Just got back from my local Walmart....Here's the skinny.
Walked in and went straight to the furniture department. I immediately came across the Beige one in a box. The box is about 32" cubed, and has I think 46Kgs stamped on the side. The chairs are manufactured in China, but I expected that. I looked around a few other aisles, and there it was. The BLACK one, fully assembled and up on the second tier. $199.97 price tag dangling from it.
I got the guy who happened to already be working in the aisle to take it down for me.
My Take:
Nice Black. It's a bit low profile, but it fit me fine (I'm 6'2"), and supported just at the base of my head. The head pillow is sufficiently large and comfortable. The cushion bulges up and is fairly stiff, not exactly the plush sinking leather you find in high end chairs. But, for someone with a bad back, it would probably offer better support. The arm rests are large and plush.
The recline. As pictured, it has a full support foot rest with no gaps, which is nice. The foot rest doesn't recline to 180 deg (assuming 90 deg is retracted position), but more like 150 deg. That would be good for 2nd course seating. As described, it is a two position recline. You are either upright, or you recline. When you pull back the recline lever, the footrest comes up, but the back does nothing. It does release a catch in the back so that with minimum effort, you can push back to the recline postion.
In the recline position, the back goes too far back as is for movie viewing, IMO. You would have your chin in your chest to look forward. BUT, I flipped the chair over to look at the reclining mechanism. It appears to be a standard scissor design, so I'm sure without much effort, a stop block could be installed to set the recline stop anywhere you wanted. There may even be that option during assembly as there appeared to be some adjustment holes not used. Theres no tensioner or spring such that you can push the chair back to some midway point. I tried pushing back slightly to some midpoint, but with any pressure on the back, it goes all the way.
The leather itself is not fine sheepskin. It's a lower grade, like a thick vinyl. It's not glossy, but flat as would be expected with leather vs vinyl.
I asked the sales guy to check inventory, and they had 2 of the black ones, with 4 on order. They will be a common item, at least for the month of June. They are a new item, and they are trialing them to see how well they sell. He said all the Walmarts in my area of the state are carrying them. They will order as many as you want.
Bottom line: For me, I would much prefer these over theater seats, but would put them somewhere under the Berklines. There's no cup holder (of course), and general impression is that it's a mid grade recliner. Not a lazy-boy or Berkliner, but you're not paying for one either. These are a definite consideration for my theater. I can buy 8 of these for the price of 3 Berkliners.
I look forward to hear other's impressions. I think I'll take my wife back to get her opinion later.