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Reach for the sky…
If you think movie ticket prices have gone through the roof in recent years, get ready for more of the same. Because Alamo Drafthouse – operator-to-be of the now former AMC Mainstreet – has announced pricing plans for the ritzy downtown cinema.
Alamo will charge $15 a ticket at its three dine-in theaters after 6 p.m. on weekends and $12 before 6 p.m.
While that’s a 25 percent premium to what AMC charges at its Fork & Screens theaters, it matches AMC’s ticket prices at its adults-only, 21 and up Cinema Suites.
For Alamo’s yet-to-be converted to full food and bar service auditoriums, it will charge $12 for adult tickets on weekends after 6 p.m. and $9 before.
Weekday prices for the dine-ins are $12 after six and $9 before with self-serve theaters at $10 and $7.
The Alamo will continue AMC’s policy of nobody under 21 in the upscale auditoriums upstairs, presumeably to ensure higher food and liquor grosses from cocktail-buying adults.
It will however allow tweens and teens into the self-serve theaters downstairs except that "Children under 6 are typically not admitted," it’s Web site says.
"Typically?"
Unless it’s Baby Day!
That’s right, every Tuesday for "regular" movies that begin before 2:05 pm. the Alamo opens its doors to parents with infant children. Alamo even let’s ’em in free, turns up the lights and turns down the sound.
And while it’s probably a safe bet that most tots don’t text, they have been known to talk.
Raising the question of whether misbehavior by miniature miscreants will be tolerated on Baby Day or if the little bundles of joy will find their diaper-covered butts kicked to the curb for waking up or bothering other Munchkins.
Remember: "People who disrupt other patrons will be ejected from the theater without a refund," the Alamo’s screed warns. Just sayin’…
Thats a lotta frijoles, but
NOTHING is keeping me outta the Alamo.
I love the Alamo Cinema in Nuevo Laredo,
but you know its sold out if there are more than 4 pick up trucks in the parking lot.
Hell hath no fury…
like a man told he can’t text. If the Alamo Drafthouse would just buy Jardine’s, this blog would explode.
Don’t even go there pet
One time I tried to explain to him that his “typos” distracted the reader from his message. He deleted my post, accused me of being a “Star staffer” and blocked my I.P. address.
8+1= Sammy Sensitive
The Alamo; Its the NEW Jardines!!
Maybe when it fails the 2 gay dudes and I can buy it!
I say it fails, but you know those Texans: theres NO RETREATING from the Alamo!
@paul
I think he is covering this about as much as Jardine’s and the plaza motorcycle parking combined! At least Jardine’s had a soap opera like appeal to it. This wrath over Alamo’s texting policy is about as interesting as watching paint dry. If it is that important to text during a movie, go somewhere else. Better yet, he is probably too busy to go to a movie at all if he can’t go two hours without texting.
Man if Hearne would get this upset with Glazer maybe he would be gone.
Wrath?
You’re joking, right? Wrath?
This column is about ticket prices, babies and booze, not typos, teething or texting
Will kids get kicked out for talking?
Uh, no. That’s why it’s Baby Day, doofus. You might as well inform us of their sending and/or receiving faxes policy.
@hearne
Maybe wrath was a little strong but you did make a big deal about the anti-texting policy when you started covering this story. You seem to have a generally negative tone in the barrage of articles that have followed and almost seem to want the place to fail unless they change their policies. Although they may or may not do well, I don’t think the anti-texting policy would be a determining factor. Most people I know would rather see movies in the suburbs where there is better acess and parking.
Fair enough, Mike…
but honestly, I don’t have some giant Jones for talking or texting during movies, I just think Alamo is playing it a bit harshly and of course I’m going to have some fun with them about it.
Like on Baby Day. C’mon, Skeptic you took me seriously on the baby texting and talking?
Hey, even Jack – who’s on record as being wildly irritated by texting, to the point where it offends him that people do it even if he can’t see it – thinks it’s bogus not to refund people’s ticket money.
Here’s another wild card; how are they gonna collect on the food and beverage bill if they bounce someone before they’ve gotten their check? AMC brings your check towards the end of the movie when it’s apparent that you’re no longer ordering.
Every movie theater I’ve gone to in recent years has a no talking and no texting policy – usually on the screen right before the movie – and people have been getting kicked out of theaters for decades for misbehavior. Extreme misbehavior, not peeking into a purse to see if their house is on fire.
So this is nothing new really, except for that maybe Alamo appears to be using its policy as a marketing tool.
I do think however there are discreet ways to check a text where nobody is bothered or even knows. I also think we live in a world of constant communication.
And look at the photos of the clientele Alamo attracts in other markets in its promo pics. They’re young, hip looking and a little on the unruly side. The kind of people who routinely check their phones when they get a message.
Can Alamo survive by trying to draw the kind of people who used to hang at the nearby Screenland and fight their way to the front of concerts? By appearances even Screenland is hanging by a thread. So we’ll see. Wilson and Jack are skeptical. My only interest is the news and pop culture angle.
I hope Alamo thrives, but I suspect it won’t be easy.
The Mainstreet is also far and away THE nicest, poshest theater Alamo has ever run. Check out the pics of its other theaters. It’s almost like Kelly’s getting a management deal to run Capital Grill.
So time will tell.
It will be nice to get some menu changes and other improvements. I’m about tapped on the food at AMC’s Fork and Screen and Cinema Suites.
The Real Deal
From a highly respected source. Alamo and Cordish are partners. With AMC bailing Cordish needed a quick fix. No time or money to properly refurbish or repurpose the building in a meaningful way. Enter Alamo under the right terms and conditions. Cordish will just move numbers around the spreadsheet to make it work…..maybe. The irony is that the letters P&L have less to do today with Power and Light than profit and loss. If ever Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was needed……
Get a life
What do you care if the folks from Texas make a buck in KC. AMC obviously decided they wanted to but couldn’t.. Get off the Mainstreet bullshit Hearne and start reporting on the profitability of the Star’s new presses or Beena doing tricks to stay alive. Topeka is sucking the life out your reporting. Do a story on Topeka’s famous son instead. You know the one who exiles fags to hell. Now there’s a story idea for you.
Will they….
Be charging astonomical fees for parking like AMC did?
@hearne
Maybe I’m nuts, but I wonder if the whole movie theater industry is becoming kind of a dinosaur. You can watch movies at home on high definition big screens with full dolby sound, text when you want, talk when you want, raid the fridge, order pizza, dress like you want, etc. and not answer to anybody. With the gap narrowed between the quality of movies at a theater and at home, there is less incentive to go out to see a movie. The theaters will be fighting for pieces of an ever shrinking pie and more and more movies will go directly to cable or dvd as this happens. I would think that sinking huge money into any movie theater could be risky.
FYI, the Business Journal reported that…
Alamo leased the space, just like most of the other tenants that have come and gone down there in the past several years. However I attended their “soft opening” tonight and have a few observations I’ll pass along later today.
Meanwhile, let’s give Alamo credit and hope that they struck a really good bargain and will live to tell the story. After seeing them in action earlier tonight, I’m rooting for them.
Oh yeah, I took my daughter’s cellphone away right before the movie started. Just to be safe!
The thin is, Hearne…
With your writing style I can’t tell if your tongue is in your cheek or your foot is in your mouth. That is not a dig, btw, just an observation.
R. Lee Ermey…
Is the voice warning Alamo Drafthouse Cinema patrons to be quiet during the movies….I’d go just to hear that.
waiting waiting waiting
Damn I’m holding my breath. Need a Mainstreet story fix Hearne. Keep checking back every 10 minutes and still only a day old story on Alamos Mainstreet operations. Will there be one during the lunch hour. Should I take my laptop with me to Town Topic just in case you break one while I’m having slides? Don’t make me beg. We need your Mainstreet wisdom cut from its 24 hour to a 12 hour cycle.