Golden Ticket Cinemas Hastings 3

A very impressive, small-town theater. This used to be an old, closed, rundown theater, but it was recently renovated and reopened. It competes with the nearby downtown Fridley Rivoli 3 and The Grand in downtown Grand Island. Having been to all three, GT's offers a mostly better experience. The interior is rather basic, but the exterior is pretty nice. The retro aesthetic and lighting of The Grand and Rivoli definitely look nicer. There are three screens at this theater, and the best one is easily theater 1. It's the largest auditorium so it has the largest screen which looks very nice once the lights are off. The other two theaters are smaller, but GT made surprisingly good use of the space as the seating and screen sizes are pretty decent. Seating in all theaters is extremely comfortable since the seats are heated "luxury" reclining seats that also have handy tray tables attached for food and drink. About the only area that could be better is the sound system. GT employs a relatively standard 7.1 Dolby Digital system in two of their theaters (at least going by their website) that could stand to be a little bit more powerful and more modern. At one point it was advertised that there would be a Dolby Atmos sound system here, but that clearly fell through. That being said, the sound system is still (at least in theater 1) very good for a small-town theater. Overall, this is probably the best theater to visit if you're in the Hastings/Grand Island area. While the Rivoli is still a very good option, I feel like the screen and sound system are better here. I also like that the parking is much more accessible since it's its own lot. Pricing is pretty much identical too, so really the main advantages the Rivoli has are its 3D capable screens, retro charm, and higher seating capacity. Compared to The Grand (about 25-ish minutes away), this location offers a more comfortable movie-going experience with more viewing options too since it's open every day instead of only on weekends. To be fair, though, The Grand is meant to be more of a discount, second-run theater than a main one. However, since the AMC theater closed, it's Grand Island's only offering at this time. Regardless, I am definitely glad there are more choices in the area as more competition breeds better experiences all-around, and I look forward to visiting this location in the future. I also hope it inspires those developing the area in Grand Island to really go big or go home.