Market Building, all seats are reservable, with two levels of service. Located up front, Premium seats are green leather with tray tables; they don’t recline, and waiter service is not available. The orange “micro-suede” Premium Plus seats are set higher up, with better sightlines; they recline, and come with a pillow and blanket; and you can order food and drinks while seated, either by pushing a button on the table or through the iPic app. (The “ninja waiters” bring you a bill toward the end of the film.) Tickets are $14-$29, depending on seat type, movie, day of the week, and show time. Refreshingly, ordering online incurs no additional charge. I went to a 10:15 a.m. Monday screening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the price was $14 for Premium, with a $9 “VIP fee” for Premium Plus. Obviously, I chose Premium Plus.
The atmosphere: You enter off Fulton Street. A ticket desk is on the ground floor; the eight theaters are on the second floor; a restaurant called the Tuck Room is on the third floor. The decor throughout is what I could call “Midwestern nightclub”—not my taste, but vibrant—and the place is clean.
The menu: At the concession stand, where you can buy food to take into the theater, I grabbed a coffee ($5.44), which came in a ceramic cup—awkward when I decided I should use the restroom before settling in. The second and third photos are of the in-theater menu for Premium Plus seats.
Gold star: Besides a couple canoodling down in the cheap seats, there was no one in the theater, so I was prone to enjoy the experience. But the seat really was delightful: comfortable, with plenty of legroom (and I’m 6’3″). It feels like you’re flying first-class—in fact, when I sat down, I had to resist the urge to fasten a seat belt. I didn’t order any food, because it was 10:15 a.m. and, to be honest, eating in a movie theater doesn’t appeal to me. (Despite what my husband thinks, I can go for two hours without eating.) Also, I wondered whether the dirty dishes would sit there like my empty coffee cup did.
Room for improvement: The only restroom is upstairs in the Tuck Room. It’s not a quick trip, which is aggravating mid-movie. But at least the restroom is nice, something you can’t say about the Regal Battery Park. Here’s something that iPic can change: The movies have been whatever Hollywood is spitting out—some more enjoyable than others, especially now that we’ve entered awards season, but can’t one theater show something more adventurous?
Anything else? The website says to show up a half hour early, which could possibly be advisable if you’re going at a busy time. Bear in mind, however, that you’ll get 10-15 minutes of previews, starting at the movie’s scheduled time. It seems to me that one big perk of a reservable seat is not having to endure all the pre-trailer advertising.
Contact: iPic Fulton Market is at 11 Fulton Street, in the Seaport District; ipictheaters.com.
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We tried it with the free pre-opening tickets, which included a free popcorn. It took 51 minutes to get the popcorn.
Other than that, I hate going to movies because of the audience factor, but this was a civilized experience and I would go here exclusively if they showed more like Angelica/Sunshine type ones. Also, it would be an ideal place for the Saturday afternoon Met Opera HD broadcasts. I would pay extra for those and the other theaters that show them are always sold out or crowded so there should be a market for that.
Only negative is if you’re going alone and get someone creepy in the other seat.
I did think about how it’d be weird to share a two-seat pod with the wrong stranger.
i like to go to the movies alone since my husband travels for business frequently. But I wouldn’t want to share a pod with a total stranger–especially a man! That might keep me from going here.
There’s a row of Premium Plus seats that aren’t paired into pods (at least in the theater I was in), along with a row of the cheaper Premium seats. And you do get to reserve a seat, unlike in most movie theaters.
If you don’t want a stranger sitting next to you, can’t you just purchase both seats?
Yes, you can purchase both tickets for lots of space and “privacy” or you can purchase a single ticket from the continuous row of premium plus seats in the middle section of the theater. I’d definitely do either next time I go alone.