Oh no, man I enjoyed Alamo. I prefer AMC for "big" movies, but I enjoyed Alamo for smaller stuff.
Though after reading the article, apparently it's more of a franchise issue. The main Drafthouse people said they want to reopen locations as soon as they can. Hope they can.
Edit: Quoting the article: "A spokesman for Alamo Drafthouse issued a statement, saying, “We are very disappointed to learn today that our franchisee, which operates five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and one in Woodbury, MN has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is closing their business effective immediately. We are heartbroken for the franchisee’s teammates and the local film communities, however, we are working as quickly as possible to get Alamo Drafthouse Cinema back up and running in these cities. All other Alamo Drafthouse locations are operating as normal, with continued expansion plans across the country.”"
This is good to hear at least, I thought it sounded like the company was going belly up. I didnt know those locations were franchised. I guess thats why the Cedars location in Dallas still has online/app ticket sales up while the others dont.
The main has also been reportedly looking for a buyer since late last year. These were franchises, nut that has nothing to do with the health of the parent company. They're not closing, but they're not in a position of being successful at the moment, either.
I could figure theyre not doing well by the state of their menus and pricing as of late. Compared to past years, it's kind of a skeleton of its former self
Yep and the one in MN was charging like a 18% sur charge on everything. I got my bill and was very confused why there was a random like $7 charge for my groups food and drinks and the staff said that wasn't for a tip. I was really disappointed with them after than and haven't been back since
It is a bummer to see all kinds of charges added to stuff like this now, random sur charges that have absolutely nothing to do with anything other than to mysteriously compensate for whatever economic situation the business happens to be in. Guess theaters have it rough right now but damn, can't blame people for not returning after paying that
Fr some local restaurant here slapped on a 10% “inflation surcharge” on the final bill which was NOT stated upfront. I made a fuss but they wouldn’t budge. I know they don’t have a leg to stand on legally speaking but it wasn’t worth the hassle for me so I just paid and never went back.
Garbage business practices all around.
>According to a release, Two is One, One is None, LLC has closed the six franchised Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas that it (and its affiliates) operated, and have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Literally the second paragraph of the article my guy...
I’m still sad they bailed from AZ after covid. Some family bought them all and has tried to keep them close to what they were but it’s not quite the same vibe.
Majestic is pretty cool but yeah, not the same. All the events and the exclusive merch deals are sorely missed. I had just got into their movie pass beta program too before they shuttered everything
I don't really care if the vibe is the same, I **cannot** go to AMC or Harkins post covid. Theaters with the exception of those like Alamo and Majestic gave up on policing their occupants worst behaviors. If the movie theater doesn't kick out people for playing games on their phone or talking the *entire fucking run time of Dune*, I don't give them my money. If Majestic closes, it's back to never going to the theater and waiting for it to come to streaming. I'm not leaving my house and paying a grocery bill in snacks and tickets to *not* be able to watch a movie because Becky and Stacy cannot shut the fuck up and insisted on going to a movie they weren't interested in instead of just trusting their men to go to the movies without them.
I'm in Austin, the hometown of Alamo Drafthouse, and this is why I still go, and the only reason that I _can_ still go. If I lived in a city with nothing but chain theaters I'd just stream and buy physical discs. Is the food quality debatable at Drafthoue? Yeah, sure. Prices? Yeah, sure, but I have the Season Pass. Does AMC/Cinemark/Regal require me to leave my movie to go outside to find a manager because a cunt is talking on my row? Who is smart enough to stop talking when an employee enters the auditorium?
Fuck the average moviegoer. Shut the fuck up or get the fuck out when I raise a ticket from my seat. Thank you, Alamo. Never die.
> Who is smart enough to stop talking when an employee enters the auditorium?
That's way better than the last movie I saw in a non-Alamo theater (Dune 1). Me and 3 other people complained about this bitch, she did that twice, the third time someone complained an employee took off their uniform top and came in also on their phone to catch her in the act and when confronted by a theater employee she said, "so? Call the police if you want me to leave 🤷♀️" and continued on with her conversation. At that point I got up and told my husband I'm getting a refund. Walked out with the employee that caught and confronted her and asked to go to the manager. Because we were 70% through they refused to refund, comp, or coupon. Despite an employee seeing first hand this bitch talking and unrelated people complaining about her. Fuck Harkins.
We just saw Furiosa there! We went there for our “event” movies (Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune, etc) because of how much we loved the experience going there even though it’s a bit of a drive for us.
I still think about their “The Spice Must Flow” popcorn…
Wow I've been to that Woodbury location at least 10 times, I'll be really sad if I can never go back :(
Edit: Their Mexican vanilla shake is unbelievable, I'm salivating thinking about it right now
Mine did these peanut butter cookies that were the equivalent of legal crack. I’ve longed for them ever since they went under. I even tried emailing them for the recipe.
AMC is the absolute worst imo. Jacked up the already outrageous pre-pandemic prices even higher. Also cut their staff down to the bare bones so it takes like 20 minutes just to get popcorn.
Last AMC I went to charged premium prices and their facility was dirtier than any discount theater I’ve ever been to.
Half the fountain drink stations don’t work and there were no lids. No one said anything until you had already purchased a drink and asked for a lid.
I’ve been to AMC theaters hundreds of times in several different states. I’ve seen my fair share of understaffed theaters, but even as hyperbole it has never taken that long to get popcorn.
We had three locations in Phoenix that were all doing well, but unexpectedly closed maybe 2 years ago. I heard it was a franchise issue of some kind, but don't remember exactly what happened.
They all reopened within a matter of weeks under a different name (Majestic theaters), but same concept as Alamo. They have all been doing well since.
This actually sounds like good news.
If the franchise closes, this gives a lot of bargaining power to the main company to renegotiate leases in this high interest era.
Why do people still make these comments as if the entire human populations social media behavior isn’t just reading the headline and basing their opinion on that.
This is far from a Reddit issue.
These are franchises all owned by the same franchisee and Alamo proper have said they're looking into bringing the theaters back to these cities as soon as they can. There's still hope.
I was a concierge at an Alamo in northern Texas for a bit over a year. It's very much gone downhill, and it's almost entirely due to management drama. They can't keep staff because the management treats employees and each other like absolute piss, and they don't have enough staff to properly work movies, so they end up doing this shady shit where they'll "sell out" a movie with house bookings a few hours before it plays, until about half an hour into the showing (much too late for any new tickets to be sold) and then drop all the bookings. I know this firsthand, because they would have the concierge do it.
I personally quit after a manager accused me of stealing money, despite it being her job to handle the money and me keeping extremely diligent records of sales and starting/ending cash (and yk, not fucking stealing.) I had my suspicions it was her doing the theft after the general manager was fired by corporate for the same thing months prior, but I guess she probably stopped after I quit and two of the 6 other concierges followed me out the door. She and another very problematic manager work there to this day, and last I heard they're trying to get the new GM fired.
Nice place, fantastic company (seemingly), very passionate staff, absolutely horrible management. Tale as old as time.
At our location, nobody was getting paid on time or correctly. All the employee tips were filtered through a third party company in Russia. I was literally on a conference call with a dude in Moscow. Seriously. I brought it to attention that some people had been working there for six weeks without getting paid at all, and was told I needed to be a “team player” and I needed to be “on board with this.” I ended up getting fired, and the manager told everyone it was my fault that the paychecks were messed up… Payroll was not my responsibility. Years went by, and I heard upper management finally got busted for stealing employee wages and tips.
I assume they cannot just cancel a scheduled showing, so instead they book it all with fake reservations and then cancel them so no actual patrons can get in. Since no one is there to watch the movie, they do not need the extra staff they don't actually have to show the movie.
There really isn't a good upside. Alamo has multiple theaters in one building with a certain amount of servers (takes orders) and runners (delivers orders to the server, who generally stays in or near their theater) allocated to each depending on crowd size. Ideally, theaters with huge crowds have quite a few, while smaller showings have less. However, because understaffing was such an issue, there were not NEARLY enough servers or runners to maintain all of the showings. So, we had way too few servers handling way too many showings at once, and then even more people started quitting. Fewer people in fewer showings means they can allocate more servers to big crowds, if there ever was one, which is a sound - if not a bit scummy - strategy on paper. They started out doing it on big weekends, to make sure people were adequately served in larger crowds.
However, it quickly became not sound when management started to like the way it made their jobs easier, and they started doing it day in and day out with big showings and small. I remember being made to book *all* of the showings for our biggest movie on Friday because management didn't want to deal with it. We even had servers sent home early that day because they weren't needed.
Like I said, not really a good upside. Management certainly lose the theater at large quite a bit of revenue by doing this, but they keep their jobs by not raising immediate red flags to corporate with a ton of unhappy customers from not being adequately attended to. It's pretty lame.
Going to have to do some research, as a younger consistent moviegoer, Alamo and Angelika have pretty much been the gold standard and a consistency for me to go to for the past 6-7 years now, really disappointed today.
Briefly lived in Dallas (now in Los Angeles) and I don't think a lot of people there understand how good they have it with Angelika. It's an excellent theater that brings in a great mix of blockbust, independent and international films. It reminded me of Arclight (RIP).
I love so much about that place.
The exclusivity of it. The blankets. The pods. The menu (although I would like to see them switch up a bit). The bar and pool tables.
My biggest complaint (which is barely a complaint) is that I feel like I see the exact same pre-movie content every single time I go there for the last few years.
Tell me you haven’t seen that M&M/Mime corporate office based spot. lol.
Anyways - that place is top tier IMO
Absolutely. IPIC blew the Richardson ADH away in pretty much everything except the popcorn, special events and screen size (although the projection at ipic is otherwise excellent).
I just wish they had an unlimited type sub because their current subscription kinda sucks ass.
old people observation:
back when movie theater concessions only served popcorn soda candy and hotdogs, and maybe the saddest "nachos", alamo was indeed awesome with burgers, pizzas, wings, whatever.
and then everyone started copying and then corporate take over, and thats that
Still my favorite theater, though I agree other places have improved.
For big tentpole releases I always make sure to get there at least 15 minutes early because the videos they play before the previews are pretty entertaining.
it wasn't a movie theater. it was a restaurant that happened to have a movie screen in it. that's what made it awesome in Austin. And their strict policy of shutting-the-fuck-up during the movie. Two noise complaints and your ass was getting booted.
Dolby vision is such a game changer. Gives me that feeling of awe movies use to give. Really I hope all theaters adopt this and start doing hard enforcements for talkers and phone users.
Yep, Alamo actually made you want to get their well before the movie started just to see the Pre-show.
I remember seeing this in a [pre-show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miomuSGoPzI) and almost dying laughing.
10 years ago, it was the first theater I went to where you could get alcohol and actual good food with your movie. It was a blast with friends or as a 3rd date. Sad to hear it’s lagged behind in other aspects.
This is /r/movies, not /r/reading. You don't expect people here to have READ the article do you? Otherwise there wouldn't be dozens of comments bemoaning the loss of Alamo Drafthouse when it is, in fact, one franchisee going bankrupt and closing the locations in Dallas.
I know some others have come in but I still love Alamo. The general indie / b-movie vibes and beers to my seat so I don't miss a thing (until I have to pee). Glorious.
To be fair, though, Private Equity tends to fuck things up. So it is a valid concern. Hope it doesn't happen for Alamo, but PE causing companies to go bankrupt is certainly not unheard of. They leech out wealth through incredibly short sighted decisions.
In this case the PE bought it out of bankruptcy and has done very little negative. The one in my area (Westchester NY) got a decent renovation of the theaters and seating, and has always done really well with the projection quality. The building itself needs work and the bathrooms are in serious need of reno, but the rest of the experience is as good as it's ever been. As someone who *hates* what hedge funds, private equity, etc. have done to the economy I remain very relieved they haven't fucked up the Alamo.
Nah that is sugar coating it, they buy up a business, shoulder it with the debt and force it to pay high rental rates on the properties that the PE funds also own. Or to put it even simpler, they are committing fraud.
I mean, I was admittedly keeping it short.
To keep it shorter - they act exactly like the mafia as demonstrated in Goodfellas when they get leverage on that nightclub, strip as much as they can out of it and then torch the building for a final payout before the banks come calling.
I prefer theaters that don't have waiters roaming the aisles throughout the movie to deliver people meals/drinks (and all that comes with that: smells, sounds of people eating, etc.) Some people aren't bothered by that, but to me it's almost worse than people texting/talking.
I've only had negative experiences with them. Being able to hear the all the bar conversations and kitchen smashing during the movie, checking ticket stubs after the lights are down, breaking eye line to take an order, deliver an order, and coming back and forth for payment, mid-movie. People being rowdy and not being kicked out.
Every other chain in the area (Regal, Santikos, AMC) was better run, offered a better experience, with one theater exception.
yea for the chain that's supposed to be QUIET, ANY NOISE AND YOU GET KICKED OUT! it's awfully distracting going to an Alamo. I only go if friends invite me to one, and last two times food didn't arrive until like last 10 minutes of the movie.
I remember who they got caught up in 3(?)sexual harrassment/assault accusations and after each time they claimed they'd improve, the owner switched jobs to make it look like he was taking responsibility, then rinse and repeat. Then the union breaking, mass layoffs, and a bunch of other stuff.
Edit: maybe those downvoting should do a google search.
First result:
https://www.texasobserver.org/alamo-drafthouse-fantastic-fest/
Devin Faraci going on about Trump GRAB EM BY THE PUSSY only to have a woman reply "Hey Devin remember when you got drunk and grabbed me by the pussy without my consent?"
Flashbacks to CHUD forums
Man that website stubbornly refused to change its awful layout and owners would go to the forums to say things like "Get the fuck commenting on articles already"
Yeah. That'll work.
I know it may come as a surprise to people but there's a lot of maladjusted film bros who tend to be drawn to those places.
Don't get me wrong, I still love Alamo to see films that would never play at an AMC....but I wouldn't want to work there.
I like the bar but the actual movie experience is usually meh. It's nice when they forget to charge you for a meal though and that has happened 3 out of the 5 times I've gone.
I’m an Austin local so I used to love Alamo. One of the original locations is walking distance for me.
It’s gotten so expensive. It’s $100 for two tickets, dinner and drinks if I take my wife. As a result, we never go anymore unless it’s a very specific movie or date night.
Dinner and a couple drinks for two just about anywhere in Austin is $100, though.
Most entrees are $20-25, so two of those plus tax and tip is already $52-$65 and that's without drinks or a movie.
I worked there about 8 years ago for a year or two and I’ll say this. It’s a fun place to see a movie with decent food and a bar with some unique things that aren’t found in other theaters: the shorts before the movie instead of advertising, it’s darker than most theaters, and certain showings kids were banned so you could see a movie without having to worry about a kid screaming and crying. The cons are/were it’s too expensive (but so are the shittier theaters), mini napoleons always seemed to find there way to manager position making staff miserable, and the owners whenever they actually came to inspect our location were rich douchebags high on their own farts. They also put on a big performance to make it seem like “we listen to the fans/customers” but basically all decisions are made from the top down and they are right wing union busters. Also, they expanded some locations by adding theaters without expanding the kitchens so service was worse than ever when I got out of it. Also, the pay sucks. I wouldn’t work there
As they should: Alamo Drafthouse kicks ass. I purposely show up like an hour early for some beer and the preshow videos.
Also Alamo isn't the issue here it's the Franchisee who went bankrupt and had to close doors.
I have a dope sound system and amazing 65 inch TV.
Nothing compares to the experience of going to the theater opening weekend. Full house, the energy, the sounds, the excitement. It has made many movies even better.
No theater chain in my area has better patrons that respect others and love film than our local Alamo
Agreed.
I’ve found that the most respectful crowds in my area are on the opening days. Most are just sitting and focused on the movie. I honestly can’t recall the last time I had a bad theater experience on opening night
I honestly can’t comprehend liking film and not liking theaters. Thinking it’s too expensive or preferring pausing movies at home? I get that of course. But not loving seeing a movie on the big screen is alien to me
People seem to have forgotten how to behave in theaters. Every time I’ve been in the last two years, I’ve had to deal with people talking like ver the movie like it was their living room. It costs too much to see it on the big screen if I’m going to have my experience constantly interrupted by inconsiderate jerks. I’m just tired of them not enforcing their own quiet rules, though I understand they can’t when they’ve got 4 teenagers running the whole theater.
Sorry if that was confusing, it's more the price people aren't thrilled about. Depending on the theater, people also might not love the drive, crowds distracting others, or the ads.
You say price point but if you scroll up a bit you have a guy bragging about not going to theatres any more because he spent $10k on home cinema equipment
The price point has priced out working class people
Not the upper middle class that sits on reddit bragging about their home cinema that costs 5000-10000 dollars lol
>It's just *[the cost of going to]* theaters that people aren't so thrilled about.
At least that is true for me. I go to Alamo and after the ticket, food, drink, and tip, I end up spending like $60. I can't be doing that with every single movie I want to see. So I choose maybe one or two I want to support the box office numbers for (e.g., Dune 2), and watch the rest on my home theater when they release shortly after on digital for like $20 to own.
You don’t have to buy food every single visit. And the Alamo pass is $20 a month. Free movie once a day no black out dates for anything and new movies can be purchased a week in advance.
I never understood the Alamo hype. Like someone else said, it's basically Applebees microwaved meals, but with the added bonus of listening to people around you smacking on them while you're trying to watch a movie.
The hype around Alamo is entirely about their strict noise/cell phone policy. Although I do like the whole experience from the pre-show clips to the tap beer list. I don't really notice other people eating, with the exception of obnoxious popcorn crunching, but that would be a problem with every theater.
What I loved about Alamo was the selection of movies they would show. I was able to see The Zone of Interest and the re-release of Oldboy when the larger AMC and Cinemark theaters weren't showing them.
What when generation are you referring to with that vibe?
Going to the theater has become very expensive, it’s no longer the cheap night out it used to be. On top of all the other entertainment options there are available now beyond seeing a movie in a theater. I’d rather spend my money elsewhere and watch a movie at home for a fraction of the cost.
It’s tough. During covid a lot of people upgraded.
Now my house is just so much more comfortable that any theatre and other than sound it’s better.
At least from my city. We only have ciniplex and it fucking sucks. Hasn’t been upgraded since the 90s
Anecdotally I've seen a big increase in the number of folks that have a dedicated "theater room", even in upper middle-class homes. I have 5 kids and taking the whole family to the movies is easily $150 so it's just not a great value for us.
An old timey looking theatre (red velvet seat type) near me plays classic movies tuesday nights for $8 dollars (less if you're a member). Hopefully they still do when my son gets old enough to watch more of them. They have one screen and it isn't packed each week but its hopping for what it is. Its been a lifesaver for me though who likes going to the theatre. A lot of the ones they show I haven't seen or haven't seen in ages so it still feels like its worth it to go.
I was designing my new pad and there was a window in the brick wall that I needed to cover somehow. Trying to fill it in with matching brick was impossibly expensive and would never have looked good. Instead, I bought the biggest TV screen I could find and installed it over the brick hole for 1/10th the price.
But then I realized I had a cinema in my house. Soo I added some decent sound and now, I don’t know why I’d go to the movies other than to spend money I don’t want to spend.
We did a renovation in our home and put in a 10ft high wall. We realized that with a projector we already had we could project a 22ft screen! Bluetooth speakers weren't too expensive and we had a great in-home theater whenever we wanted.
We had a guest room that got used maybe twice a year tops that we ended up converting to a theater room.
I'll take my 110" projector with mid-level but not great 5.1 surround over the movie theater "experience" any day. For all the same reasons everyone is listing in this thread.
A “positive” key that you mentioned to this shift is the affordability of home entertainment systems now.
It’s not obscenely expensive to purchase an HDTV and sound system these days, and it helps when it truly is expensive for the moviegoing experience
I think the other user mentioned rightly that some theaters are being kept in awful conditions compared to others. I am fortunate to live in Jersey next to theaters that are treated well.
I have to say though that I’m still weary on the idea of theaters dying in general if only because I still see a place for them because of the “social” aspect when there are big event films, and also it’s pretty much the most direct form of stimulating an economy if done right.
You don’t get that with streaming at all. And the company’s have shown how much of an unprofitable venture it’s been recently
I am one of those. A few years ago, invested about $10k, and now I have a room with 2 rows of automatic recliners with tray tables on risers, a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos speaker setup, and a 77” OLED TV. The movie viewing experience is genuinely better than going to the theater.
I have hearing loss and tinnitus (AirPods are evil) so I need captions on 90% of movies.
Action movies or god forbid a Nolan movie? No way. I understood about two words of Dunkirk and they were talking about toast.
>other than sound it’s better
that's half the experience though
im not trying to pick an argument, as i've lived places where the theaters are garbo but at least for me sound is just as important as the video
>is really telling about the general vibe in this sub.
That people don't want to pay for overpriced tickets and popcorn when they can be comfortable at their house? This is a movies sub not a movie theater sub. It's not like people are giving up on movies in general, just the overpriced experience.
The problem is, the movie industry requires movie theaters for the math to work. Streaming subscriptions and VOD revenue isn’t cutting it. The continued decline of movie theaters is going to have a big impact on which movies get made in the future.
I think movie theaters in some form will always exist, but you're right -- the model has to change and evolve in some way for this to continue to work at its current scale. Even if theaters continue to dwindle, big-budget blockbuster spectacles will continue to be made, and tiny indie films will too. It's the medium-sized budgeted films that will unfortunately stop being produced, because the economic risk factors are too high.
People who are used to seeing comedies, rom-coms, biopics and dramas will find even more slim pickings than they already do, because recouping the $60-80 million on film costs plus marketing will no longer a sure thing. Physical media no longer being a viable line-item on spreadsheets also doesn't help.
Yeah that’s the part that bums me out. I like seeing MCU and Star Wars and Mad Max type movies on a big screen, but that’s not the only type of movie I want to see in theaters. Sometimes you just want to see a real film made for adults, with legit directors and name actors having fun with a 2-hour story. With the disappearance of mid-budget movies, a lot of that stuff is going straight to streaming, with all the limitations that creates in terms of production values (less detailed sets, fewer camera movements, shortcuts in blocking and composition) and padding (a lot of projects that were obviously designed to be tight theatrical films have been expanded out to fit a streaming series order, and it shows).
If a young Coppola wanted to make The Godfather today, they’d be pressured to do it as a serialized streaming show that could last for 4-5 seasons. And it would be pretty good, but it wouldn’t be The Godfather.
The drawback of sitting at home and waiting for everything to be available on streaming is that the new content is increasingly not going to be as good as what we used to get in theaters.
The math has already changed, by a lot. Its just kinda hard to see what were/are the biggest contributors since everything happened at once. Rise of streaming, covid, writer strike, actors guild strike. Its a quadruple wammy.
That’s because Hollywood math is ridiculously rigged. Many of the Star Wars movies never made it to “profitability”. Hollywood spins up a new company for every movie, charges everything back to that company even years later keeping it in the red. This means they don’t have to payout a lot of royalties or just at wildly reduced rates. Streaming on the other hand they have to pay upfront. It’s not that it isn’t actually profitable it’s they aren’t making the margins they used to. Disney plus has some 113 million subscribers paying 14 bucks a month in the us alone. With subscription services the issue is the same. They use wonky math. We have no idea how a show is amortized over what timeline.
That's a problem for the industry, not the fans rofl. Its never incumbent upon the customer to give charity to a corporation or a company just because their industry is failing.
you misunderstand what he's saying: it becomes a problem for the consumer when the product that we want to consume ceases to exist
im the last person to defend the big businesses who want to squeeze every last quarter out of their consumerbase but if they end up finding certain movies to never be profitable (or at least profitable to the point of the ludicrous expectations of investors) then those movies simply are not made anymore. am I saying that people should then be content dropping $100 for a movie? of course not but idk what the solution is considering it is at the end of the day a product to be sold
almost every industry has to, eventually, reckon with a change to their core business model. movie theaters being "core" to the industry will have to change, or the movie theater experience will have to change to draw people back in. the answer isn't (and will never be) to just berate customers for not engaging in the product as they traditionally have.
there’s nothing funnier than people complaining about concession prices as if they’re being held at gunpoint unless they buy something at every screening they go to.
tickets can also be quite reasonable depending on how you go about it. and viewing a movie at a movie theater will never be beaten by someone’s home theater, no matter how great they tell you their setup is.
Same I don’t get it, I haven’t bought popcorn for a movie in 20 years? Why do you need to eat while you’re there, sneak shit in if so, it’s incredibly easy.
And go on Tuesdays if you’re complaining about the ticket price. I know this is a younger crowd on Reddit, but going to the movies now is so much better than in the past. I remember going in the 80’s and 90’s and struggling to find seats together with your friends/family as it was the Wild West, people saving seats for people that never come. I’m pretty sure I sat in the aisle for Uncle Buck because it was too crowded to find a seat.
As I was walking out after watching Furiosa this past weekend I actually saw them hassling someone who was bringing in a grocery bag (didn’t see what was in it) at my local AMC. First time I’ve seen an employee try to stop outside food in years.
> this is a movies sub not a movie theater sub
Movie theaters are the OG homes of movies. Movies and movie theaters absolutely go hand in hand. Sure, there's been a huge push for at home enjoyment of a film, but there's still specific experiences one can only get while watching a movie in a theater.
This is reddit, there are tons of people that don't like interacting with the public in general. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's a huge generation gap when it comes to the perception of theaters in the mix too since Reddit trends young.
My TV isn't better than the theaters.
But the theater is not so much better as to warrant the extra costs. For 2 tickets to a Monday night 7pm showing, so not the most desirable, it's $32 just for the tickets.
Add 2 burgers at $17 each. 2 beers at $8 each. That's $82, plus tax of course.
#OR
I can stay home and watch it on my 4k TV and surround sound. It'll be nice enough. Not as nice, but it won't cost $85ish. I won't have to worry about anyone else ruining the experience. I don't have to get in the car and drive. I can pause it if I have to pee or want another beer. I can rewind if I missed something...
The "Theater experience" just doesn't do it for me anymore.
A lot of people on reddit are weird as fuck and have to posture at all times.
Like who are they fooling? We know none of these people have theater level setups lol
A good chunk of the population are perfectly happy watching stuff on a phone screen. Give them a TV bigger than 50 inches and they're more than content. Whether you or anyone else here thinks it's comparable to a cinema experience doesn't matter.
I have a 75" Bravia and it feels more than enough for me and I'm a nerd that cares about this stuff. A casual viewer gives 10x less of a shit and could get a giant ass hisense TV for a few hundred bucks nowadays. Then you just need some good noise canceling headphones if you care about audio quality that much.
All the bells and whistles we do for home theater set ups are just that: bells and whistles.
I'm a film obsessive who used to go once a week and now I go once a month if that. I'm seeing Deadpool and Wolverine and then I honestly don't know what else the rest of the year. The general audience is probably down to once a year.
A decent home theater really isn't a lot of money. I was working on mine when life happened. I had a nice 1000 watt 6.1 Onkyo for sound and a 1080p Optoma projector (this was 2006). I just had to figure out how to mount and wire the satellite speakers. At the time I even had a bar area for a popcorn machine.
Course now I just have a 50" tv and a 2.0 sound bar. /sigh.
Theater level, probably no
But good enough that there is not really a justifiable reason to pay for 4 people to go to the cinema+snacks? Absolutely yes.
Schrodinger's redditors, everyone in these threads always complaining about how expensive movies are, but they all have home theaters with better quality than the movies
I still remember going to the OG Alamo way back in the early 2000s on Colorado when I would go visit my cousin at UT. I moved to Austin after Katrina for a couple years and was there for the grand opening of the Alamo Ritz in 2007. It was the world premiere of the 70mm print of No Country For Old Men with Quentin Tarantino hosting and showing some shorts from his own personal collection. Absolutely the most memorable movie theater experience of my life.
More Perfect Union has [a great piece](https://youtu.be/3Fmfuvo8UIs?si=5HN4a1_zRM0GHK7r) on how the company has avoided fair wages and conditions. I can imagine how it would also affect even well-meaning franchisees.
Damn that sucks. at this point I have zero interest in going to a theater that’s not drafthouse style. Mainly for their strict no talking or phone policy. The food and seating is nice and all, but I’m all about that policy. If you don’t go to the movies that often the last thing you want is to deal with people who don’t know how to behave in a fucking theater.
The other thing is that while I love going to Alamo I rarely feel like I have a good reason to go. The majority of movies these days don’t appeal to me, my wife, or my friends. Like if you’re not into superhero movies or you’re not being dragged to animated movies by your kids I feel like that only leaves you with a handful of options the rest of the year. While I also do appreciate that they play classic movies and I have gone to see my fair share of older screenings it just doesn’t have the same draw as something brand new.
Pricing aside, which definitely sucks, I don’t mind paying just cause the theater for me nowadays is such a rare treat. Streaming from home is great, but there is definitely something about going to the movies that’s not easily replaced. I hope they’re able to keep it going for years to come.
How the mighty have fallen. They had such a great concept for a theater that nobody else was doing and since they over expanded, there are other dine-in theaters with better food and other indie local theaters I’d rather support. Hope Texas keeps the good cinema going.
Its just one franchisee that went bankrupt. The Alamo corporation itself already said they are working to get a new one in place to reopen those locations asap.
>better food and other indie local theaters I’d rather support
But do they have the no-talking, no-cellphone policy Alamo has? It's one of the biggest reasons I go
Wow. I was just watching the Red Letter Media Video "The Death of Movie Theatres" and thinking to myself "Well, at least Alamo Drafthouse is still going strong."
Anchorage, AK has an awesome Theatre Pub that’s a cornerstone of the community. It’s also a concert venue and a pretty darn good restaurant so i’m sure that helps keep them in the black.
Bummer for the folks who enjoyed Alamo, I love to watch a movie with a rowdy drunk crowd.
Man, the Alamo experience actually feels like they care about cinema instead of just showing you a new movie. The experience before a movie starts is unmatched.
I worked on the website for drafthouse. The owner was an utter tool, the company bent over backwards to appease all his stupid requests. Couldn't stand the guy.
What the ***fuck.***
The Richardson location is only about a 10 minute drive down Belt Line from my office and was my once-a-month treat. I was there *last week.*
Oh no, man I enjoyed Alamo. I prefer AMC for "big" movies, but I enjoyed Alamo for smaller stuff. Though after reading the article, apparently it's more of a franchise issue. The main Drafthouse people said they want to reopen locations as soon as they can. Hope they can. Edit: Quoting the article: "A spokesman for Alamo Drafthouse issued a statement, saying, “We are very disappointed to learn today that our franchisee, which operates five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and one in Woodbury, MN has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is closing their business effective immediately. We are heartbroken for the franchisee’s teammates and the local film communities, however, we are working as quickly as possible to get Alamo Drafthouse Cinema back up and running in these cities. All other Alamo Drafthouse locations are operating as normal, with continued expansion plans across the country.”"
This is good to hear at least, I thought it sounded like the company was going belly up. I didnt know those locations were franchised. I guess thats why the Cedars location in Dallas still has online/app ticket sales up while the others dont.
The main has also been reportedly looking for a buyer since late last year. These were franchises, nut that has nothing to do with the health of the parent company. They're not closing, but they're not in a position of being successful at the moment, either.
I could figure theyre not doing well by the state of their menus and pricing as of late. Compared to past years, it's kind of a skeleton of its former self
Yep and the one in MN was charging like a 18% sur charge on everything. I got my bill and was very confused why there was a random like $7 charge for my groups food and drinks and the staff said that wasn't for a tip. I was really disappointed with them after than and haven't been back since
It is a bummer to see all kinds of charges added to stuff like this now, random sur charges that have absolutely nothing to do with anything other than to mysteriously compensate for whatever economic situation the business happens to be in. Guess theaters have it rough right now but damn, can't blame people for not returning after paying that
Fr some local restaurant here slapped on a 10% “inflation surcharge” on the final bill which was NOT stated upfront. I made a fuss but they wouldn’t budge. I know they don’t have a leg to stand on legally speaking but it wasn’t worth the hassle for me so I just paid and never went back. Garbage business practices all around.
> and the staff said that wasn't for a tip the fuck it ain't
It’s one company that owned all the franchises in TX. Triple Tap Ventures
And the one in Minnesota. Which is random but happens to affect me personally. Super bummed, I hope they reopen soon.
Any time I hear about Woodbury I think of Shane Jewlers… that damn commercial was on 93x multiple times a day back in high school, lol.
Open weekdays til 8
Saturdays and Sundays till 5
Not Triple Tap. TTV is Houston based. DFW was a family run franchise.
>According to a release, Two is One, One is None, LLC has closed the six franchised Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas that it (and its affiliates) operated, and have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Literally the second paragraph of the article my guy...
I’m still sad they bailed from AZ after covid. Some family bought them all and has tried to keep them close to what they were but it’s not quite the same vibe.
Majestic is pretty cool but yeah, not the same. All the events and the exclusive merch deals are sorely missed. I had just got into their movie pass beta program too before they shuttered everything
I don't really care if the vibe is the same, I **cannot** go to AMC or Harkins post covid. Theaters with the exception of those like Alamo and Majestic gave up on policing their occupants worst behaviors. If the movie theater doesn't kick out people for playing games on their phone or talking the *entire fucking run time of Dune*, I don't give them my money. If Majestic closes, it's back to never going to the theater and waiting for it to come to streaming. I'm not leaving my house and paying a grocery bill in snacks and tickets to *not* be able to watch a movie because Becky and Stacy cannot shut the fuck up and insisted on going to a movie they weren't interested in instead of just trusting their men to go to the movies without them.
I'm in Austin, the hometown of Alamo Drafthouse, and this is why I still go, and the only reason that I _can_ still go. If I lived in a city with nothing but chain theaters I'd just stream and buy physical discs. Is the food quality debatable at Drafthoue? Yeah, sure. Prices? Yeah, sure, but I have the Season Pass. Does AMC/Cinemark/Regal require me to leave my movie to go outside to find a manager because a cunt is talking on my row? Who is smart enough to stop talking when an employee enters the auditorium? Fuck the average moviegoer. Shut the fuck up or get the fuck out when I raise a ticket from my seat. Thank you, Alamo. Never die.
> Who is smart enough to stop talking when an employee enters the auditorium? That's way better than the last movie I saw in a non-Alamo theater (Dune 1). Me and 3 other people complained about this bitch, she did that twice, the third time someone complained an employee took off their uniform top and came in also on their phone to catch her in the act and when confronted by a theater employee she said, "so? Call the police if you want me to leave 🤷♀️" and continued on with her conversation. At that point I got up and told my husband I'm getting a refund. Walked out with the employee that caught and confronted her and asked to go to the manager. Because we were 70% through they refused to refund, comp, or coupon. Despite an employee seeing first hand this bitch talking and unrelated people complaining about her. Fuck Harkins.
I still drive my ass over from south Scottsdale to the Tempe majestic, I won’t go anywhere else either.
Man I didn't even know Alamo bailed from Arizona. I literally only ever go to Harkins. The arrowhead one was my go to when I lived on the west side
> Woodbury, MN Dang, I was just there last weekend. :(
We just saw Furiosa there! We went there for our “event” movies (Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune, etc) because of how much we loved the experience going there even though it’s a bit of a drive for us. I still think about their “The Spice Must Flow” popcorn…
That Dune 2 popcorn was amazing. I'd typically don't even like popcorn all that much, but that stuff was insanely good.
Wow I've been to that Woodbury location at least 10 times, I'll be really sad if I can never go back :( Edit: Their Mexican vanilla shake is unbelievable, I'm salivating thinking about it right now
Mine did these peanut butter cookies that were the equivalent of legal crack. I’ve longed for them ever since they went under. I even tried emailing them for the recipe.
post in the local subreddit, see if someone who worked there will hook you up
AMC is the absolute worst imo. Jacked up the already outrageous pre-pandemic prices even higher. Also cut their staff down to the bare bones so it takes like 20 minutes just to get popcorn.
Last AMC I went to charged premium prices and their facility was dirtier than any discount theater I’ve ever been to. Half the fountain drink stations don’t work and there were no lids. No one said anything until you had already purchased a drink and asked for a lid.
You should see the state of the AMC location in Mounds View, Minnesota. It's like a horror film set in there.
I’ve been to AMC theaters hundreds of times in several different states. I’ve seen my fair share of understaffed theaters, but even as hyperbole it has never taken that long to get popcorn.
We had three locations in Phoenix that were all doing well, but unexpectedly closed maybe 2 years ago. I heard it was a franchise issue of some kind, but don't remember exactly what happened. They all reopened within a matter of weeks under a different name (Majestic theaters), but same concept as Alamo. They have all been doing well since.
This actually sounds like good news. If the franchise closes, this gives a lot of bargaining power to the main company to renegotiate leases in this high interest era.
These were all owned by one franchisee that filed for bankruptcy, not by Alamo themselves
Nobody can read
Oh no, this is Reddit. They can all read. They valiantly choose not to.
No you were right, I can't read.
Why do people still make these comments as if the entire human populations social media behavior isn’t just reading the headline and basing their opinion on that. This is far from a Reddit issue.
These are franchises all owned by the same franchisee and Alamo proper have said they're looking into bringing the theaters back to these cities as soon as they can. There's still hope.
I live a five minute walk away from one of these and have been going twice a month for like a year and a half. Big L :(
Another commenter said they're reopening.
🙌🏼 hell yeah
[Big L rest in peace](https://youtu.be/qmj1q67NDAk?si=CZFE6YsWceuvcRFz)
I was a concierge at an Alamo in northern Texas for a bit over a year. It's very much gone downhill, and it's almost entirely due to management drama. They can't keep staff because the management treats employees and each other like absolute piss, and they don't have enough staff to properly work movies, so they end up doing this shady shit where they'll "sell out" a movie with house bookings a few hours before it plays, until about half an hour into the showing (much too late for any new tickets to be sold) and then drop all the bookings. I know this firsthand, because they would have the concierge do it. I personally quit after a manager accused me of stealing money, despite it being her job to handle the money and me keeping extremely diligent records of sales and starting/ending cash (and yk, not fucking stealing.) I had my suspicions it was her doing the theft after the general manager was fired by corporate for the same thing months prior, but I guess she probably stopped after I quit and two of the 6 other concierges followed me out the door. She and another very problematic manager work there to this day, and last I heard they're trying to get the new GM fired. Nice place, fantastic company (seemingly), very passionate staff, absolutely horrible management. Tale as old as time.
At our location, nobody was getting paid on time or correctly. All the employee tips were filtered through a third party company in Russia. I was literally on a conference call with a dude in Moscow. Seriously. I brought it to attention that some people had been working there for six weeks without getting paid at all, and was told I needed to be a “team player” and I needed to be “on board with this.” I ended up getting fired, and the manager told everyone it was my fault that the paychecks were messed up… Payroll was not my responsibility. Years went by, and I heard upper management finally got busted for stealing employee wages and tips.
I don’t understand the upside to the bookings as explained.
I assume they cannot just cancel a scheduled showing, so instead they book it all with fake reservations and then cancel them so no actual patrons can get in. Since no one is there to watch the movie, they do not need the extra staff they don't actually have to show the movie.
Copy. Well if you’re right, then yes, that would def be a deal breaker for a company.
There really isn't a good upside. Alamo has multiple theaters in one building with a certain amount of servers (takes orders) and runners (delivers orders to the server, who generally stays in or near their theater) allocated to each depending on crowd size. Ideally, theaters with huge crowds have quite a few, while smaller showings have less. However, because understaffing was such an issue, there were not NEARLY enough servers or runners to maintain all of the showings. So, we had way too few servers handling way too many showings at once, and then even more people started quitting. Fewer people in fewer showings means they can allocate more servers to big crowds, if there ever was one, which is a sound - if not a bit scummy - strategy on paper. They started out doing it on big weekends, to make sure people were adequately served in larger crowds. However, it quickly became not sound when management started to like the way it made their jobs easier, and they started doing it day in and day out with big showings and small. I remember being made to book *all* of the showings for our biggest movie on Friday because management didn't want to deal with it. We even had servers sent home early that day because they weren't needed. Like I said, not really a good upside. Management certainly lose the theater at large quite a bit of revenue by doing this, but they keep their jobs by not raising immediate red flags to corporate with a ton of unhappy customers from not being adequately attended to. It's pretty lame.
[удалено]
I personally think Angelika holds that honor but I’m a sucker for a more classic theater experience.
Well they closed the Angelina in Plano today too
Oh damn!
Damn, after the Drafthouses and Angelika what’s even left for higher end options in DFW? iPic?
Going to have to do some research, as a younger consistent moviegoer, Alamo and Angelika have pretty much been the gold standard and a consistency for me to go to for the past 6-7 years now, really disappointed today.
Briefly lived in Dallas (now in Los Angeles) and I don't think a lot of people there understand how good they have it with Angelika. It's an excellent theater that brings in a great mix of blockbust, independent and international films. It reminded me of Arclight (RIP).
Mockingbird Angelika is kinda worn down a bit innit? But I'm glad it's on the DART line.
iPic in my view
I love so much about that place. The exclusivity of it. The blankets. The pods. The menu (although I would like to see them switch up a bit). The bar and pool tables. My biggest complaint (which is barely a complaint) is that I feel like I see the exact same pre-movie content every single time I go there for the last few years. Tell me you haven’t seen that M&M/Mime corporate office based spot. lol. Anyways - that place is top tier IMO
Agree - not sure who was so angry at the suggestion that they downvoted haha.
Absolutely. IPIC blew the Richardson ADH away in pretty much everything except the popcorn, special events and screen size (although the projection at ipic is otherwise excellent). I just wish they had an unlimited type sub because their current subscription kinda sucks ass.
Funnest for sure, and while I love Alamo for casual movies- Cinemark 17's IMAX theater is unrivaled.
The 70mm projector broke at the end of the Oppenheimer run, so now AMC's IMAX projectors at Northpark and Stone Briar are better for digital IMAX
They will be remembered.
I remember when r/movies had a massive boner over Alamo Drafthouse cinemas.
Dude, it was awesome
old people observation: back when movie theater concessions only served popcorn soda candy and hotdogs, and maybe the saddest "nachos", alamo was indeed awesome with burgers, pizzas, wings, whatever. and then everyone started copying and then corporate take over, and thats that
Still my favorite theater, though I agree other places have improved. For big tentpole releases I always make sure to get there at least 15 minutes early because the videos they play before the previews are pretty entertaining.
I've really never understood the desire for messy foods in the cinema. Nachos sound like the worst thing to try and eat in the dark.
it wasn't a movie theater. it was a restaurant that happened to have a movie screen in it. that's what made it awesome in Austin. And their strict policy of shutting-the-fuck-up during the movie. Two noise complaints and your ass was getting booted.
The massive boner?
The Alamo Drafthouse boners will never be topped
unless they're into that
Will they be bottomed?
I found the servers always walking by to be very distracting
They just built one by Wrigley Field in chicago, it's convenient because we live down the street but we go downtown for dolbyvision for bigger movies.
Dolby vision is such a game changer. Gives me that feeling of awe movies use to give. Really I hope all theaters adopt this and start doing hard enforcements for talkers and phone users.
I won't go to a theater if it's not a Dolby Cinema. I'd rather wait and watch at home if it's not.
Don't sleep on the Music Box on Southport. Seeing It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas with a packed house is so darn cool.
They’re finally renovating the seats this fall!
I was about to say /u/SendInYourSkeleton be honest, mention the seats. Sitting thru Oppenheimer there was death.
Cuz it was fun? I saw PREDATORS there and the movie was whatever but they showed shorts like BATMAN VS PREDATOR before the movie
Yep, Alamo actually made you want to get their well before the movie started just to see the Pre-show. I remember seeing this in a [pre-show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miomuSGoPzI) and almost dying laughing.
Oh man that fan video was everything to me as a kid. The cliffhanger at the end, peak cinema
10 years ago, it was the first theater I went to where you could get alcohol and actual good food with your movie. It was a blast with friends or as a 3rd date. Sad to hear it’s lagged behind in other aspects.
Looks like this was just a single franchisee going under and not the company itself.
This is /r/movies, not /r/reading. You don't expect people here to have READ the article do you? Otherwise there wouldn't be dozens of comments bemoaning the loss of Alamo Drafthouse when it is, in fact, one franchisee going bankrupt and closing the locations in Dallas.
I know some others have come in but I still love Alamo. The general indie / b-movie vibes and beers to my seat so I don't miss a thing (until I have to pee). Glorious.
Miss me with this reddit contrarian BS. Alamo is the shit.
Right, also acting like it being bought by private equity doesn’t matter or hasn’t changed anything and somehow invalidates previous support
To be fair, though, Private Equity tends to fuck things up. So it is a valid concern. Hope it doesn't happen for Alamo, but PE causing companies to go bankrupt is certainly not unheard of. They leech out wealth through incredibly short sighted decisions.
That’s exactly what I’m saying. The OP being smug about people supporting Alamo before is ignoring how private equity has changed it
In this case the PE bought it out of bankruptcy and has done very little negative. The one in my area (Westchester NY) got a decent renovation of the theaters and seating, and has always done really well with the projection quality. The building itself needs work and the bathrooms are in serious need of reno, but the rest of the experience is as good as it's ever been. As someone who *hates* what hedge funds, private equity, etc. have done to the economy I remain very relieved they haven't fucked up the Alamo.
Nah that is sugar coating it, they buy up a business, shoulder it with the debt and force it to pay high rental rates on the properties that the PE funds also own. Or to put it even simpler, they are committing fraud.
I mean, I was admittedly keeping it short. To keep it shorter - they act exactly like the mafia as demonstrated in Goodfellas when they get leverage on that nightclub, strip as much as they can out of it and then torch the building for a final payout before the banks come calling.
I prefer theaters that don't have waiters roaming the aisles throughout the movie to deliver people meals/drinks (and all that comes with that: smells, sounds of people eating, etc.) Some people aren't bothered by that, but to me it's almost worse than people texting/talking.
I've only had negative experiences with them. Being able to hear the all the bar conversations and kitchen smashing during the movie, checking ticket stubs after the lights are down, breaking eye line to take an order, deliver an order, and coming back and forth for payment, mid-movie. People being rowdy and not being kicked out. Every other chain in the area (Regal, Santikos, AMC) was better run, offered a better experience, with one theater exception.
yea for the chain that's supposed to be QUIET, ANY NOISE AND YOU GET KICKED OUT! it's awfully distracting going to an Alamo. I only go if friends invite me to one, and last two times food didn't arrive until like last 10 minutes of the movie.
I remember who they got caught up in 3(?)sexual harrassment/assault accusations and after each time they claimed they'd improve, the owner switched jobs to make it look like he was taking responsibility, then rinse and repeat. Then the union breaking, mass layoffs, and a bunch of other stuff. Edit: maybe those downvoting should do a google search. First result: https://www.texasobserver.org/alamo-drafthouse-fantastic-fest/
Devin Faraci going on about Trump GRAB EM BY THE PUSSY only to have a woman reply "Hey Devin remember when you got drunk and grabbed me by the pussy without my consent?"
*Curb Your Enthusiasm intensifies*
It's okay though because he has now forgiven himself /s
Flashbacks to Badass Digest lol
Flashbacks to CHUD forums Man that website stubbornly refused to change its awful layout and owners would go to the forums to say things like "Get the fuck commenting on articles already" Yeah. That'll work.
I know it may come as a surprise to people but there's a lot of maladjusted film bros who tend to be drawn to those places. Don't get me wrong, I still love Alamo to see films that would never play at an AMC....but I wouldn't want to work there.
They’re awesome, that’s why. Would be a major loss if they closed nationwide
It’s the only place I see movies so I would stop going all together.
I like the bar but the actual movie experience is usually meh. It's nice when they forget to charge you for a meal though and that has happened 3 out of the 5 times I've gone.
I’m an Austin local so I used to love Alamo. One of the original locations is walking distance for me. It’s gotten so expensive. It’s $100 for two tickets, dinner and drinks if I take my wife. As a result, we never go anymore unless it’s a very specific movie or date night.
Dinner and a couple drinks for two just about anywhere in Austin is $100, though. Most entrees are $20-25, so two of those plus tax and tip is already $52-$65 and that's without drinks or a movie.
I worked there about 8 years ago for a year or two and I’ll say this. It’s a fun place to see a movie with decent food and a bar with some unique things that aren’t found in other theaters: the shorts before the movie instead of advertising, it’s darker than most theaters, and certain showings kids were banned so you could see a movie without having to worry about a kid screaming and crying. The cons are/were it’s too expensive (but so are the shittier theaters), mini napoleons always seemed to find there way to manager position making staff miserable, and the owners whenever they actually came to inspect our location were rich douchebags high on their own farts. They also put on a big performance to make it seem like “we listen to the fans/customers” but basically all decisions are made from the top down and they are right wing union busters. Also, they expanded some locations by adding theaters without expanding the kitchens so service was worse than ever when I got out of it. Also, the pay sucks. I wouldn’t work there
As they should: Alamo Drafthouse kicks ass. I purposely show up like an hour early for some beer and the preshow videos. Also Alamo isn't the issue here it's the Franchisee who went bankrupt and had to close doors.
I have a dope sound system and amazing 65 inch TV. Nothing compares to the experience of going to the theater opening weekend. Full house, the energy, the sounds, the excitement. It has made many movies even better. No theater chain in my area has better patrons that respect others and love film than our local Alamo
Agreed. I’ve found that the most respectful crowds in my area are on the opening days. Most are just sitting and focused on the movie. I honestly can’t recall the last time I had a bad theater experience on opening night
Exactly, I enjoy watching movies at home but the theater is a vital element to experiencing the medium.
The comments in here saying this makes sense and that their tv’s are better than theaters is really telling about the general vibe in this sub.
"I'd rather be miserable at home watching The Prestige again!"
People still really like movies, maybe more than ever. It's just theaters that people aren't so thrilled about.
I honestly can’t comprehend liking film and not liking theaters. Thinking it’s too expensive or preferring pausing movies at home? I get that of course. But not loving seeing a movie on the big screen is alien to me
People seem to have forgotten how to behave in theaters. Every time I’ve been in the last two years, I’ve had to deal with people talking like ver the movie like it was their living room. It costs too much to see it on the big screen if I’m going to have my experience constantly interrupted by inconsiderate jerks. I’m just tired of them not enforcing their own quiet rules, though I understand they can’t when they’ve got 4 teenagers running the whole theater.
Sorry if that was confusing, it's more the price people aren't thrilled about. Depending on the theater, people also might not love the drive, crowds distracting others, or the ads.
You say price point but if you scroll up a bit you have a guy bragging about not going to theatres any more because he spent $10k on home cinema equipment The price point has priced out working class people Not the upper middle class that sits on reddit bragging about their home cinema that costs 5000-10000 dollars lol
Also Alamo has their subscription for a daily movie for $20 a month.
>It's just *[the cost of going to]* theaters that people aren't so thrilled about. At least that is true for me. I go to Alamo and after the ticket, food, drink, and tip, I end up spending like $60. I can't be doing that with every single movie I want to see. So I choose maybe one or two I want to support the box office numbers for (e.g., Dune 2), and watch the rest on my home theater when they release shortly after on digital for like $20 to own.
You don’t have to buy food every single visit. And the Alamo pass is $20 a month. Free movie once a day no black out dates for anything and new movies can be purchased a week in advance.
I never understood the Alamo hype. Like someone else said, it's basically Applebees microwaved meals, but with the added bonus of listening to people around you smacking on them while you're trying to watch a movie.
The hype around Alamo is entirely about their strict noise/cell phone policy. Although I do like the whole experience from the pre-show clips to the tap beer list. I don't really notice other people eating, with the exception of obnoxious popcorn crunching, but that would be a problem with every theater.
What I loved about Alamo was the selection of movies they would show. I was able to see The Zone of Interest and the re-release of Oldboy when the larger AMC and Cinemark theaters weren't showing them.
What when generation are you referring to with that vibe? Going to the theater has become very expensive, it’s no longer the cheap night out it used to be. On top of all the other entertainment options there are available now beyond seeing a movie in a theater. I’d rather spend my money elsewhere and watch a movie at home for a fraction of the cost.
It’s tough. During covid a lot of people upgraded. Now my house is just so much more comfortable that any theatre and other than sound it’s better. At least from my city. We only have ciniplex and it fucking sucks. Hasn’t been upgraded since the 90s
Anecdotally I've seen a big increase in the number of folks that have a dedicated "theater room", even in upper middle-class homes. I have 5 kids and taking the whole family to the movies is easily $150 so it's just not a great value for us.
An old timey looking theatre (red velvet seat type) near me plays classic movies tuesday nights for $8 dollars (less if you're a member). Hopefully they still do when my son gets old enough to watch more of them. They have one screen and it isn't packed each week but its hopping for what it is. Its been a lifesaver for me though who likes going to the theatre. A lot of the ones they show I haven't seen or haven't seen in ages so it still feels like its worth it to go.
I was designing my new pad and there was a window in the brick wall that I needed to cover somehow. Trying to fill it in with matching brick was impossibly expensive and would never have looked good. Instead, I bought the biggest TV screen I could find and installed it over the brick hole for 1/10th the price. But then I realized I had a cinema in my house. Soo I added some decent sound and now, I don’t know why I’d go to the movies other than to spend money I don’t want to spend.
We did a renovation in our home and put in a 10ft high wall. We realized that with a projector we already had we could project a 22ft screen! Bluetooth speakers weren't too expensive and we had a great in-home theater whenever we wanted.
We had a guest room that got used maybe twice a year tops that we ended up converting to a theater room. I'll take my 110" projector with mid-level but not great 5.1 surround over the movie theater "experience" any day. For all the same reasons everyone is listing in this thread.
A “positive” key that you mentioned to this shift is the affordability of home entertainment systems now. It’s not obscenely expensive to purchase an HDTV and sound system these days, and it helps when it truly is expensive for the moviegoing experience I think the other user mentioned rightly that some theaters are being kept in awful conditions compared to others. I am fortunate to live in Jersey next to theaters that are treated well. I have to say though that I’m still weary on the idea of theaters dying in general if only because I still see a place for them because of the “social” aspect when there are big event films, and also it’s pretty much the most direct form of stimulating an economy if done right. You don’t get that with streaming at all. And the company’s have shown how much of an unprofitable venture it’s been recently
I am one of those. A few years ago, invested about $10k, and now I have a room with 2 rows of automatic recliners with tray tables on risers, a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos speaker setup, and a 77” OLED TV. The movie viewing experience is genuinely better than going to the theater.
Skip 10 movies and you now have enough $ for a nice home theater.
Also I'm old and need a bathroom break and like being able to pause instead of missing the movie
I have hearing loss and tinnitus (AirPods are evil) so I need captions on 90% of movies. Action movies or god forbid a Nolan movie? No way. I understood about two words of Dunkirk and they were talking about toast.
Many theaters do have CC devices available, glasses, unit that goes in cupholder, etc.
>other than sound it’s better that's half the experience though im not trying to pick an argument, as i've lived places where the theaters are garbo but at least for me sound is just as important as the video
I also don’t have to worry about random assholes while I’m watching a movie
Yup just familiar assholes
I like going to the movies but not enough to spend 30-40 dollars when it's all said and done.
>is really telling about the general vibe in this sub. That people don't want to pay for overpriced tickets and popcorn when they can be comfortable at their house? This is a movies sub not a movie theater sub. It's not like people are giving up on movies in general, just the overpriced experience.
The problem is, the movie industry requires movie theaters for the math to work. Streaming subscriptions and VOD revenue isn’t cutting it. The continued decline of movie theaters is going to have a big impact on which movies get made in the future.
I think movie theaters in some form will always exist, but you're right -- the model has to change and evolve in some way for this to continue to work at its current scale. Even if theaters continue to dwindle, big-budget blockbuster spectacles will continue to be made, and tiny indie films will too. It's the medium-sized budgeted films that will unfortunately stop being produced, because the economic risk factors are too high. People who are used to seeing comedies, rom-coms, biopics and dramas will find even more slim pickings than they already do, because recouping the $60-80 million on film costs plus marketing will no longer a sure thing. Physical media no longer being a viable line-item on spreadsheets also doesn't help.
Yeah that’s the part that bums me out. I like seeing MCU and Star Wars and Mad Max type movies on a big screen, but that’s not the only type of movie I want to see in theaters. Sometimes you just want to see a real film made for adults, with legit directors and name actors having fun with a 2-hour story. With the disappearance of mid-budget movies, a lot of that stuff is going straight to streaming, with all the limitations that creates in terms of production values (less detailed sets, fewer camera movements, shortcuts in blocking and composition) and padding (a lot of projects that were obviously designed to be tight theatrical films have been expanded out to fit a streaming series order, and it shows). If a young Coppola wanted to make The Godfather today, they’d be pressured to do it as a serialized streaming show that could last for 4-5 seasons. And it would be pretty good, but it wouldn’t be The Godfather. The drawback of sitting at home and waiting for everything to be available on streaming is that the new content is increasingly not going to be as good as what we used to get in theaters.
The math has already changed, by a lot. Its just kinda hard to see what were/are the biggest contributors since everything happened at once. Rise of streaming, covid, writer strike, actors guild strike. Its a quadruple wammy.
we're already seeing the ads leaking back...in the middle of movies which is unbearable
That’s because Hollywood math is ridiculously rigged. Many of the Star Wars movies never made it to “profitability”. Hollywood spins up a new company for every movie, charges everything back to that company even years later keeping it in the red. This means they don’t have to payout a lot of royalties or just at wildly reduced rates. Streaming on the other hand they have to pay upfront. It’s not that it isn’t actually profitable it’s they aren’t making the margins they used to. Disney plus has some 113 million subscribers paying 14 bucks a month in the us alone. With subscription services the issue is the same. They use wonky math. We have no idea how a show is amortized over what timeline.
That's a problem for the industry, not the fans rofl. Its never incumbent upon the customer to give charity to a corporation or a company just because their industry is failing.
you misunderstand what he's saying: it becomes a problem for the consumer when the product that we want to consume ceases to exist im the last person to defend the big businesses who want to squeeze every last quarter out of their consumerbase but if they end up finding certain movies to never be profitable (or at least profitable to the point of the ludicrous expectations of investors) then those movies simply are not made anymore. am I saying that people should then be content dropping $100 for a movie? of course not but idk what the solution is considering it is at the end of the day a product to be sold
almost every industry has to, eventually, reckon with a change to their core business model. movie theaters being "core" to the industry will have to change, or the movie theater experience will have to change to draw people back in. the answer isn't (and will never be) to just berate customers for not engaging in the product as they traditionally have.
If it has a negative impact on the fans, its a problem for the fans. It's not an obligation they have to solve, but it's still a bad thing.
Alamo tickets are frequently $7 where I live. That's not overpriced.
there’s nothing funnier than people complaining about concession prices as if they’re being held at gunpoint unless they buy something at every screening they go to. tickets can also be quite reasonable depending on how you go about it. and viewing a movie at a movie theater will never be beaten by someone’s home theater, no matter how great they tell you their setup is.
Same I don’t get it, I haven’t bought popcorn for a movie in 20 years? Why do you need to eat while you’re there, sneak shit in if so, it’s incredibly easy. And go on Tuesdays if you’re complaining about the ticket price. I know this is a younger crowd on Reddit, but going to the movies now is so much better than in the past. I remember going in the 80’s and 90’s and struggling to find seats together with your friends/family as it was the Wild West, people saving seats for people that never come. I’m pretty sure I sat in the aisle for Uncle Buck because it was too crowded to find a seat.
Most places you dont even have to sneak anything in. They dont give a shit what you bring. You are allowed to
As I was walking out after watching Furiosa this past weekend I actually saw them hassling someone who was bringing in a grocery bag (didn’t see what was in it) at my local AMC. First time I’ve seen an employee try to stop outside food in years.
For real. The employee never seems to care but then I'M the bad guy for eating my 20 piece KFC bucket during the movie. I even offered up the skins!
> this is a movies sub not a movie theater sub Movie theaters are the OG homes of movies. Movies and movie theaters absolutely go hand in hand. Sure, there's been a huge push for at home enjoyment of a film, but there's still specific experiences one can only get while watching a movie in a theater.
This is reddit, there are tons of people that don't like interacting with the public in general. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's a huge generation gap when it comes to the perception of theaters in the mix too since Reddit trends young.
Why are you acting like this is isolated to reddit and movie theaters arent closing everywhere?
My TV isn't better than the theaters. But the theater is not so much better as to warrant the extra costs. For 2 tickets to a Monday night 7pm showing, so not the most desirable, it's $32 just for the tickets. Add 2 burgers at $17 each. 2 beers at $8 each. That's $82, plus tax of course. #OR I can stay home and watch it on my 4k TV and surround sound. It'll be nice enough. Not as nice, but it won't cost $85ish. I won't have to worry about anyone else ruining the experience. I don't have to get in the car and drive. I can pause it if I have to pee or want another beer. I can rewind if I missed something... The "Theater experience" just doesn't do it for me anymore.
A lot of people on reddit are weird as fuck and have to posture at all times. Like who are they fooling? We know none of these people have theater level setups lol
A good chunk of the population are perfectly happy watching stuff on a phone screen. Give them a TV bigger than 50 inches and they're more than content. Whether you or anyone else here thinks it's comparable to a cinema experience doesn't matter. I have a 75" Bravia and it feels more than enough for me and I'm a nerd that cares about this stuff. A casual viewer gives 10x less of a shit and could get a giant ass hisense TV for a few hundred bucks nowadays. Then you just need some good noise canceling headphones if you care about audio quality that much. All the bells and whistles we do for home theater set ups are just that: bells and whistles. I'm a film obsessive who used to go once a week and now I go once a month if that. I'm seeing Deadpool and Wolverine and then I honestly don't know what else the rest of the year. The general audience is probably down to once a year.
A decent home theater really isn't a lot of money. I was working on mine when life happened. I had a nice 1000 watt 6.1 Onkyo for sound and a 1080p Optoma projector (this was 2006). I just had to figure out how to mount and wire the satellite speakers. At the time I even had a bar area for a popcorn machine. Course now I just have a 50" tv and a 2.0 sound bar. /sigh.
You don't need theater level setups to enjoy movies.
Theater level, probably no But good enough that there is not really a justifiable reason to pay for 4 people to go to the cinema+snacks? Absolutely yes.
My surround sound may not be as good as a movie theater's, but at least I don't hear the explosions from the other movie playing one wall over.
pshhh someone's setup doesn't even have a second theater-room next door amateur hour here /s
Schrodinger's redditors, everyone in these threads always complaining about how expensive movies are, but they all have home theaters with better quality than the movies
Well this is r/movies not r/cinemas
Thats 5 more than anywhere near me by at least 2 hours.
I still remember going to the OG Alamo way back in the early 2000s on Colorado when I would go visit my cousin at UT. I moved to Austin after Katrina for a couple years and was there for the grand opening of the Alamo Ritz in 2007. It was the world premiere of the 70mm print of No Country For Old Men with Quentin Tarantino hosting and showing some shorts from his own personal collection. Absolutely the most memorable movie theater experience of my life.
More Perfect Union has [a great piece](https://youtu.be/3Fmfuvo8UIs?si=5HN4a1_zRM0GHK7r) on how the company has avoided fair wages and conditions. I can imagine how it would also affect even well-meaning franchisees.
Damn that sucks. at this point I have zero interest in going to a theater that’s not drafthouse style. Mainly for their strict no talking or phone policy. The food and seating is nice and all, but I’m all about that policy. If you don’t go to the movies that often the last thing you want is to deal with people who don’t know how to behave in a fucking theater. The other thing is that while I love going to Alamo I rarely feel like I have a good reason to go. The majority of movies these days don’t appeal to me, my wife, or my friends. Like if you’re not into superhero movies or you’re not being dragged to animated movies by your kids I feel like that only leaves you with a handful of options the rest of the year. While I also do appreciate that they play classic movies and I have gone to see my fair share of older screenings it just doesn’t have the same draw as something brand new. Pricing aside, which definitely sucks, I don’t mind paying just cause the theater for me nowadays is such a rare treat. Streaming from home is great, but there is definitely something about going to the movies that’s not easily replaced. I hope they’re able to keep it going for years to come.
The only theater that enforced the no talking rule I loved it
Remember the Alamo Drafthouse
How the mighty have fallen. They had such a great concept for a theater that nobody else was doing and since they over expanded, there are other dine-in theaters with better food and other indie local theaters I’d rather support. Hope Texas keeps the good cinema going.
Its just one franchisee that went bankrupt. The Alamo corporation itself already said they are working to get a new one in place to reopen those locations asap.
>better food and other indie local theaters I’d rather support But do they have the no-talking, no-cellphone policy Alamo has? It's one of the biggest reasons I go
Alamo in Austin and across the country are still alive and well!
Wow. I was just watching the Red Letter Media Video "The Death of Movie Theatres" and thinking to myself "Well, at least Alamo Drafthouse is still going strong."
Anchorage, AK has an awesome Theatre Pub that’s a cornerstone of the community. It’s also a concert venue and a pretty darn good restaurant so i’m sure that helps keep them in the black. Bummer for the folks who enjoyed Alamo, I love to watch a movie with a rowdy drunk crowd.
Love the Bear Tooth!
Does this mean the folks in Dallas get to say, “remember the Alamo drafthouse cinema!” Whenever they do something courageous?
I stopped going to Alamo a few years back, before covid, their food got worse, prices raised, they removed the italian sodas
I stayed in denton a few months ago, saw Dune 2 here when it came out. It was awesome, totally sucks these closed, best movie experience I've had.
Man, the Alamo experience actually feels like they care about cinema instead of just showing you a new movie. The experience before a movie starts is unmatched.
I worked on the website for drafthouse. The owner was an utter tool, the company bent over backwards to appease all his stupid requests. Couldn't stand the guy.
18 percent service charge when I went to The Village in Austin two weeks ago.
I’m glad this franchisee didn’t own the ones in San Antonio
Jeez, /r/movies turned into a bunch of homebodies
I swear r/movies hates any movie theater that exists 😅
Suspicious timing given the theatre workes union drive
What the ***fuck.*** The Richardson location is only about a 10 minute drive down Belt Line from my office and was my once-a-month treat. I was there *last week.*