After nearly a year of movie theaters struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, the LexLive entertainment center opened its doors for its grand opening on March 11. The building is located at 301 S Broadway and has 10 movie theaters, a bowling alley, an arcade and a restaurant.

    LexLive is equipped with the most up to date amenities in cinema. The seats all recline to the patron’s desire. In addition, every seat is equipped with a heated seat button that the user can turn on and off as they please. The theater offers Large Experience Format viewing, or LFX. The LFX theatre is equipped with an 88 foot-wide screen and the state of the art Dolby Atmos sound system that competes with IMAX.

    The facility has everything one could want for a fun night out. For those that want a bite to eat before or after their showing they can eat at their in-house restaurant. Don’t want the fun to stop when the credits roll? LexLive has bowling lanes and an arcade filled with games you’d find in places like Dave and Buster’s.

     “We’re completely confident that people are gonna come back to the theater. You can only watch so many movies or shows at home,” said the Vice President of LexLive, Todd Cummings. “We feel like we’ve got a lot to offer here outside of the traditional movie theater.”

     LexLive is currently running and showing films to the masses as studios slowly release the blockbusters that have been delayed over the past year through the pandemic. Now that vaccines have begun to roll out, the audience is ready to sit and experience the movies in the way they were intended.

     “I had one guy literally today say ‘I’ve waited a year to be here’ and they’re the first person to put it into perspective,” said Maggie McCormick, a concessions worker at LexLive.

  To ensure a safe viewing experience, LexLive is running at 60 percent occupancy. All parties in the theaters are seated with enough space to follow CDC guidelines and staff sanitize the facility every chance they get.

   Those looking to get back to the theater can currently visit LexLive and see movies like Warner Brothers’ “Godzilla Vs. Kong” or Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.”