Cal-Gran Theater

This theater is just as good if not better than anything you will find in Fresno or Merced. The prices are lower than anywhere else on both tickets and food. I don’t know what these folks are talking about dirty. I have seen them clean a trashed theater in ten minutes. I wish they had a late show but if the community doesn’t support it I don’t blam tehm for closing early. Oh and the name of this theater is not Madera Cinema 6 it is Movies Madera.

I have went to this theater many times and have been pleasantly surprised over the years, with the changes they have made, to improve. The price is cheaper than most other theaters. Before six and on Tuesdays, there is even a regularly discounted price. Overall the staff could be friendlier, as they are usually a bit stand offish, in general, and not privy to good customer relations. This might be in part, to having no nearby business competition. Some staff members also have been there for years, which is why they may have become complacent. Also, I understand one of my friends attended a child’s movie there recently, and ten minutes into the movie, the child was terrified, and he had to leave. The theater staff refused to refund or offer him a ticket to return, at a later time, even without the child. Overall the prices are somewhat cheaper than Fresno, but the snack choices offered are limited, although nachos are still offered, which are not at many theaters anymore.

I have small children, so I don’t get out as much as I used to. I little while ago I had some extra cash (rare) and a free night (more rare) and the kids were being good (rarest!) so we decided to do dinner and a movie with the whole family.
We went to this theater in Madera, even though we usually go to the movies up in Merced on the few occasions that we go to the movies. This was a bad move.
The ticket prices were not cheap, but I’m okay with that if the movie is good and the theater is nice. The movie was fine for the family (Tale of Desperaux), but the movie theater itself was a joke.
It is dirty — the first row we tried to sit in had chairs so dirty even my 3 year old was grossed out, and he thinks playing in the mud is awesome. The floor was so sticky that I was worried I might lose a shoe.
The equipment is garbage — the sound was popping and their were black streaks all over the screen through the entire movie.
The staff couldn’t care less — I walked out early in the movie and politely told the only human being I could find (the guy at the ticket window) about the black streaks on the movie. He said he would let someone know, but nothing changed and as far as I know no one did diddly. At the end of the movie, the closing scene had barely finished when the cleaning staff snapped on blinding halogen floodlights in the theater and pushed in to start «cleaning». No chance to savor the movie for a minute or catch the little «bonus» scenes in the credits.
We won’t be back; I could understand some of the technical issues if this were an old movie at a dollar theater, but it was a first-​run movie at full price.