Alamo Drafthouse Instituted Mobile Ordering. Super Fans Are Not Pleased.
“Alamo Drafthouse is in a class of its own with a moviegoing experience that guests can’t find anywhere else,” the chain’s chief executive, Michael Kustermann, said in a statement, pointing to handmade food and cocktails. He added, “We’re continuing to invest in the future of Alamo, including our ordering process and digital experience to make sure Alamo remains a one-of-a-kind cinema experience well into the future.”
Tyler Neal, a computer programmer in the Los Angeles area, is the moderator of a popular Alamo Drafthouse subreddit, runs an Alamo Drafthouse Discord and created the website Drafthouse Notifications, which sends alerts when tickets go on sale. He has had a front-row seat to the response from other fans. “Obviously there’s some anger out there, but the vast majority of people are just disappointed,” he said.
According to Neal, the subreddit was receiving about 300,000 monthly visitors last year; since mobile ordering went into effect in February, it’s averaging closer to 700,000 monthly visits. “For at least a couple months after they announced it, that was like 95 percent of the activity on the subreddit,” Neal says. “It was literally kind of overwhelming.”
Neal said that the strong response stemmed in part from the desire for “that sort of digital detox, even if it’s only for a couple hours” that a phone-free setting provided. “The biggest complaint that I’ve seen is just that it’s taken away that third space for a lot of people.”
Twich Collins, a screenwriter in Denver, estimated that he had patronized his local Alamo Drafthouse 140 times last year and described the no-cellphone policy as a golden rule. Mobile ordering meant “you are now allowing — not even allowing, you’re forcing people to use their cellphone,” he said, and added, “They try to say that you’re only supposed to use it for ordering food, but because of the culture as we are, as soon as you pick up your phone to do something, you’ve got to check that notification if it’s on your screen.”
Collins has written an open letter to Alamo Drafthouse and said that every week he has been emailing its chief executive, Kustermann. He hasn’t received a response, and is now trying to organize a boycott calling on customers to attend the theater but refrain from ordering food to communicate their displeasure.
“I love the Alamo. It’s the greatest movie experience that I’ve ever had,” Collins said. “And if you love something like that, you want to try and save it.”
