Century Walnut Creek 14 and XD

Yesterday I went to see dirty grandpa. It is rated R and you need to be 17 to see it. I was carded when buying my ticket. I haven’t been carded for a rated R movie for years. No big deal, show them my ID. If you are familiar with the set up, the place you take your ticket for them to tear it and tell you where to go is roughly 10 feet from where you buy it. Got carded again… The chick who was tearing tickets who carded me had no other people in line to have their tickets torn and was sitting where she had a perfect view of me getting carded the first time but guess she wasn’t paying attention… So I get my wallet back out, show her my card, go on my way. After we get out drinks and snacks, we walk to our theatre, there is a dude standing out their to card us AGAIN. Now I am yet to figure out how to update my Unilocal with a current photo, BUT I DO NOT LOOK A DAY UNDER 25, especially with my make up done, and neither do my friends. Both the guys we were with are around 6ft, both with full beards. We all had our hands full with soda and pop corn, had to go find a bench, set it all down, get out our ID’s walk back over, show him, walk back to the bench, get our food, and THEN we could finally go see out movie. And with the dude at the door of the theatre, showing him our torn tickets (which lets be real, he works there, he know the routine) already tell him we were carded when we bought it and carded when the person tore them. This place need more trustworthy employees, i. e, if you train them to card when selling the ticket, then trust they did so, don’t take it out on the customers because you can’t trust your employee to do what they’re told at step one. If next time I come here for a rated R movie and they do it again, I’m not coming back. I live one mile from black hawk movie theatre which has luxury recliner seats, and still choose to come here. Ps, this review is more for management to see than potential customers, and I would hope for a reply

One of my favorite movie theaters in town, but, it’s in need of a revamp. The employees seem bored and unprofessional. My last visit the place was especially dirty. There were stains on the seat & garbage all over the floor. I’m glad I entered while the theater when it was still light so I could pick a clean chair.

My favorite movie theater. The staff here is always nice. They are personable at the snack bar area and never seem to be in a bad mood. Management seems to be very helpful and very hands on as well. Always helping the employees. They keep the theater very clean and the games are always in working order. Fantastic place to take the small ones over the summer with the summer movie clubhouse specials.

Solid theater, but not exactly my favorite. Came to see Spotlight (which was magnificent) and I knew coming in this would be a smaller theater (indie film, almost 2 months since its release) I was pleasantly surprised by how full it actually got. I came for the 10am showing and got the early bird special which was cheaper than matinée. Parking was located across the street and my friends and I had no trouble getting a spot. I got some M&M’s and a water which were normal theater fare. I will say though for the amount of people waiting outside they should have opened up more Windows to pay for tickets. And the process they have to get in is crazy slow! The door is right by the ticket booth and it gets way too crowded. I feel like they should open up three spots to accept tickets (especially when there’s an early morning rush like it was when I went) and move the ticket checker back a bit to free up room. It looks like complete chaos otherwise. Overall, not a bad theater and I enjoyed that it plays some smaller films too that aren’t available where I live!

Picture yourself right when the movie ends. What is the first things that comes to thought? A. «What a great movie!» B. «When’s the sequel» or C. «I really should not have downed that 32 oz drink before the movie started.» My exact thoughts were C. Like most movie goers, I really had to use the bathroom right after the movie. Most movie theater bathrooms are small, cramped, and have a line out the door. Luckily Century 14 in Walnut Creek has the ideal bathroom setup! The line is not out the door because there is no door and there are so many well kept bathroom stalls. Not only are the bathrooms large, so is the facility. The concession stands have so many options but they are pretty pricey. In order to get the best deal you would have to order the large popcorn. My family got the large popcorn with butter and took advantage of the free refill. While I ordered the junior popcorn sans butter. $ 5.05 was a bit much but trying to be healthy is not cheap. Aside from the high price of concessions and my own mistake of downing a bottle of water right before a 2+ hour movie, I do plan on seeing more movies here because the seats were comfortable, the post-​movie bathroom situation was not stressful, the staff was friendly, and there’s plenty of variety in the snacks and movies being shown.

As nice as this theater is, reminiscent of theaters in metropolitan cities with its staircases, it just pains me to come here. I’m loyal to the core to the Pleasant Hill Century/​Cinemark theater, which defeats this Walnut Creek spot on every possible level. Let me count the ways!
1) Yes it sure is lovely to have a parking garage attached to this theater, not to mention plenty of shops and restaurants in easy walking distance! But remember this is Walnut Creek, where nothing makes sense ESPECIALLY parking. Their garage is planted in the middle of an entertainment and shopping district, but imposes a 4 hour time limit. Granted I’ve exceeded that limit many times and never received a ticket, but why should that even be a factor? Their garage is also compact and kinda weird, where near-​miss accidents are all but a guarantee. There are other parking garages close by, but many of them involve a fee. At least this one is free.
2) It’s never particularly clean. I’m sure it starts out nice in the morning, but I’ve never visited and not seen popcorn spilled all over the concession stand floor and in the theater I’m visiting. BUT they do maintain very tidy bathrooms. I guess you just can’t have it all.
3) The employees are Walnut Creek level friendly and courteous, which is to say smiling but insincere for the most part. The managers are nice, but the regular staff just don’t seem to care. I’ve never not had some money related issue at the concession stand (usually being handed the wrong change). The theater doors are also left open before a showing (most theaters make you open the door as you enter, and for good reason), so the first 10 minutes of shows are accompanied by lobby noise. And if you pop in for the first showing of the day, you’ll be eating last night’s popcorn. I’ve worked at a movie theater, they almost ALL do this lazy trick of bagging up the evening’s popcorn and giving it to the next morning’s first customers, the people who of course assume their popcorn will be the very freshest. My most recent early bird movie popcorn was equally stale AND peppered with bits of kettle corn, and the employee who dished up my popcorn didn’t put butter on it nor did he ask, and committed the cardinal sin of smushing the popcorn down with the scoop (I was always trained to never do this, as it crushes the popcorn on the bottom). The care for a great customer experience is highly lacking.
4) Finally this theater is ALWAYS cold, and their sound system is inferior to every other local theater, which is strange because it’s the newest theater in the area.
Maybe these sound like small or nitpicky gripes but if you visit the movies as much as I do, the experience becomes very important, and I want the best for my money. So that means I only visit this location when my beloved PHill theater isn’t showing the movie I want to see. Walnut Creek, as always, you are merely tolerated.

Movie theater is huge and always has a million showings, and is surprisingly clean. This is where people line up around the blocks to see premieres. We’ve been to a few sneak peeks here. My downside would be that because of the location, parking is always a bit of an issue, and it’s a busy corner if you’re trying to drop off young/​old people. Also there is always a danger I will see someone from high school… but hey, that’s life in a small town. :)

Opening weekend for a Concussion (featuring a Golden Globe-​nominated performance by Will Smith) should not have been shown in the smallest auditorium in the facility on a Saturday night. All of the guests were crammed into this tiny viewing room that would have been appropriate for a matinée, weeknight corporate event or family reunion. Wrong wrong wrong!
The real failure («treat») came before we got to the private family room. The downstairs concession area looked like there had just been a stampede-​styled pep rally with paper and debris all over the floor. There were no drink lids for small and medium cups available by the soft drink fountain, so I had to find an employee who gave me (from the look on his face) one from his personal stash. I wanted nachos so I asked one girl where could I get nachos. She starts walking and talking randomly to herself behind the counter about nachos (I follow her) and says «Here they are». It was one lone bag of nachos in a plastic bag inside of a cardboard carton. When i asked where the cheese was she and her co-​worker suddenly looked terrified and said «We cannot open the pantry. Only managers can do that.» After three minutes, the co-​worker comes out with a sealed cup of cheese and adds it to the cheese placeholder in the carton. I asked that the cheese be heated and got the most clueless look that I have ever seen at a movie concession stand. I canceled the entire order hoping that the upstairs concession area employees had more oxygen available to breathe. My movie date got a slush icee drink and went to pay for it. That’s when the cashier said «I can only take credit or debit cards». The look on my face told the story. She continued «I need more smaller bills but the guy behind you can accept cash.» Really? Her entire interaction was in reverse.
I was extremely unimpressed by the lack of training and customer service delivery. Shame on management. This is not the level of service that I have come to expect in *downtown* Walnut Creek. I will begin looking for an alternate place to see movies.

It’s not like this review really matters, because unfortunately this theater is the only game in town. A few months back, my fiancée and I went to see a movie on a regular Friday night. We paid for our tickets and walked to the theater, and found that every seat was taken. There were even people sitting in the aisles. We returned to get our money back, but we were told we could only be refunded vouchers for another weekend show. Pretty frustrating.
Fast forward to tonight, when we went to see a 9:20pm showing of Star Wars. We tried to use our vouchers, and were told that vouchers could not be used for Star Wars until January 6.
I guess this is the kind of customer service one would expect from a company that has no competition in the area. I will do my best not to give this theater my business in the future.

Great theatre and comfortable seats. Saw The Force Awakens here with a bunch of work friends. It was a nice enough layout, being multileveled. However, the snacks are so overpriced. Got one small box of Junior mints and they were $ 4! Insane. The price of snacks is out of control, but we will leave that for another review some day. :)
Parking was a bear! All of the parking and parking garages within at least a mile radius was non-​existent. I ended up parking at Neiman Marcus Valet and walking. Walking is not a problem so no big deal.
What I do love is that this theatre is in the middle of a lot of restaurants and shopping and super super convenient walk to any of them. I am a fan of the theatre.

I asked tonight’s manager at the concession stand if i could have a pinch of the popcorn salt (the yellow stuff they put on while popping) and he said they don’t give that out and that i had to buy something else. I explained that i have gotten every single time I’ve come here over the past 8 years without issue and that i wouldn’t get the popcorn without it. Needless to say he’d rather save $.05 in salt, if that, then sell a tub of popcorn. Good business plan buddy! Pleasant Hill from here on out…

Well the positives: It’s centrally located with convenient parking.
On the downside, the place is invariably cold. In winter or summer bring a coat. Another negative: the sound levels of most shows are nearly ear-​splitting. (~ 100 plus decibels). If you ask them to quiet it down, they will lower the sound just a bit (maybe 5 decibels).
So bring a warm coat and wear ear protection!

I love this theatre. The parking is ample, the staff are kid friendly. They keep it clean and have two fully loaded snack bars available for your convenience. I found the bathrooms the be clean both times — we went twice to see the good dinosaur! The fandango is easy at the ticket collector… I just scan the Barcode on my phone. The theatre seats have movable arms which is nice and it is kept reasonably clean, maybe not sanitary bt most definitely clean to the naked eye… I think this is my new fav theatre. The location is right next to great shopping and food options if you really want to make a day of it, too! They also have back exits to the parking garage if up dont feel like getting caught up in the crowd, feels like sneaking out the back door — super fun!
From a Mom perspective this is a family win! My son loved climbing the big stairs! There is a very short (and not crossing a busy street of cars) walk from the car to the theatre vice/​versa. Awesome for toddlers. The pleasant hill theatre you have to cross the street it is hectic without a stroller or leash. The Brendan is also a farther walk from the parking to the theatre and I find their whole theatre is so large it takes a lot of walking to get to your seat in general… plus their second concession stand is always closed amd pleasant hill only has one in the main lobby. I find the layout in pleasant hill boring, too. I will be using this theatre from now on!

Pretty nice theater! It has a very interesting set up. It’s two levels. There are snack bars on each level and they were both open! Too many theaters will only have one snack bar open, so the lines are outrageous. My movie was in a larger theatre and it was quite clean. No popcorn on the floor or leftover drinks. Also, the trash bins weren’t overflowing. The ladies room was very clean as well.
The location of this theater is fabulous. Parking is a breeze as the theater is connected to a large parking garage. There are many restaurants in downtown Walnut Creek to check out if you want to skip over the overpriced snacks.
Overall, I do prefer the downtown Pleasant Hill theater over this one (it’s less crowded and has comfier seats), but this theater’s great location is definitely a big plus.

The auditoriums are really small. The screen size is also very small. The sound effects aren’t that great. It kind of mellows the whole movie watching experience. They do however have a good snack bar where you can get cookies, popcorn, drinks, candies, ice cream etc etc. Restrooms are very clean too. From the perspective of movie watching, I’ve been to much better theatres in the past.

Impressive. It’s a clean theatre, especially the bathrooms. Carpets don’t smell like feet throughout the hallways. Supposedly it has 14 theatres — I only got to preview one of the smaller ones.
Location is in the heart of downtown so there’s plenty of restaurants nearby in case you’re interested in eating a meal beforehand. Aside from street parking, there’s a parking garage right next door.
My only takeaway are the steep stairs leading to the 2^nd floor. Not good for little kids or elderly folks. Good thing they have elevators.

Love this place. Great location in beautiful downtown Walnut Creek. It’s clean and the service is great. After the movie, you can walk to the restaurants on Main or Locust. And, when it’s scorching hot outside, you can enjoy a movie inside their very cool theater. Life is good!

Seems like any other movie theater. We went to see Jurassic World. Fortunately there were no knuckleheads during the movie. Theater was clean though the staircase up to the snack stands is quite a hike. I can’t imagine what its like for someone whose less than mobile. Of course they have elevators, but yeah, this seemed like an odd design.

The location of this theater is pretty good considering there is a large (and free) parking structure right next door to the theater! As usual, I would recommend getting century tickets from Costco if you want to get the most bang for your buck! The theater has two floors and generally a smaller theater overall. It is pretty clean and the restrooms are easily accessible. Overall a great theater!

I came here on a weekday. The staff was ok.
I got 2 jr popcorns, a pack of red vines and a water. The snacks cost $ 19!!! The same price as 3 movie tickets. Insane.
I like that there are two levels with their own snack area. The theaters were large and clean. I enjoyed watching The Lego Movie here.
Next time I’m avoiding the snacks!!!
The parking garage next door is convenient. Beware of the sidewalk on rainy days because it’s slippery.