Metro Private Cinema

Metro Private Cinema wants you to forget public movie theaters exist. Behind the doors of this glossy new Chelsea “twenty-plex,” from Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League, you’re not buying a single seat next to a stranger eating loud nachos. You’re booking the entire room.

Each of the venue’s twenty private suites seats between four and twenty guests, decked out in a mix of plush recliners and motorized loveseats angled at a wall-to-wall screen with full theatrical sound. It’s less a movie theater and more a living room that a set designer got their hands on, with a dining table, ambient lighting and a couch built for watching a three-hour cut of something without your legs falling asleep.

The real pitch, though, is dinner first. Before the movie starts, chef Joshua Guarneri’s kitchen sends out a multi-course, family-style feast timed to whatever’s on screen that night, from a Greek-inspired spread built around The Odyssey to a dedicated kids menu for the birthday party crowd. Order a round of craft cocktails, mocktails or something off the wine list, then let dessert land right as the lights dim. Service during dinner is warm and present. Once the film starts, staff go fully invisible, drinks refreshed exactly when you need the next one, without anyone having to flag someone down mid-scene.

Movie selection runs from opening-weekend blockbusters to arthouse titles and reliable comfort-watch classics, all pulled from a rotating library that swings from Wicked: For Good and Bugonia to revival-house staples like The Big Lebowski and Amélie. If what you want isn’t already in the library, ask. There’s a decent chance they’ll track it down for a small fee. The suites aren’t locked to movies either. Teams have used them for meetings, groups stream live sports on the big screen, and more than one birthday party has ended in a suite turned dance floor.

Bookings run about four hours from start to finish, enough time to eat, watch the film and stick around after the credits roll instead of getting hustled out the second the lights come up. That built-in buffer is what makes the suites work as well for a filmmaker screening dailies for investors as it does for a birthday party or a low-key date night. Booking runs entirely through the Metro app: pick your suite, choose a menu, send friends a slick digital invite and the system quietly handles dietary restrictions and splits the bill by the end of the night. No fumbling for a card at the table, no waiting on a check. You just get up and leave.

Suite access runs $50 a seat, which covers your movie ticket and unlimited popcorn and soda, with the multi-course dinner running about $100 more per person. Not cheap, but the price of never again dealing with someone’s phone light three rows ahead of you feels almost fair.

Metro sits right on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 16th Street, a block from Chelsea Market. And, with the 14th St./8th Ave. subway stop practically at the front door, it’s easy to get to and just as easy to disappear into once you’re inside.

For anyone hosting something that needs privacy without the formality of a full event space, or a group that simply refuses to sit through previews with three hundred strangers, Metro Private Cinema is betting there’s a real appetite for making movie night feel like an occasion again.