Now playing at the AMC Orpheum on the Upper East Side: Ratatouille!
The seven-screen theater on East 86th Street and Third Avenue is overrun by rats, according to moviegoers who said a trip there is something out of a twisted horror movie.
“We counted 9 rats running across our feet. Theater is filthy,” an Orpheum patron wrote on Nextdoor this week.
“It was really gross,” another patron, 19-year-old Lilliana, said of a rodent that scurried past her and a pal at the 4 p.m. showing of “Wonka” on Dec. 21.
“My friend grew up in D.C. and she was really scared,” she told The Post.
The movie rat made its cameo during the previews, said pal Connelly Roberge, 17.
“While the ads were playing we saw the rat going around the theater and promptly ran out. Other people noticed it too, and were obviously freaked out.”
“When you’re just trying to unwind with a movie you don’t want to have to worry about a street rat crawling on you,” Roberge added.
Rodent complaints surged this year at the theater — with a skin-crawling 12 incidents reported in 2023 alone — including Christmas night, according to the city’s 311 hotline.
Theater staffers seem unconcerned.
“We went to customer service to ask if there was something they could do about it. They quite literally asked us if we were gonna stay . . . as if these conditions were normal,” Roberge said.
“They gave us confused looks about why we would come up to notify them. They almost seemed to want us to leave.”
Added Lilliana: “We thought they would turn on the lights, get a broomstick or something and chase the rat out. But they just didn’t really care.”
Since the theater refused the pair a refund, they endured the two-hour film, which they panned as “ridiculously bad.”
Another stunned theatergoer, Austin M., wrote on Yelp that he spotted “rodents in Auditorium 7 on bottom floor, running in rows” during a July screening of “Mission Impossible.”
Yorkville resident Jazmin posted to Yelp that same month that she saw “two fat rats scurrying” in her section during a summer screening and when she griped to staff, “their lack of reaction” told her “they know there is a vermin problem and they just hope people don’t notice or complain.”
The petrified patron pleaded with the public: “Please for the sake of your health, sanity, and simple want to enjoy a movie in peace, DO NOT GO HERE!!! This place should be condemned and shut down.”
On Thursday, Violet Moss, posted to X as she spotted “mice scurrying all around” during a viewing of “The Color Purple.”
She told The Post: “It’s just a dump. I won’t be coming back.”
The city Health Department inspects theaters and gives them letter grades, just like restaurants.
Ironically, the Health Department gave the AMC Orpheum 7 theater an “A” for hygiene.
“We investigate all complaints and will work to ensure that any problematic conditions are fixed,” a city Health Department spokesperson told The Post.
AMC Orpheum 7 theater manager Minhaj Jony declined comment.
Additional reporting by Annie Wermiel