After living in central Phoenix for almost 30 years I just moved 2 weeks ago to Paradise Valley. After hearing so many positive comments I decided to check it out with a friend. \n\nTheir website is impressive, it's in a high-end shopping area, and it appears they advertise as being the ultimate luxury movie experience. AND their website said they were showing one of my favorite classic comedies \""The Philadelphia Story\""! I was very excited.\n\nI paid $48 for 2 tickets since the Premium Plus Seating looked incredible.\n\nWalking in the theater is very impressive with the conceige desk-style ticketing and the bar and restaurant on either side. Very nice. I had purchased our tickets online and since both people at the counter were with other customers I went to the electronic kiosk and swiped my credit card. Here's where the problems began that I will bulletpoint out below. Plus I will contrast and compare my IPic experience with my history at AMC Esplanade, supposedly IPic's poor cousin.\n\n1) Visual experience entering the theater and \""fancy level\""....ADVANTAGE: IPIC\n\n2) Cost of highest level of seating...$24 per person at iPic, $16.56 at AMC. ADVANTAGE: AMC  \n\n2) The kiosk read that my tickets were printed but no tickets were printed. I waited at the counter and it took the young lady a few minutes to undertand what I was telling her had happened. She finally found our tickets and while handing them to me said \""That kiosk is broken. I need to put a sign on it.\""  (I have never experienced a broken kiosk in the dozens of times I have visited AMC Esplanade. Getting your tickets purchased online from the ticket desk takes seconds.) ADVANTAGE: AMC  \n\n3) We get to our $48 movie theater seats and discover the chairs are not that wide and they do not recline very far because the row in front of you is very close. I am 6'1\"" and I was unable to recline my cloth-covered seat very far as my feet would have been on top of the guy's head sitting in front of me. (The Cinema Suits seats at AMC Explanade have a wide aisle in front and behind each row and the people in front and behind you are a complete level above and behind you. The AMC chairs are fake leather, wider than IPic, and recline almost complete flat.) ADVANTAGE: AMC  \n\n4) During our film, the music and sound effects of the movie in the theater on one side of ours was booming and thumping on and off repeatedly during our film. It was extremely distracting. (I have noticed the same thing at AMC Esplanade but not to that extreme level). ADVANTAGE: AMC  \n\n5) I went to the Men's room during the film. Nice restroom like in a fancier restaurant. The stall had a cool frosted glass door. Unfortuately, there was a huge wad of used TP next to the toilet and the paper seat covers had all been pulled out and halfway shoved back in. When I went to the restroom at the end of the film the stall was in the same condition. Also, for what is supposed to be a north Scottsdale upscale movie theater experience, why can't iPic give its customers better than the gauze-like half a ply TP they use? (The iPic restroom was much fancier than AMC Esplanade's but AMC keeps their restrooms much cleaner on a continual basis). ADVANTAGE: AMC\n\n6) Our popcorn was served in tiny paper sacks. It had no taste like it was air popped. Tasteless popcorn in a small paper bag. Wow....how upscale. (AMC Esplanade has great popcorn that they serve in large bowls). ADVANTAGE: AMC\n\n7) I asked for a Coke Zero and was told they only carried Coke and Diet Coke. You don't carry one of the best selling sodas in the world? My Diet Coke came in a cheap plastic takeout cup. (AMC Esplanade has Coke Zero and serves it in a real glass). ADVANTAGE: AMC\n\n8) When our movie ended the DVD menu for the film immediately popped up. We commented on how it seemed a little strange and laughed about wondering if they had secured the rights for a public viewing of the DVD. It felt a little weird.\n\n9) Theater location for iPic is in the swanky and beautiful Scottsdale Quarter. (AMC Esplanade is in the struggling Esplanade but across the street from the Biltmore Shopping Center. ADVANTAGE: iPic but only barely.\n\n10) iPic parking garage is about a block away. (AMC Esplanade has an elevator and stairs that take you just feet from the theater doors). If you're lazy ADVANTAGE: AMC\n\nThe overall parts of our iPic experience seemed extremely incongruous to the luxury moviegoing experience that iPic advertises. It was a hugely disappointing experience and felt like a complete waste of $48. I wish I had asked for my money back. I will never visit iPic again and will instead go back to AMC Esplanade in the future.