Octopus Overlords

They've recently opened an Alamo Drafthouse cinema which is, literally, just blocks away from our home. Yay!!!

The thing is, over the past 15 years or so, the wife and I would go out to one, maybe two, movies a year. We were always content to wait for Netflix availability.

In the four months since they've opened up the Alamo however, we've been to nine screenings. Now, a lot of that has to do with some really awesome movies coming out lately including Star Wars Ep. 7, Hateful Eight, Deadpool, etc but those count for only about half of the movies we've seen at the Alamo.

The rest are all retro movies including Near Dark, Galaxy Quest (right after Alan Rickman's passing), Army of Darkness, Princess Bride, The Thing, and so forth.

I already have tickets for features next month as well including, They Live and something I'm really looking forward to, an Alien/Aliens double feature that also includes a T-Shirt for each audience member. (Ticket's were $30/each for that one)
The Alien/Aliens double feature turned out to be so popular, the original showing sold out immediately and they ended up adding a second showing which is the one I managed to get tickets for.

These people knew exactly how and where to plunge the needle to siphon off my precious dolla dolla bills, y'all.

The downtown location of one and the 30+ mi distance from my house of the other have kept me from sampling their goodness.

Make sure you join the Victory club. At that rate you'll hit their top tier.

McNutt wrote:Make sure you join the Victory club. At that rate you'll hit their top tier.

Practically the first thing I did.

I'd give my left nut to have one of those near me. As it stands, we're getting a 14-screen cineplex five minutes from my house, so I'm really excited about that. Currently I've got at least a 20-30 minute drive across town to get to one of our other two theaters.

I've already told my wife to prepare for our movie budget to go WAY up when that is built. My wife and I have spent the last six years missing a lot of movies on the big screen due to the kids, but with a theater only five minutes away we plan to do a lot of babysitting trade-off and catching shows during the week.

YellowKing wrote:Currently I've got at least a 20-30 minute drive across town to get to one of our other two theaters.

Within 20-30 minutes I could easily access over 100 screens.

Within 10 miles of my current location, there are 12 multiplexes. 3 of those are of the food and beverage variety.

Despite that I generally see ~1 movie a year at a theater. My wife doesn't like it if I go alone and we don't like to bother our babysitters (the in-laws) as they have much busier calendars than we do, despite both being retired. Tomorrow night will be my second movie this year, though, so this year may be a post-kids record setter!

I dont have an Alamo Drafthouse near me but few of the theatres around my area have remodeled and have similar set ups, including massive comfy recliners and adult beverage service. Smart move on their part as tech has reached the point that for a reasonable price people can have a really nice home theatre. If they want to get people like me out to the theatres these days, they need to provide these amenities. It seems that the Alamo concept has caught one ad I for one am glad it has. No more crowded, uncomfortable theatres with crying children for me!

I seem to recall a time I could go to a building where they project moving pictures on a large screen with big sounds . . . .

That was from the time long ago.

ImLawBoy wrote:I seem to recall a time I could go to a building where they project moving pictures on a large screen with big sounds . . . .

Oh yeah, that reminds me why I don't go out to the theater so often. I call that building "home." Depending where I am in the house it (the theater) can be up to 40 feet away.

I'm so proud of my fellow Austinites (But my wife and I love the Alamo Drafthouse)

Edit: NSFW and Sound.

ImLawBoy wrote:I seem to recall a time I could go to a building where they project moving pictures on a large screen with big sounds . . . .

For a few months, we were going every other week or so to see the Filipino movie playing at the Woodridge AMC. Since getting rid of cable, though, my wife can no longer watch The Filipino Channel, and thus is not exposed to movie ads that play about every commercial break. She's not asked to go since.

rshetts2 wrote:I dont have an Alamo Drafthouse near me but few of the theatres around my area have remodeled and have similar set ups, including massive comfy recliners and adult beverage service. Smart move on their part as tech has reached the point that for a reasonable price people can have a really nice home theatre. If they want to get people like me out to the theatres these days, they need to provide these amenities. It seems that the Alamo concept has caught one ad I for one am glad it has. No more crowded, uncomfortable theatres with crying children for me!

KZoo is a bit fat to drive but I'm all about the emagines. I don't do adult beverages anymore, really but I'm all about the luxury recliners and leg room and mutiple step height difference between rows they provide and I can still see a early showing for under $6. I had sworn off movies for years but the revamped emagine theatre has drawn me out of my shell. It's a totally different experience than it was when I quite seeing movies... Previous to this year, the last time I saw a film in the theatre was Dark Knight Rises.

I'm not sure who KZoo is, but I'm sorry to hear they're too fat to drive. Hopefully they can make the necessary changes in their life. God speed.

The problem with these places is they turn a $20 (for 2) activity into a $60-100 one. We have several (no Alamo though) to choose from, one (Hollywood Palms) has a 2-item minimum, the other (iPic) charges $25 a piece just for the admission ticket (but provides a free small popcorn, yay!) I suppose if you're combining dinner and movie into one event, it's fine, the food at Hollywood Palms is kind of meh, and we didn't have dinner the one time we went to iPic.

geezer wrote:I'm so proud of my fellow Austinites (But my wife and I love the Alamo Drafthouse)

Edit: NSFW and Sound.

I love that they're proud of that. I wish there was a place like this in Maine. It always bothers me when I pay to go out and someone in front of me spends half the movie texting or talking with their friends. It just ruins it by repeatedly breaking my focus from the event I paid to see.

We have a very small selection of dine-in & watch theaters - and they've become my wife's favorite places to go for movies. She's not a movie lover like I am, and she hates sitting still for 2 hours - so being able to down a few pints of beer helps her be more okay with it.

We do the $5 Tuesday movie option at the mall. All day long all their movies are $5.

If I went to a theater with comfortable chairs the wife and I would both sleep thru the movie.

So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

Scuzz wrote:We do the $5 Tuesday movie option at the mall. All day long all their movies are $5.

If I went to a theater with comfortable chairs the wife and I would both sleep thru the movie.

I was reallyworried about that. I fall asleep during movies at home all of the time. I was also worried my back would hurt from being in one position too long and that I'd get distracted and want to get up and pee or make a sandwich. My fears were unfounded.

hentzau wrote:So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

I believe they build new. I know ours was ground up construction.

Ours also happens to be the Star Wars themed theater. Each location has it's own theme and ours came up as Star Wars. There is a HUGE Death Star hanging over the ticketing lobby and off to the side is the Emperor's chair from ROTJ. If you sit in the chair, there is a button you can push which will fire the Death Star primary weapon.

LordMortis wrote:

Scuzz wrote:We do the $5 Tuesday movie option at the mall. All day long all their movies are $5.

If I went to a theater with comfortable chairs the wife and I would both sleep thru the movie.

I was reallyworried about that. I fall asleep during movies at home all of the time. I was also worried my back would hurt from being in one position too long and that I'd get distracted and want to get up and pee or make a sandwich. My fears were unfounded.

I too worried about it when our big local one replaced all their chairs with electric recline recliners. But I didn't fall asleep and was the most comfortable Ive ever been during a movie.

No alamo drafthouse around me. We have a Wehrenberg and a Carmike. Both suck. The Wehrenberg at least has beer. Shitty bud light beer but it's better than shitty watered down pop.

Our best places are the cheap ones. They show second run movies but make it more of an event outside of just seeing the movie. Their tickets, food, and drinks are cheaper, too.

hentzau wrote:So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

At least one of the ones in Austin was renovated. So apparently they do both approaches.

I don't think I can attend this (Tuesday being my weekly production night at work), but I'd love to attend this ....

Alamo Drafthouse's LV-426/Alien Day April 26
https://drafthouse.com/event/aliens

The Alamo Drafthouse has partnered with Mondo and 20th Century Fox to create one-of-a-kind double feature screenings of ALIEN and ALIENS featuring exclusive collectibles, customized video preshows before and between each feature, and all sorts of additional Xenomorph insanity at each location!

In honor of LV426, the moon where the Nostromo first encounters the Xenomorph eggs that started so much trouble, the Alamo Drafthouse and friends are bringing you this one-of-a-kind celebration on Earth's "426", April 26.

If I can figure out a way to take time off then, I might have to go. I"m in reasonable distance of one but wouldn't call it "nearby." I saw Alien when I was around 13-14 (my older brother reviewed it for his high school newspaper), and then Aliens in my last year of college, and then I got to write a review of it for a summer newswriting course.

Alamo is awesome. The attitude, food, drink, and experience are all top-notch. And you can go see a movie and have dinner in place of popcorn without it being any more expensive than crappy popcorn and an Icee at an AMC.

That really sounds fantastic. I'd never heard of them until this thread, but now I'm jealous. There is no theater here, so we usually go to Terre Haute (about 30 miles from here.) All they have there is an old AMC (well, two - next door to each other, but the other is awful.)

Of course, them serving dinner would make it harder to sneak food in instead of buying it on-site!

Blackhawk wrote:That really sounds fantastic. I'd never heard of them until this thread, but now I'm jealous. There is no theater here, so we usually go to Terre Haute (about 30 miles from here.) All they have there is an old AMC (well, two - next door to each other, but the other is awful.)

Of course, them serving dinner would make it harder to sneak food in instead of buying it on-site!

Actually it might be easier. The theatre I go to has reserved seating so you buy your tickets on line and take your voucher to the theatre and youre in. When I went to see Deadpool we took sandwiches and pop in with us and no one even noticed. People are already eating in the theatre so you dont really stand out at all.

blackjack wrote:I don't think I can attend this (Tuesday being my weekly production night at work), but I'd love to attend this ....

Alamo Drafthouse's LV-426/Alien Day April 26
https://drafthouse.com/event/aliens

The Alamo Drafthouse has partnered with Mondo and 20th Century Fox to create one-of-a-kind double feature screenings of ALIEN and ALIENS featuring exclusive collectibles, customized video preshows before and between each feature, and all sorts of additional Xenomorph insanity at each location!

In honor of LV426, the moon where the Nostromo first encounters the Xenomorph eggs that started so much trouble, the Alamo Drafthouse and friends are bringing you this one-of-a-kind celebration on Earth's "426", April 26.

If I can figure out a way to take time off then, I might have to go. I"m in reasonable distance of one but wouldn't call it "nearby." I saw Alien when I was around 13-14 (my older brother reviewed it for his high school newspaper), and then Aliens in my last year of college, and then I got to write a review of it for a summer newswriting course.

As noted in my original post, we are attending this event. I haven't decided which of my Alien tshirts I'm going to wear though.. LV-426 or the Alien wearing a smoking jacket for which, I can only find this tiny crappy picture.

The shirt they show on their website is Ripley in black on a white shirt.

Right. Which I also linked to in my original post.

I was trying to decide which of the shirts I own to wear to the event.

Smoking jacket. The other one is trying too hard.

That's what I was leaning towards.

TheMix wrote:

hentzau wrote:So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

At least one of the ones in Austin was renovated. So apparently they do both approaches.

I expect that was because they started in Austin. At least one of the ones here in San Antonio is a renovation.

Redfive wrote:

TheMix wrote:

hentzau wrote:So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

At least one of the ones in Austin was renovated. So apparently they do both approaches.

I expect that was because they started in Austin. At least one of the ones here in San Antonio is a renovation.

Ours started off life as an Italian restaurant.

MonkeyFinger wrote:

Redfive wrote:

TheMix wrote:

hentzau wrote:So does the Alamo Drafthouse company build new when they come into an area, or do they take over and renovate older theaters? Cause I've got a theater near me that would be perfect for them to "Alamoize".

At least one of the ones in Austin was renovated. So apparently they do both approaches.

I expect that was because they started in Austin. At least one of the ones here in San Antonio is a renovation.

Ours started off life as an Italian restaurant.

Negative points if it wasn't re-themed to a spaghetti western motif.

Damn that looks awesome. There's a megaplex a 15-minute walk from our home which is great for blockbusters, but they rarely get even the best reviewed indies and festival films unless they take home an award, and even then it tends to be a limited engagement.

It hasn't been the same since AMC left Canada. They always used to get the smaller movies I wanted to see.

No Alamo near us, but we do have Roadhouse Cinemas. The one that opened here moved into one of those 12-screen second run theaters. The one time we went the seat was great, but as someone (probably JeffV) noted, the menu consisted of overpriced mediocre bar food. I hated trying to eat in the dark (I kept putting my fingers in the ketchup) and trying to read the bill by the light of the usher's pen light.

Rumor has it they are opening a second one in a long-abandoned former supermarket that sits on the corner, but I haven't noticed any activity yet.

Ive never seen a theater that shows movies from years ago. Ive always had a dream in my head to own the old theater near here that we all went to as kids and make it a place that was affordable and had old movies again. Ive love to see stuff from the 70s and 80s. Id also run special weekends for old special movies like Casablanca and Charlie Chaplin and such. Have costumes and such .Even do the full blown Rocky Horror weekend. All on the cheap. Hell of I was a rich bastard Id do free nights and all.

Our theater had a showing for the Bogart/Bacall classic The Big Sleep recently.

I do have at least one negative regarding our local Alamo and that is that their Buffalo Wings are just terrible. Bleh.

I mostly stick to their Endless Popcorn Bowl and bottomless soda anyway.

That popcorn with butter and garlic parm... :):):)

Zaxxon wrote:That popcorn with butter and garlic parm... :):):)