Odeon Cinemas

i really like coming here, perhaps it’s because i grew up watching films here and this was where i experienced the magic of ‘cinema’ here, i think it’s appealing because it’s not a ‘new build-​shove as many seats in as possible to maximize profits’ place, some of the screens are generally bigger than that of this more modern cinemas, also theres no randomly placed arcade in the middle to empty your pockets, you get your very expensive popcorn and slush puppy and go and watch your film
they show decent films too, all of the big films can be watched here

The Odeon is the only cinema in the Harrogate area. The exterior is sort of old fashioned and vaguely art deco (it opened in 1936). The interior has been redone recently, but it’s still rather small, with only one larger screen.
The staff are usually young kids, so service can be a bit iffy, but it’s a relatively good cinema if you don’t fancy a trip to Vue in York.

I’ve come back here and edited this after a recent experience — but I can’t improve my rating. Gone are the scrums in the confectionary area as they’ve moved all the sweets, which is an improvement. But organisation is still poor still — my film had a programme time of 11.00 a.m. and the outer doors stayed firmly shut until then. I had prepaid my tickets and picked them up as soon as I went in but the bozo behind the counter ordered me to the back of the ticket queue in order to get some drinks. I tried to say I already had my ticket but he was adamant and rather smug in his instructions. Luckily the cinema’s manager saw this and came and invited me to go straight to a free till to buy the drinks I wanted. I had the satisfaction of being served by the same smug guy who now looked furious at being made to serve me. Hilarious!
I left this from my previous review: This is a rather nice little cinema that features many of the latest film releases. The web site is rather poor as it seems to not let you reserve more than 4 seats (there are 5 people in my family) and they also tell me you may not buy more than 9 tickets at any one time. That is problematic when you are trying to get a birthday party outing sorted out and I’ve told them they need to address this. Once you get into the screen it’s all good, it’s just the ‘getting there’ that causes problems.

An old style cinema which as yet has no out of town competition this place only has a handful of screens so the numbers of films it is able to show are limited, but despite this the screens have a fast turn around between showings and is always clean and tidy to the best of the staffs ability given the limted time they have to achive this. Prices are very reasonable and generally less than you’ll pay at larger multiplex cinemas in other areas. Being in town centre it is easy to walk to and thus enjoys little need for a huge car park, though the one it has is generally quite full and is a pay and display though again at only £2 it is very reasonable for the location.

Despite the rather grubby exterior, the Odeon in Harrogate is clean and well provided for with 5 or 6 screens.
The Odeon offers a booking online service, or you can book in advance in person, which can be really useful when a very popular film comes out!
Downstairs, there is (as well as the box office), sweet and popcorn stands, fresh popcorn, drinks and hot food such as Nachos and HotDogs, with a small tabled area to eat. (Obviously you can also take your food in with you.)
Upstairs are the two largest Screens 1&2, which is where most of the bigger films go. Downstairs there are are a further 4(?) screens, which are slightly smaller but still a decent size.
The reason I have given it 3 stars (although it is at the higher end of 3) is simply because they have brought in new seats, which I do not like! All of the seats have been replaced with, addmittedly more comfortable seats, but if you’re fairly petite like me, they are very hard to see over!