Studio Movie Grill – website

Location: 301 Rice Lake Square, Wheaton

Phone: 630-480-9557

Hours: Check the website for movie times. Matinees start as early as 11:00 am.

Admission: Weekday matinees are $5, weekend matinees are $8 for adults and $7 for children 10 and under. Evening movies are $9.75 for adults and $6 for children 10 and under. 3D movies are $12.75 for adults and $10.00 for children.

Parking: There is ample free parking in the attached lot.

Bathrooms: There are large public bathrooms with changing tables.

Nursing: There is no designated nursing area, but there are several comfortable seating areas.

Handicapped/stroller accessibility: The theatre is handicapped accessible. There is plenty of open space in the lobby for a stroller, but not much room in the theatre, so I would recommend not bringing one.

Other amenities: Studio Movie Grill offers stadium seating, reserved seating, Dolby digital sound, Dolby 3D (for select movies), DLP picture technology, a lobby bar, and in-theatre dining. Corporate & special events, movie parties, and fund raisers can be arranged. There is a family page on the website with family programming information.

Food: A full American Grill menu is available for in-theatre dining. There is also a lobby bar where you can order food or drinks. The full menu is available online.

Special events:

• Kidtoons are offered every weekend in August at 11:00 am for $2 a person.
• Children’s Summer Series offers movies for children every weekday at 11:00 am through the end of the summer for only $1 for children and $2 for adults.
• The next Special Needs Screening is Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Saturday, August 11 at 11:00 am. Tickets for special needs children and their siblings are free (but only available at the box office) and tickets for others are only $5 each.

We paid: We received complimentary tickets as part of a promotional event. Our tickets would have been approximately $45.50 (because it was a 3D movie) and our dinner would have been approximately $45.

Our experience: 

We visited Studio Movie Grill for a promotional event for Disney’s Brave. We spent some time in the lobby for a pre-movie reception and the seating was very comfortable and the appetizers were delicious.

The theatre itself had very comfortable, luxury seating with tables in front of each seat. Most of the seats had a small table on the side of the seat, but we sat in the first row of the second section and that row had a table between every two seats. We were provided with menus before the movie started and each seat has a button to alert a server to come to the seat. We ordered our food before the movie started, but you can place an order at any time. The boys each ordered a corn dog kids meal and I ordered a Cheddar BBQ Burger.

The movie started and I was very impressed with the sound quality; it was much better than any theatre I’ve been in before. The picture quality was great also. (For details about the movie, see my post about Disney’s Brave.)

Our food arrived shortly into the movie and I was very impressed. My burger and fries were delicious. The BBQ made the burger messy, which is fine, but it was very difficult to eat in the dark with 3D glasses on without wearing the food! Still, it was fantastic and I was glad I had ordered it. The servers were very attentive and came quickly when pressed the button to alert them. Near the end of the movie we requested “to go” boxes to bring home our leftovers.

We had a great time and I would definitely go to Studio Movie Grill again. The ticket prices are expensive, but no more than most theatres and the quality was better. The food prices were similar to what you’d pay in a restaurant and the food quality was excellent. It seems like we always wind up going out to eat before or after a movie so the price was probably the same as we would pay doing that, except that because we ate actual food during the movie, we didn’t spend money on salty or sugary concessions. Overall, a money saver and I felt better about what the kids ate than I normally do when we go to the theatre. If you’re on a budget I’d definitely suggest going to some of their special family programming or to a weekday matinee.

My family visited Studio Movie Grill for a complimentary promotional event which included a reception, movie, and dinner. All opinions expressed are my own.