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| - Came here during a recent theater rent-out by my employer who booked the place to go over company slides and watch a private movie screening, so I didn't actually pay anything, my employer did, but I've heard about iPic's normal prices.
The photos are legit. This place looks like a moderately mid-upscale bar with theaters. It's the proper place for a dress-casual attire movie going, not for flip flops but not for tuxedos either. The place is nicely decorated in the "traditional/typical modern Scottsdalian" style. The restrooms are such that the sinks are trays. You know, "upscaley". (Because we want to see that the last guy indeed did not have grime.) You step into the theater and, yes indeed, the seats are big lounge chairs. The nicer seats toward the back are orange-colored orangey orange (kind of like the three stars I'm posting this with).
You sit down and, where at SMG you would see the call button, here you see buttons that make the chair go back and prop your feet up. Real recliners! Sadly, I believe that for those who have to pay tickets for such seats end up paying, .. well, you know, .. Scottsdalian numbers. The seat was furnished with a cloth handkerchief, a blanket, and a pillow. A tiny little table was attached to the chair that you could swivel out in front of you; when I ate, however, the table was quite high and awkward. I looked around and saw only one beverage holder between myself and the seat next to me (my seat and the other seat were a single group), and it was between the seats, so I figured they expected people to put drinks on the floor or something... except, no, the Scottsdalians would be drinking *drinks* (alcohol), so perhaps indeed that's what the table is really for.
I was annoyed to find that I was actually surprisingly uncomfortable in my recliner. It seemed that there wasn't much cushion below me. I'm a big guy; I'd take a non-reclining chair with more padding than a recliner with poor padding. I considered moving to the front but didn't want to be in the front of the theater and had already made myself otherwise "comfortable" where I was.
The walls of the theater are blanketed with carpet like any other theater (for soundproofing) and then overlaid with some very old fashioned drapes. The sound system isn't bad at all, but then I wasn't watching a sci-fi nor action movie.
So it's certainly a fine experience. However, they do have competition: Studio Movie Grill and one of the local AMCs. I haven't been to AMC but I am a regular visitor to Studio Movie Grill, so here's my thought on this: Studio Movie Grill has very nice seating and dinner menus--not as nice seating as iPic, just somewhere in the middle between iPic and an old fashioned plain theater seat. SMG gives you WAAAAY more for the dollar including the experience. In fact, SMG is pretty close to a "normal movie ticket" price, yet they, too, have a bar and a way more convenient dining experience (call button on the seats, waiters throughout the whole movie), and the dinner menu is about the same as any restaurant. iPic, while a step up in the environment, is as far as I know quite excessive in the cost of the experience. I'll give it to iPic's businessmen, if they can manage to get people to come, what a great way to make money, because all that money spent on an experience that cost iPic trivial dollars to decorate one time (plus the simple costs to maintain) is really smart ROI for them. For the corporate theater rent-out, as someone who paid nothing I would say I LOVED the whole experience, I just wouldn't pay what I've heard some people have paid. So, for the individual buyer, unless you have a lot of money to toss around, I would recommend AMC or SMG instead. (By the way, SMG frequently has $5 Groupon deals for a movie seat plus a soda. Can't beat that!)
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