Look Dine-In Cinemas Opens in Dobbs Ferry and with the mask mandate lifting in New York, are movie theaters returning?

The new dine-in cinema replaces the former IPIC cinema that closed in 2019. Are movie theaters officially making a comeback?

The Texas dine-in theater chain Look Cinemas has opened a new location in The Rivertowns Square shopping mall on 1 Livingstone Avenue in Dobbs Ferry, New York. The concept was to bring the ambiance of dine-in cinemas back to life when business was crippled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The grand opening was delayed until today. It was originally scheduled to open in December 2021.

Look Cinemas Dobbs FerryJean Muchnick LoHud

The IPic Cinema chain that once occupied the building closed in 2019. The new theater offers premium plus reserved seating, in-theater waiter service, food, free popcorn, cocktails, and reclining seats. It's questionable why to bring this concept back when you can either order a meal at home or online and stream your favorite films at home. We didn't have streaming films in the 80s and just a prerequisite of streaming in the 90s. Streaming started to take off in the early 2000s.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, another Texas dine-in movie theater chain has another location in the Yonkers Gateway Center on 2548 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers. It closed during the early days of the pandemic but has reopened. Will this revive theaters and bring patrons back to the movies once again? If you enroll in a premium features plan there's an option where you don't have to wait in long lines. AMC Theaters in Port Chester and City Center in White Plains have these options available. There's also the Regal New Roc City theater which offers IMAX, 4DX, and RPX film formats.

Many movie theater chains are still under Covid-19 safety rules. So that policy won't change until further notice. The mask mandates in New York State have officially ended for most indoor businesses. The safety measures vary for other states.

I prefer to view movies at home. The selection of films has more of a variety and there's never a hassle with waiting in lines. The only time I go out to a theater is if it's an IMAX film or if the film isn't streaming for a while yet. I'm not fond of crowds either.