The A-Listers Rank AMC Concessions

From the couple who see a lot of movies because they have AMC A-List.

Taylor: It's not always easy being an AMC A-Lister, but the fact of the matter is we go there a ton. This means we also eat there occasionally when we're rushing to make a showtime. When we realized we had tried most of the limited menu (we're talking about the button labeled "Snacks" on the touchscreens), we thought we would just try the rest and give you the definitive ranking.

Patrick: We are capital-t The A-Listers, after all. We’re grading these on the curve of snack-bar quality. Very little of it is any good outside the context of the multiplex. Taylor and I collaborated on these rankings and I tossed in a couple of the options that she can't eat. But luckily she's not missing out.

11. Nachos

Taylor: I don't like movie theater nacho cheese, and the nachos are just a vehicle for that sludge. I'm not knocking the liquid gold that can be shitty nacho cheese as a whole, but the ones that come in little pudding-like cups are just gross. 

Patrick: And the chips just come from a bag. 

10. Hot Dogs

Patrick: It's a plain hot dog. I got it once because they gave them away to A-List members one month. 

9. Sliders

Patrick: I tried the bacon cheeseburger option. It was perfectly fine, but very small. Nearly $10 for two White Castle-sized sliders is a little crazy, even for movie theater prices. 

8. Flatbread Pizza

Taylor: This just tastes weird. I prefer cheap dollar frozen pizzas over it. 

Patrick: Unfortunately, one of my guilty pleasures in life is shitty pizza. I might prefer it over actual pizza…

7. Impossible™ Nuggets

Patrick: You can get these anywhere! They do get bonus points for having a meat alternative on the menu. 

6. Popcorn 

Patrick: Since everybody's got it, your popcorn needs that little something special to make it stand out above the rest. (The secret trick is to change your oil, but I won't give away industry secrets of which one.) But if your popcorn is just regular, it's the great equalizer of movie theater snack bars. 

Taylor: We have great popcorn at our local independent theaters. This has made me all the more picky when I occasionally indulge at AMC. When it's good, which it's usually not, it's fine. But when it's bad, it's stale. 

5. Mac and Cheese Bites 

Patrick: I'm giving these some credit for potential. Our AMC always hands these out a little cooler than they should be, but the potential points come from the fact that it's, well, fried mac and cheese. 

4. Mozzarella Sticks 

Taylor: In addition to being a pretzel snob (more on that later), I'm also a mozzarella stick snob. While these are not the best and scream freezer-section appetizer, I will still take hot, fried cheese over popcorn most days. 

Patrick: I have the same complaint about mozzarella sticks just about everywhere: you don't get enough! If they're an appetizer, you need enough to share. If I share these with you, I'm getting ripped off!

3. Cinnamon Pretzel Bites 

Taylor: This is the one time where a sauce actually makes the food! Cinnamon sugar pretzels with Cinnabon glaze dipping sauce? What's not to love?

Patrick: Spoilers, but AMC really seems to do pretzels better than anything else. 

2. Curly Fries 

Taylor: When you're seeing a late movie and you're just a little peckish because dinner was several hours ago, the curly fries are where it's at. They're really crispy and have a great flavor. I just wish that they had better sauce choices! Across the board, the sauces at AMC cheapen a lot of their food options.

Patrick: This is high on the list because when they're good, they're legitimately good, not just concession stand good. But they might also be the most volatile thing on the menu. If they come out cold, there's nothing you can do except take the L.

1. Bavarian Legend Pretzel

Taylor: As I said before, I'm a certified pretzel snob. Go-to bar food? Pretzel. Ballpark snack? Pretzel. At a fair or carnival? I'm getting the pretzel every single time. AMC's elusive (it's almost always sold out and frankly I assumed they just didn't actually carry it) is a restaurant-grade pretzel unfortunately served with theatre-grade cheese. If I was given a side of homemade dijon or a beer cheese and was told it was from a restaurant, I would not bat an eye. It was certainly worth the wait. 

Patrick: You are correct, this is actually good. And it's huge! At our go-to location, this rings up at $16.49. That's kind of crazy, but it's easily big enough to be a two (or three) person snack. If each person chose their own thing, it would almost certainly add up to more. There's basically no reason to get anything else. 

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