I'm looking forward to returning to a movie theater. Though only Alamo, which was really the only one I went to pre-pandemic anyway, because the rest of the industry was already in shambles. Alamo is the only chain I know of whose experience has evolved past "big screen and big speakers and overpriced snacks".

What, exactly, is special about Alamo? I'm unfamiliar.

On the surface, they serve decently good food and an array of cocktails and other beverages, and it generally isn't overpriced. They have great milkshakes and they'll bring you warm cookies just as soon as a giant bowl of popcorn with parmesan.

But that stuff isn't strictly unique anymore; there are other dinner-and-movie chains.

What really makes them special is all their auxiliary stuff. Before a movie, instead of ads they show relevant obscure video clips that are funny and/or interesting. Before a superhero movie they might show relevant action figure commercials from the 80s, or clips of goofy unlicensed knockoff movies that they found on YouTube, etc. Famously, you're not allowed to talk/text once a movie is playing [1]. They'll have themed cocktails and food for movies that are currently showing. Every month they pick a selection of classic movies and do showings of those throughout. Sometimes they'll bring in an actor or the director for after-screening Q&A. For cult hits they'll do themed "movie parties" where everybody's encouraged to quote/sing-along, and often there are props. We went to a Monty Python and the Holy Grail party where everyone was given, among other things, coconut shells to clap. We saw Hackers on the big screen (which was incredible in its own right), and everyone was encouraged to wear their best hacker-punk getups and then they had a costume contest (and we got to take home floppy disks with "HACK THE PLANET" emblazoned on them). We saw Akira on the big screen (!!) and they had a synchronized laser-lightshow in the theater. We went to an "anime brunch" they did several Sunday mornings in a row where they'd pick a genre of anime and show four or five episodes from different shows and you could order coffee and stuff and it only cost $5 at the door.

And the person hosting/organizing these events always comes up to the front and talks about the thing you're going to be watching. They're personally invested. They geek out, telling anecdotes from their own life and giving background on why people love this thing so much. It gets you excited even if you've never heard of it before.

Everything - even the decorations and marketing - gives you the distinct sense that everyone calling the shots at this company is super into movies, and their enthusiasm is contagious even if you don't consider yourself an enthusiast

[1] Except at movie-parties, which are all about audience participation

That sounds amazing! I'd happily pay more for a movie experience like that

If they serve dishes, doesn't the sound of forks and knives hitting the plates when people eat, get annoying while watching a movie? Or is it all the kind of food Americans eat with their hands?

A lot of it is hand-food, yeah, which I'd never thought about but it makes sense. Most of the dishes are also made of some sort of plastic-composite instead of ceramic or metal, which probably helps. In either case I haven't really noticed the noise; I'm more likely to notice someone loudly chomping popcorn a couple seats over than forks clanging on dishes, which, what can you do. Another thing that helps is almost nobody orders boxed candy because you can get much better desserts, so you never hear M&M's and such rattling around. Glasses are also open-top, so there's no straw squeaking either.

They kick out people who text or talk during movies and they were the first theater I heard of that served alcohol and food.

Only through coincidence of living where it was founded at the time, Warren Theater beat Alamo by about a year. I’m only mentioning as when it opened they had limitations I found interesting. The small swivel tabels at each seat apparently somehow failed THX certification so when they first opened, you’d have to set the plate of food in your lap. I found it incredible that the tables somehow had a bearing on the THX certification of the theater.

THX probably specifies a stat like RT60 reverb time, or EQ matching the target curve, or prominence of early reflections, and the tables (big flat reflective surfaces) probably threw off that metric.

I want this so bad

I’ll Stan Alamo til the day I die. Even took my family there immediately after I got married ha!

Here is why Alamo has set the bar high for being more than a “movie theater”, in no particular order: 1. Their programming AKA the movies they choose to show is highly curated. You’ll have your standard summer blockbusters, a weird Wednesday film (usually a cult classic from the past generations), screenings with Q&A after the film with directors, actors, etc. As a movie goer I engage a ton with their marketing to look out for these events, because yes, I would absolutely love to see Uncut Gems and have the Safdie brothers and Adam Sandler talk about their experience. Those are more rare but just another opportunity to create a long lasting memory of a film, even if it sucked.

2. The pre-programming is custom, curated and so clever, it makes me ALWAYS want to get there earlier. For most movies they find similar footage or clips that have intertwining themes to the main film (early footage of actors in the movie, etc). It’s usually on the funnier side of things.

3. The no bs talking and phones policy is amazing. It’s enforced and if you want to experiment being a rat, you can even alert servers of guests that are breaking the rules without fear of retaliation. Finally a place to enjoy the film without most distractions.

4. It’s nice to plan a dinner and a movie and have it be all in one place. While the food is fine and not completely mind blowing, it’s good for a movie night and the popcorn is fantastic. Also +1 the queso as well. Alcohol selection is great and you can basically order whatever you want and will likely be able to make it (cocktail-wise).

5. When it existed, the Alamo season pass was amazing. $30 bucks a month, a movie a day and you select your seat ahead of time (you select your seat regardless of the pass, but still). I hope it comes back!

Some downsides: 1. You sometimes will smell food that might not be your favorite. Your a veggie that doesn’t like the smell of a burger, sorry, you likely are gonna have all the food smells.

2. Servers darting around the theatre for a lot of the movie. They are usually pretty sneaky but you get some Paperboy PTSD of enemies coming out in your peripheral vision.

3. YMMV with each Alamo. Pre-pandemic some were franchises and some were corporate. The corporate ones were so much better and the franchises just seemed to be poorly run across the board.

So many other things they hit out of the park, screenings for families and folks with autism (you can talk, etc) as well as screenings for parents with young kids (more talking and likely some more crying). Lots of accessibility screenings for the deaf and blind. The list goes on…

If The restructure for Alamo works out, you’ll be seeing more and more of the old guard changing things to align more like Alamo, and that definitely will be a good thing for the film industry. Just my 2¢

Alamo is amazing. More businesses should follow their example.

I think their secret is being run by people who are actually into movies, instead of people who are only into money

Their "secret" is a liquor license.

Ha, AMC has a liquor license around here, but since re-opening I've still had:

1. A movie start 30 minutes late as they had forgotten about the showing

2. 30 minutes worth of ads after the supposed start time of the film

3. God awful food whose quality rivals Circle K at quadruple the prices

4. Alcoholic beverages that are several times more expensive than the plastic bottle their liquors come from

Not to say all theaters are this way, but certainly the only theaters I have access to around me are. Decided to give up after the third horrible repeat. I do miss the old independent theater from down in Tucson, they suffered from none of these issues; unfortunately nothing like that where I am now. Can't speak to Alamo.

AMC is the counterargument I was thinking of too. Total shitshow of a cinema chain. Cinemark is the bare minimum experience IMO.

There are several movie theaters that serve alcohol. The Alamo Drafthouse is the only place that tries to make the movie going experience a genuine blast.

N=1, I spend all my media time on Youtube. Haven't watched a show in years. Watched some of the NBA playoffs though. Also watched Tenet in a huge empty theater.

I wonder if this will result in more outrageous, more clickbait junk from media outlets, desperate for audience attention. Even more than it is now.

I am spending more time on YouTube too. I used to watch Netflix, but it has been downhill last 3 years or so.

What's strange to me is that while YouTube seems to be stealing a lot of attention, the creators on the platform are so often complaining the platform and having to build out non-platform revenue streams in order for it to make sense.

Is it that they expect more than their fair share, or is YouTube leveraging their creators more than they should, or are adblockers the issue? I'm not sure what it is, it just surprises me that there seems to be unwavering consumption and creation on the platform but the numbers aren't lining up for the creators.

I don't know if this is a case of fair or unfair, so much as there is a lot of potential value that isn't captured by YouTube ads, which the creators would be silly to leave on the table, but which Google has not historically been positioned to capture. The ability to join channels is an attempt to make inroads on that value, but it seems like it will take some doing before that vehicle catches up to Patreon if it ever does.

This video from Veritasium goes into more about Youtuber burnout, self-blame, dynamics and the drive to non-platform revenue streams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHsa9DqmId8

If you find the apparent contradiction between Youtube success and creators needing to built out non-platform revenue streams strange, the video gives a pretty good theory explaining why.

It's possible that a small number of creators are taking most of the revenue at any particular time, and the set of outstandingly successful creators keeps changing, which it might due to the promotion algorithm.

That gives all of them reasons to build out non-platform revenue streams.

I'm not saying Google/YouTube aren't taking too much. But hypothetically, even if they took 0% cut, the above could still happen.

Youtube makes money from ads, unlike other video communities like onlyfans , so most likely the cut that creators take doesn't cut it. Currently it seems creators use it as a social tool to raise awareness of their moneymaking product , but that leads to more and more videos being ads themselves, which is leads to google's recurring issue: spam.

If youtube made money from subscriptions the interests of youtube and creators would align better. As it is now it's on a spiral of more and more spam and self-reference which will eventually turn it to a ghost town (because unlike google search, all the video content is in their platform)

Isn't it simply that there's a lot less revenue coming in to YouTube? Most users aren't paying any monthly subscription, and the global audience is probably much less valuable to advertisers (on average) than e.g. a US cable TV audience.

Anyone can be a creator. You have to be pulling in millions of views from people that are valuable to advertise to (not all views are created equally) in order to make a career out of it.

And even then it's flash-in-a-pan stuff for the most part. My YouTube viewing very often consists of getting interested in a creator, watching a lot of their stuff for a while, slowly getting bored as it gets repetitive, then moving on. This happens sometimes in weeks, sometimes in months, sometimes in only days. There's nobody I watch year after year.

Another possibility you didn't mention is that many creators aren't creating as much value as they think they're worth.

I alternate between YT and Netflix.

The problem I have with YT is the paralysis of choice in deciding which of a zillion videos to watch. When I have a show to binge, its much easier to just jump into it relax without thinking about what to watch

> The problem I have with YT is the paralysis of choice

This is it. I haven't subscribed to a new YT channel years.

There's always a million+ subscriber channel with good stuff to watch - that I don't have time for.

more likely youtube will adopt the onlyfans model once people start getting tired of the clickbait useless vids

Well there's the Premium option. You don't see any ads and though the recommendations are sometimes low qualty, most of them don't stike me as overt clickbait.

but it 's very optional, which changes the dynamic

They already have paid channel membership and member only videos.

> Also watched Tenet in a huge empty theater.

Same, what a great experience. I don't mind the experience of a busy theatre but watching a movie in a comfy centre seat all by your lonesome is pretty rad.

Movies, as in 2 hour stories that you consume in a physical location outside your house, are never gonna return to what they were. What will survive is "a fun location outside the house to watch a screen with incredible sound + picture" with your friends / a date / kids. That market should remain lucrative, cause people aren't gonna wanna be in the house all day / weekend and it's gonna remain a relatively cheap night out.

>Ratings for sporting events are down dramatically

I think maybe some of the kneeling and other political / social virtue signalling by sporting codes are having an effect too.

I know I am fed up. The same ideology is broadcast at work, on the news, on art/film/theatre/books, social media and now sports. I feel like the protagonist in "A Clockwork Orange" with my eyelids stapled open and being force fed a mind virus.

That's what did it for me. I was already a bit sour with the amount of ads in the NFL, but when it became political on the field, that was enough.

Agree or disagree with the position, but I watch sports to take a break from reality.

I suspect most of the athletes are okay with you not watching. For them, sports are reality and not escapism.

Perhaps the tens of millions of dollars in annual income driven by television broadcasting and advertising sales is also a large part of their reality and motivation, no?

What percentage do you estimate when you say “a large part”?

I agree that it is perhaps possible that some olympians derive motivation from potential economic returns. I think that’s what you’re trying to say, right?

I posit that is not the primary motivator, and projecting motivations on a group of people tells us more about your motivations than theirs.

Live sports is wrapped around groups a lot too. Which also begs the question of are people actually watching the ads in a bar or party..

The move to streaming for sports is bad.

I signed up for paid Hulu to watch olympics. It's grossly expensive, with ads still, and really confusing. I learned the hard way the only way to actually watch the events I wanted to I had to advance DVR them.

Instead of just listing them as videos, like netflix youtube and the rest of the world. The only stand alone videos I have access too without DVR are short 5 minute summary clips. And the DVR recorded broadcasts you have to manually figure out and skip over commercials and manually find the events in a 2 hour broadcast. I remember the super old tv connected DVRs recognized ads to skip. PornHub and YouTube can automatically mark content changes on the timeline.

Movie theaters can't go out of business soon enough for me.

I hate being trapped with rude people talking and using their phones during the movie. Not to mention people who don't believe in baby sitters, and bring their infant or toddler along for a good scream fest in the middle of the show. And don't get me started on loud eaters, flatulent people, etc.

I think they've been on borrowed time since the 80s, when video stores got big. First run movies are their only hook now, and they're loosing even that with movies like Black Widow premiering on streaming. I hope more films premiere on streaming.

Uh, you can just watch movies at home if you don't like theaters ...

But not first run movies that have a theatrical window.

Can you list the movies that didn't get a simultaneous digital release during the last year or so?

Tenet, and...?

I have a bunch of pre-paid movie tickets still from the pre-pandemic days. Haven't used a single one, since all the movies I wanted to watch I can see at home for around 25€.

Stillwater, which is the first movie in a while I've wanted to see.

> I hate being trapped with rude people talking and using their phones during the movie.

FWIW, it's not like that in France, Sweden, Belgium and Japan, to cite countries where I've been to the movies.

correct. the trend was down even before covid, it's just that instead of covid people's attention was in politics, and often stupid politics. I somehow wish the attention will shift to who can develop a vaccine/cure first, but i m not holding my breath for that

In the last year I've cancelled my cable service, totally deleted facebook and twitter accounts, quit watching (new) movies, quit watching pro sports and several other things. Why? I feel like I'm being preached to constantly rather than entertained, and not just a little bit here and there. It's constant. I refuse to pay for it or be a part of it. It offers no value to me anymore. Why would I pay for or be a part of something that just irritates me? It seems most movies are just running the same formula for the last 20 years and, well, I've seen it. Hyper-realistic non-stop over the top garbage and woke super heroes. Yay. There is no originality or good story line, with few exceptions. It's all messaging, and it's completely obvious. Messaging was always there, sure, but now it's just overly blatant and constant. It's not just a well-placed can of Coke in the shot. And sports...used to be an avid NBA fan. Haven't watched a single game in the last year+ since it became about political messaging rather than athletic prowess and physical competition. If I want to watch political opinions, I'll watch a political news show - not a "professional" basketball game. In short, the products suck and not worth my time or money, so I no longer participate.

relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n3WgiMftaU