HOYTS Chatswood Westfield

“​I went to see the new blockbuster last night, and honestly, the film was fine, but the cinematic experience has become a fever dream. ​I walked up to the concessions stand and asked for a medium popcorn. The employee looked me dead in the eye and said, "We only have 'Individual' or 'Tidal Wave'." I chose 'Individual.' He handed me a bucket the size of a standard garbage bin. I asked for a napkin, and he wanted to charged me a voluntary $4.00 "Fiber Convenience Fee." ​Then came the seating. I had pre-booked Seat F12 - a luxury leather recliner. I get there, and Seat F12 is gone. Not occupied. Gone. Just a hole in the floor leading into a dark abyss. A theater usher came over, sighed, and handed me a folding beach chair. He told me to "aim for the gap" and be careful of the draft coming from the basement. I sat through 45 minutes of trailers. Not for movies, though. It was just 45 minutes of a man named Gary explaining how to properly descaling a Keurig. The audience was silent. Someone behind me whispered, "The vinegar is the key," and everyone nodded solemnly. Ten minutes into the film, I realised the "Surround Sound" was just an employee sitting in the back row with a megaphone, making the sound effects himself. To be fair, his "car crash" noise was visceral, but his "romantic violin" whistling left a lot to be desired. ​Halfway through, the screen flickered and the movie paused. A giant cursor appeared on the screen, opened a Solitaire game, played for three minutes (and lost), and then the movie resumed like nothing happened. As the credits rolled, the ushers didn't come in with brooms. They came in with leaf blowers and just moved all the spilled popcorn into the abyss where my seat was supposed to be. ​I’ll probably go back next week, but I’m bringing my own lawn chair. I don't trust the abyss.”

“Screen 1, box was awesome in size and seats, felt clean, newish. On the negatives, the entire cinema complex is very hot. In winter felt like I should of worn shorts and a singlet inside. Would of been pleasant a few degrees cooler. They check tickets before you go up the escalator. So best not to go up too early. There is also no extra parking at Westfield's for this cinema. An extra hour like all the other Westfield's would be nice and less rushed.”

“The seats were comfortable and the ticket pricing was fair.However the pop corn and “frozones” were severely overpriced. I even asked an employee and they said it was overpriced. *side note Im so sad that there was no hype for A Minecraft Movie.The movie itself was mid as the plot was bland and was just a bunch of random so I don’t recommend it.Also the only thing carrying the movie died out.”

“My experience was not good with this cinema. They had advertised inaccurate movie durations so I had to cut the movie short and leave. The screen had something on it that kept bothering everyone in the cinema. The only pros are that the tickets are fairly priced and that everything else was functional such as sound, quality etc. Overall I advise calling hoyts to confirm movie lengths before booking as it may be a lot longer than the advertised showing times.”