This theater remains one of the last remnants, a leftover reminder of what Fashion Square once was. It wasn't always so posh. No, Fashion Square used to be kinda low-rent rather than fancy pants. It used to be packed with kids ditching school, anchored by a fuckin' Sears and you even used to be able to smoke inside. Before that, it was originally a small somewhat open-air 3 story building anchored by a grocery store and a mid-level clothing department store.
Today Fashion Square is more of a destination for tourists looking for a swanky desert oasis shopping experience and a place for the wealthy and financial elite to escape the proletariat masses. It's The Mall of America of the Southwest.
Given the transformation Fashion Square has gone through, it's clear this Harkins theater needs to be redone or removed. It'll take more than a facelift. This theater sticks out like a whore in church not just as a contrast to the mall it lives in, but also among other Harkins Theaters that speckle the valley. It's one of the worst examples left...
To be honest, it was never a very good theater. Many of the screening rooms are tiny and they clean it about as well as an 8th grader cleans his room. Sticky floors, empty wrappers, and a layer of crud on everything that you could scrape off with your fingernail - the crud probably being a mixture of milk dud coating, fake butter flavoring, and dead skin.
The location is awful - it's stuck at the end of the food court. When there's a sneak preview, they have everyone line up on the upstairs walkway in the mall... not the best way to save a spot in line if you're handicapped and have to take the elevator. If there's a big movie out and somehow everyone wants to see it in this shit-hole, they have you spilling out into the food court dining area creating a traffic nightmare and a bit of a mess.
What they need to do is remove a few theaters and expand the lobby so people can wait inside... they could also expand the small theaters. 5 screens is enough... Actually, a better use of the space would be to fill the theaters up with garbage and then fill in the Lobby and hallway with cement and turn the front into a Cinnabon or something.