I have begun construction on the garage/theater/gym project.

Right now the plans are calling for a 24x28 theater room. This will be underground, under the garage. Suspended concrete ceiling 12ft 6 inch ceiling (finished height)

The room will be running the the 28 foot length, I'm having the room poured as a box and then building risers.

Herin lies the problem. We are trying to get the width of the room nailed down. I am trying to figure out how wide I need it in order to get the seating I want. I know I want to go with a nice Berkline type recliner movie chair. I'm figuring that if I allow 3 feet per chair, I can get 6 chair in each of the 3 levels, and still allow for a 3 foot walkway on both sides of the theater, which puts me at 24.

Am I missing something? Are good seats wider than that? Narrower? Do I need a few inches inbetween each chair?

All opinions welcome, I have to go home and meet with the contractor at lunch and I'm hoping to give him some direction.

As you can tell, I'm a "Shoot from the hip" type guy. Which dosen't lend itself to construction projects very well.. lol..

Thanks

There are several sources for dimensions for the various seating widths on line.

Berklines vary depending on the model, etc. I believe that three Berkline 88's are about 85" wide, but I didn't go look at the sources.

Ken

Here is a link with some dimensions:

http://www.berkline.com/secure/planner/intro.html

Ken

A row of six will be approx 202" would vary some with chair style but that is a good ball park figure. that assumes that you are using connecting style recliners with common arms, not individual recliners by themselves which would take a lot more space.
You also take 67" to fully recline a seat which you need to account for in placement of your rows and in allowing space to pass in front of the seats.
In planning your walkway, be sure to remember the depth of any columns you may have on the sides of your theater, such as surround speakers and or sconces.

Also be sure you are accounting for how high each riser must be to clear the seats ahead of them, if not reclined and based on the screen placement and size etc.

So yes do NOT play this by the hip, or you risk a lot of costly mistakes. Do your homework and planning before committing to something.

That link indicates that 088's are 167" wide for six of them. I was off by an inch with the three I mentioned... They are actually 86" wide for three.

Fantastic info.. thanks guys.

Does anyone know offhand of anyone in the forum that has a completed theater with 3 risers, 6 seats on each? I'm trying to get a visual..

Thnx

Be mindfull of the width of your room compared to the ceiling height, you do not want any one room dimension to be divisible by another when you are done.

One thing to keep in mind on the chairs is the arms. I went with 3 separate chairs, arms on each side, so everybody has their own arms on each side. You gain some more width by doing this, but you're not bumping arms and fighting for cupholder space.

These visuals might help, might not, YMMV.

Art Sonneborn has three levels but his doesn't have six seats on each level. Here is Art's home page:
www _ artsonneborn _ com/index _ html (replace the space _ space w/ a period)

Carpe Diem Theater has a rather large space but doesn't have near the seating capacity that you are looking for. I think the best theater photo is in the Construction Section on the last row of thumbnails.
theater _ cdiem _ net/

RajeeK's has three levels but "only" has 4 seats per level. I think the theater was 16.5' wide and 25' deep.
home _ pacbell _ net/rajeek/theater _ html

Those are the largest theaters I can immediately remember. Sounds like you have a wonderful sized room. Good luck.

George

That's an amazing amount of space. You really need room for 18? I don't think we have 18 friends, let alone know 18 people who would come over for a movie.

That's an amazing amount of space. You really need room for 18? I don't think we have 18 friends, let alone know 18 people who would come over for a movie.

Suprisingly yes.. I think we will use it. We have 4 kids, so I'm thinking Birthday parties... etc. We have large groups of friends that go to the movie together.. maybe 7 or 8 couples, so I think we will use it. Besides, I would rather go larger than smaller..

Started digging for our Garage/Gym/Theater today. I'll post pics early next week. But imagine a hole 28x 70 and 14 feet deep. Alot of freakin' dirt to haul away..