Southern Delaware gets first super-sized movie theater

Ryan Cormier
The News Journal
The Cube, the new Movies at Midway premium large-format theater near Rehoboth Beach, which opened last month. It has 51 speakers and a 58-by-24 screen.

With 51 speakers and eight subwoofers pumping Dolby Atmos sound, the new large-format movie theater near Rehoboth Beach just might be louder than a summertime Jam Session at the Bottle & Cork.

The Cube at Movies at Midway, which features an over-sized 58-foot-by-24-foot screen and 199 reclining wide-back seats, had its first sellout Thursday night as "Star Wars" fans gathered to see "The Last Jedi" on the only super-sized movie screen in Kent and Sussex counties.

STORY: Iron Hill 'Star Wars' party to offer new Chewbocka beer

STORY: Join us for a Thirst State Craft Crawl & 'Game of Thrones' party at Smyrna's Painted Stave this weekend

STORY: De Niro & Delaware together for Netflix's 'The Irishman'

The theater, which has both its walls and ceiling lined with speakers, is only the second movie house in the state armed with Dolby Atmos surround sound, following Middletown's Westown Movies.

Judging from early reviews, the powerful system is on a whole other level.

"The sound was incredible — you could feel it through the seats," says Milton's Ashley DiMichele, who had her first Cube experience for "The Last Jedi" premiere Thursday.

The Cube, the new Movies at Midway premium large-format theater near Rehoboth Beach, which opened last month.

Unlike last year when she drove more than an hour to the Cinemark theater's big screen at the Christiana Mall to see "Rogue One," she was able to stay local after Midway demolished its oldest, smallest two theaters late last year and replaced them with The Cube.

"We would joke that movies would go to those theaters to die," Movies at Midway assistant manager Joy Stephenson says of the now-gone Theaters 13 and 14, which dated to Movies at Midway's opening 18 years ago. "Now, The Cube is almost in its own space over there because it's so loud it rocks the entire section of the building." 

Midway built the biggest theater they could given the space constraints in the Midway Shopping Center, the only reason they didn't go whole hog with an even larger IMAX screen like the one found at Wilmington's Penn Cinema on the Riverfront.

The Cube is outfitted with a laser projector that can play both 2-D and 3-D flicks — hitting  48 frames per second for 2-D and 60 fps for 3-D. Films in the new theater cost $3 more than a standard ticket.

These days, most movie theaters are in a near-constant state of improvement as moviegoers expect more than a straight-back seat paired with a standard screen to lure them away from their home theaters and high-definition televisions.

The former Theater 14 at Movies at the Midway last year before it was demolished along with Theater 13 to create The Cube.

Consider Penn Cinema. The state's first IMAX theater first opened in late 2012 with its premium high-back rockers, wowing movie fans. Less than five years later, the theater is replacing them new recliners, like those now found at chain theaters such as Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theatres.

"We knew that we needed to improve," Stephenson says. "Being in Rehoboth, we get customers from big cosmopolitan areas where they have theaters with all these bells and whistles. When they come to a resort town, they expect something really nice. And the locals also expect a high-brow experience."

The Cube opened for a preview weekend just before Thanksgiving with "Thor: Ragnarok” and then "Justice League" took over the following weekend. The new space offers a movie-going experience that locals previously had to drive about an hour to get at the Regal Salisbury Stadium 16 in Maryland, which is outfitted with its own 60-foot screen.

There's a long hallway that leads to The Cube — a spot where Stephenson and other Movies at Midway employees would loiter when The Cube first opened to witness the response from customers.

"When people finally turn the corner and are dumped right in there at the corner of the screen, honestly the reaction usually involves multiple expletives," she says. "It looks alien compared to our other theaters."

The Cube near Rehoboth Beach is outfitted with 199 plush, high-back recliners.

As The Cube approaches its one-month anniversary, local film fans are still just learning that it has opened.

Conor Rix, co-manager of Bethany Beach's Comics and Gaming on Garfield Parkway, knew it was coming, but only learned of its opening this week. Like DiMichele, he has traveled to New Castle County in the past to see films on a big screen, going to Penn Cinema for movies such as "Dunkirk" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."

"I was excited when I heard about it, and now that it's open, I'm going to make it a point to go," Rix says.

While he's prepared to have his insides rattled by the dynamic sound system — and predicts that summertime crowds will as well — he's unsure how it will play with the large, older community of film fans at Delaware's beaches.

"I'll go there all year round, but I'm not sure how many people there are like me in this area," he says. "I mean, I've spoken to some older folks who come in here to talk about movies and pop culture, and some of them were complaining that they didn't really like 'Dunkirk' because of how loud it was in the regular theater. That was a bit of an eye-opener for me."

The Cube will be screening both 2-D and 3-D editions of "The Last Jedi" all week long.  

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

IF YOU GO

The newly opened Cube theater at Movies at the Midway (29 Midway Shopping Center Del. 1, near Rehoboth Beach) will be screening "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" this week in both 3-D and 2-D. Go to moviesatmidway.com for details and movie times.

BY THE NUMBERS

THEATER SIZE: 6,300 square feet

SCREEN SIZE: 58 feet by 24 feet

LUXURY SEATS: 199

DOLBY ATMOS SPEAKERS: 51

SUBWOOFERS: 8