Question of the Day - 24 November 2023

We went to Sphere and saw Postcard from Earth a couple of weeks ago and we'll be posting our review shortly. In the meantime ...

We too read about the supposed overhang, but we didn't really see one over the seats available for the movie. In the corners of the 100-level seats, there's a bit of an overhang, but seats for the movies are only on the 200, 300, and 400 levels. The 100 seats are for the concerts, on the floor and closest to the stage.

The bigger issue for us was with the 200-level seats. They seemed a bit low in relationship to how much of the dome the screen covers. In other words, it's like any movie theater: The closer you are to the screen, the more you have to look up at it. And this particular screen stretches over four acres of dome surface! The screen towering over the 200 seats might not be an issue, but to us, it seemed like it could be.

Also, those seats cost $249. Each. For a 50-minute movie. In fact, we paid $68 for our 300-level seats, the lowest price available at the time, but a check for this answer showed that prices have gone up considerably since early November. Our seat now costs $99, while the lowest price for a seat is $89 in the 400-level nosebleed section. We did find $68 seats still available, but it looks to us like those are outside of the 10,000-seat section where you get haptic effects (vibrating seats, wafting scents, and breezes) in conjunction with the action on the screen. 

Needless to say, we weren't prepared to pay $500 for two to see a movie, spectacular though it may be (and it is; it's the most unbelievable movie experience we've ever had), and we sincerely hope you're not either. So we say buy the least expensive seats you can get; you'll see the screen just as well.

We do need to add one other note of caution. Getting to the upper-level seats in this arena requires a fairly steep climb. If you have trouble on stairs, this will be a challenge for you. We watched unsteady moviegoers gripping the handrails for dear life. But breaks in the handrails allow passage between seating sections and those were scary for a number of spectators. More than one asked for help from people seated near them, which proved a bit hazardous for both parties. 

We do recommend the movie, but it presents a couple of tests: financial and physical.