Comments from Labonte18

Showing 2 comments

Labonte18
Labonte18 commented about Echo Theatre on May 16, 2018 at 3:49 am

This is all old news, mostly.. The Redneck shop closed permanently in about May of 2012. Google streetview still shows the signage up as of December 2012, which is the latest imagery directly looking at the building.

John Howard, who owned the shop, passed away September 6, 2017.

The location of this theater, you have to really go by there to see it, and I haven’t been by it in years. So far as I know, the church has done nothing with it. The marquee lettering proclaiming it the “Redneck Shop” was removed, that’s about it.

https://goo.gl/maps/3aZSr9AkBq82

that’s a google street view of it from the corner, seemingly the latest image in December of 2016.

Labonte18
Labonte18 commented about Camelot Cinemas on May 27, 2005 at 5:02 am

I attended the 4pm showing of Sith today (5/26) at the Camelot, and I agree with the previous poster that it looks almost exactly the same as it did when it was Carmike. That’s not a bad thing. The only thing I could notice that might be different was maybe the seats had been reupholstered? Also if I remember correctly, the old screen was concave or convex… Whichever.. I shoulda paid more attention in Science class. And the screen was actually like a stage. That’s all either gone or i’m remembering incorrectly.

Price for a matinee is $6.00 and any other time is $8.25, same as other theaters in the Greenville area. To be honest, they could get away with charging more for the digital projector screens because it’s worth it.. More on that later.

The snack bar is OK, as of right now, it’s your basic movie-going snack bar plus nachos. Popcorn, drinks and candy. Prices probably in line with the other theaters in the area, but honestly, I think the last movie I saw in a theater was several years ago, so I might be off on that. One thing that I was told is that with the large popcorn you get free refills. This isn’t stated anywhere, just what I was told by the woman working the snack bar. Makes sense because the large does seem to be a bit smaller than others, and if anyone actually manages to finish off a large popcorn (or a large drink for that matter) then they deserve a free refill because they’ll be picking husks from their floating back teeth. I think a large is something like a 44oz Gonzo Gulp or something. I’m a “Coke” man myself, and the theater’s Pepsi, but hey, big deal.

Ok, so that’s the inital part out of the way. One thing that probably won’t last just simply due to economics is that there were no commercials before the movie. I think that’s great, and hope it lasts, but… This is different from the “slideshows” that many theaters have, i’m talking about the actual commercials that show after the lights go down.

Did see the new THX trailer and that was good. The thing about a digital projector is that it is just SO much better. Anyone who watches a film that has been played before will notice the occasional pops and “hairs” on the screen. Just little imperfections in the film due to wear or whatever. The more times it is shown, the more imperfections there are. Anyone who saw a show at the old “Movies by the Mall” before it closed down knows what I mean here. The movies were $1.00 because they had been played so many times they looked like crap. With the digital projector, there is none of that. Also no projector noise that I noticed. With the old projectors, you could hear them during a quiet time in the movie, not with this one. No pops in the audio, nothing. It’s like watching a DVD on one heck of a big screen.

Not knowing how much damage the Revolution people did to the place to make it a Christian Theater (Whatever they did) it doesn’t appear that a whole lot of work was needed. Not as much as if, say, it had been vacant for 7 years. I’d be interested to hear exactly what had to be done to undo what they did to it.

Theater was very clean, which is a bit surprising as there was only about 30 mins of turnover time, and it’s a huge theater. I counted seats as being 7 x 15 x 7, with roughly 30 rows, so that would be seating for just shy of 900? Seating is not true Stadium seating like at Hollywood, but it is staggered and sloped, so no viewing problems. Staggered meaning the seats are all offset, so you do not sit directly behind someone, you’re offset from them by half a seat.

Parking isn’t a problem. Just park over to the McAlister Square side rather than towards the stores. Will keep everyone happier.

All told, if given the option of seeing a movie at this theater vs Hollywood 20 or the other one in Greenville up at Cherrydale, the Camelot wins hands down for the digital projector.