CGV Cinemas, the first US affiliate of Korea’s CJ CGV movie theater chain (owned by CJ Entertainment), is now open in Los Angeles. They’ll be showing Korean films with English subtitles as well as US films with Korean subtitles. I understand they won’t restrict their Korean offerings to films made by CJ, but will show competitors’ films as well. Currently they’re showing Blades of Blood (Korean), The Karate Kid (US), and Toy Story 3 (US). I’m still trying to figure out why The Karate Kid needed to be remade, but that’s neither here nor there.
CGV Cinemas LA is located at 6th & Western in the new (and only partially rented) Madang mall and is supposedly very nice. It includes a cafe serving Fosselman’s ice cream (yum!). I understand that CGV Cinemas members get a discount at the cafe as well as slight discounts on movie tickets. I don’t know if you have to pay to become a member.
I do know I probably won’t be going to CGV anytime soon. I missed their opening week promotion, when they were offering free movies. Now their regular shows cost $12.50, or you can pay about $3 more for premium seating. I’m not sure if that means the regular folks will be stuck sitting on the sides while the premium folks sit in the middle, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Can you tell I don’t like the idea of premium seating? Sounds like another way to fleece the customer base. In any case, I’m really over paying more than $10 for a movie (which means I’m no longer patronizing most of the theaters in LA… but that’s okay because all the movies suck anyway). I’m not sure if CGV at Madang has matinee prices. I couldn’t check because you can’t buy online tickets for the before-6pm shows. So they may.
Valet parking is off Western. Non-valet is off Manhattan. You get three hours free with theater validation. I understand there’s at least one restaurant open at Madang, so there’s the option of doing dinner-and-a-movie without moving the car.
CGV Cinemas
621 South Western Avenue
(cross-street: 6th)
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 388-9000
I love Koreatown in the springtime... 