With renovations completed, AMC will extend hours

Night owls will soon have a place to catch a movie in town.

The AMC theater in Dartmouth Mall plans to extend its hours of operations from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. This change comes in the wake of a major renovation the theater completed in early May and a broader paradigm shift for the franchise and industry nationwide.

With the rise of home entertainment and movie streaming services like Netflix, the movie industry needed to entice cinephiles back to the theater.

“For the longest time, there was very little change to the moviegoing experience,” said Ryan Noonan, director of public relations at AMC. “We found that guests want to feel like they’re out for a treat.”

Theater-style seats were replaced with larger, plush recliners. Sound systems were renovated. The concession stand was revamped. And perhaps the biggest change — a bar that serves beer, wine and cocktails was added.

The tradeoff in luxury seating is that, while patrons may be more comfortable, there is less capacity for movie-goers. As part of the renovations, Dartmouth’s AMC lost a theater — reduced from 12 to 11. To accommodate for the limited number of ticket sales per showing, the theater will keep its doors open longer.

“People go to the movies more, and come out more often. We end up scheduling more showtimes. We like the flexibility of longer hours,” said Noonan.

The new hours will also keep the bar open longer. Aware that serving alcohol late into the night might pose a risk for drivers, AMC’s written policies will require the Dartmouth branch to close its bar at midnight, an hour before the theater closes.

Noonan said that more than 100 AMC branches across the country serve alcohol, and that most customers are there to catch a movie, not linger at the bar.

“We serve one drink at a time. You don’t see a lot of people coming out to get multiple drinks. You don’t see multiple trips to the bar at the movie theater,” he said.

The mall owners also prohibit alcoholic beverages from passing through the mall's hallways. Patrons can only bring alcohol into seven of the theaters and are prohibited to carry drinks into the four theaters in a separate storefront across the hall.

Currently, the bar is open from about 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Representatives at AMC were unable to specify when the Dartmouth branch will begin its new hours of operations.