Exclusive | The priciest movie ticket in NYC is hiding beneath a historic hotel and nearly impossible to book

New York’s most lavish, tantalizingly secretive dinner-and-a-movie date is nearly impossible to book — and costs five times more than Regal, AMC or Loews.On a recent evening, 66 in-the-know cinephiles snuck down to a Parisian Art Deco theater hidden on the cellar level of Tribeca’s top five-star hotel for what was certainly the city’s most decadent theater experience.Dubbed “Cozy Classics,” the venue at Hotel Barriere Fouquet’s New York, at the corner of Desbrosses and Greenwich streets, has become an unofficial Sunday supper club for movie lovers with money to spend.Tickets, which go up to $215 (tax and gratuity not included), grant access to a formerly private theater, where attendees lounge artfully in gold velvet loveseats and plush chairs beneath an exquisitely apropos gold-leaf ceiling.Sunday’s event, a special one for the Oscars, was sold out; they usually are.While cineplexes struggle to fill seats at $20 a pop — and slovenly, phone-addicted patrons are the nettlesome norm — Fouquet’s theater, which opened to the public in December, is the oasis du jour for the well-heeled, well-dressed and better-mannered.“It’s one of the rare places in the city you can go that has that ‘night out’ vibe and everybody’s dressed up,” said Milica Rajković, a CFO based in Long Island City and regular at the hotel’s Brasserie restaurant.“I saw couples in formal attire and then there were couples that were in, you know, I would call it luxurious pajamas,” added Taylor Deves, who works in private banking.“It ran the gamut.”Robed in a little black dress and a Gucci coat, Dr.

Dendy Engelman, a Tribeca-based dermatologist, showed up Sunday for the Oscar fête with three girlfriends. “You could tell that the people really cared about the show,” she said.“There was no chatter.

People were very focused on the speeches and who won.It caters to a very attentive crowd.”“It’s so chic,” cooed one event regular, who spoke to The...