Being a student without an income, I never thought I'd get to experience watching a movie at the luxurious Hoyts Lux cinema. I don't know if Hoyts wasn't selling enough Lux tickets or what, but they began promoting the Lux cinema by giving out free ticket offers to members. I actually received the email twice. The first time the timing wasn't right so I couldn't take advantage of the offer, but the second time everything fell into place and I decided to watch Fantastic Four with a friend for free at Lux (Hoyts Melbourne Central).

Buying the tickets were simple enough. We rocked up to the box office as we normally did and asked to buy the free Lux tickets. The tickets were printed out in the same way as usual.

Free Fantastic Four ticket to watch at Lux

What's different was that the tickets were put into a pretty little envelope. A nice touch but both my friend and I found the envelope really hard to open and close for some reason.

A little envelope for the tickets

When we went upstairs to the cinemas things were a little confusing. Lux cinema 3 was in a different section to the Lux lounge and other Lux cinemas, so we didn't know where we were supposed to go. We just went into cinema 3 straight away since there wasn't much time left until the movie was supposed to begin, but the cinema was empty. A guy (staff member) followed us in and told us that next time, we should go the the Lux lounge first rather than coming straight in.

The guy asked us what complimentary drink we wanted. I chose Diet Coke and my friend, just normal Coke. The guy didn't say anything about the complimentary popcorn that's mentioned on their website though. Didn't really matter I guess since I don't eat popcorn at the cinema because of the saltiness, but my friend did wonder later why we weren't getting out free popcorn. We didn't order any of the super expensive food they had there because we just didn't want to spend that extra money. We made sure to eat before the movie.

Now, how luxurious is Lux really? The recliner seats are really soft and comfy, much more so than the regular cinemas or even Xtremescreen. There are little side tables between pairs of seats for putting food and drinks (If you want to see how Lux looks, a quick search on google shows lots of images). The staff personally took food orders and brought them to tables. So quite luxurious, but unfortunately that's where the luxury ends.

There were a few annoyances with watching a movie at Lux. Cinema 3 was very small. I know that the other Lux cinemas are larger, but this one was even smaller than the smallest of the regular cinemas (although I should have expected the size, considering that cinema used to be the beanbag cinema and I'd watched movies in there before). Also, because of the other people ordering food, the staff kept walking around in front of the screen during the movie which was very distracting.

My friend and I walked out quite satisfied after the movie. Fantastic Four wasn't as bad as some people were making it out to be, and the movie was free anyway.

But what if it hadn't been free? Now that I've experienced this small luxury at the cinema, would I pay the full $32 to watch a movie at Lux again? The short answer is no. People can take food and drinks into the cinema anyway, so the only real advantage Lux has over regular cinemas is the seating (arrangement and the seats themselves). If I won the lotto or something and had money to spare, I might frequent Lux. Similarly, for people who have the money and value the special atmosphere/setting/comfort, Lux might be the perfect option. Otherwise, the $9 student cinevouchers I use are much better value.

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Follow up post - Hoyts Lux - The Sequel