Last week I went to the movies to see The Testament of Ann Lee. The movie itself was fantastic; my experience seeing it was less so. This was largely due to something that took place about 10 minutes into the film, when a family wandered into the theater, spent what seemed like an eternity using their phones’ flashlight app to find their seats in a not-very-crowded matinee showing and then walked out of the theater 10 minutes later.
This experience, I should stress, did not happen in an Alamo Drafthouse theater. In fact, it went a long way towards explaining why Alamo has attracted such a loyal following for the chain’s distinctive policies, including not letting moviegoers in after a movie has begun and recruiting stars to record PSAs about not talking during the movie.
Part of that ethos of a distraction-free environment involves keeping one’s smartphone off. In January, however, Alamo Drafthouse announced that by mid-February it would start changing the way moviegoers order food during a film, shifting away from jotting an order down on a card and moving to ordering digitally. Which means keeping one’s phone on. Which seems like something of a paradox, doesn’t it?
Alamo Drafthouse’s own FAQ on the subject argues that it’s not. “Yes, it means you’ll need to use your smartphone and a custom-built ‘dark screen’ to order food or drink during the movie,” they state. “This doesn’t mean we’re changing our rules on talking or texting during the movie.” The company also stresses that its staff “is trained to distinguish between a dark ordering screen and disruptive phone use.”
The company also argues that this will lead to fewer, rather than more, distractions: “By removing ‘last call’ check-ins and the check drop happening late in the film, we hope to greatly reduce overall potential distractions.”
As someone who’s been to a fair number of movies at the three Drafthouse locations in New York City, I’m skeptical. Largely because keeping your phone on — even with a dark screen — opens the door to calls or texts coming in. Maybe there’s a way to restrict all forms of incoming and outgoing internet traffic except for food and drink orders, but it isn’t hard to see this going wrong, and for someone to keep an eye on their texts as they ponder whether to order more popcorn.
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A “Scrubs” revival and a new Mitski album soften the blow of six more weeks of winterAs James Hibberd writes at The Hollywood Reporter, the theater chain is facing a backlash to the new policy, which is manifesting in a couple ways. Moviegoers (including Elijah Wood and Scott Derrickson) have argued that this shift in policy is contrary to the theater chain’s existing ethos. Members of the union representing Alamo Drafthouse employees are also concerned that this could lead to a reduction in jobs at the theaters, something that was a concern even before this policy change was revealed.
Hibberd’s article on the change also cites a number of film buffs who have experienced problems using the new system. At a time when seeing movies in theaters feels more at risk than ever, and everyone from Tom Cruise to Pope Leo XIV is making impassioned cases for the pleasures of theatrical releases, it’s bizarre to see Alamo Drafthouse making a change that seems to be alienating its most ardent customers.
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