Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse is a great dine-in movie theater to pick up a pint of homemade brew, order some decent food from your chair and watch a newly released flick or enjoy a special theme night such as a “Big Lebowski” quote-along.
However, lurking in this atmosphere of pub and grub cinema experience are a few rules. And the Alamo Drafthouse staff at the chain’s 12 locations takes these standards seriously.
One of the most pressing, is that since 1997, patrons are not allowed to answer calls and are since not even allowed to text, as the company claims that the bright lights disturb the movie-going experience.
In a spoof of Sylvester Stallone from the action film “Cobra,” an Alamo Drafthouse representative warns the audience before the start of each film at the theater: “texting and talking in a theater is the disease, (and) the Alamo Drafthouse is the cure.”
A woman was recently ejected for allegedly using her phone to text after two warnings and was not given a refund. In a rambling, expletive-laden voicemail to the company, the woman claims she was looking for her seat in the dark, and she phoned the dine-in theater chain to let the administration know exactly what she thought of their policy.
In response, Alamo Drafthouse officials were amused, and released an edited recording of her passionate voicemail on their website and YouTube, sparking both giggles, debate concerning appropriate theater behavior and national attention. The theater is also using it as a “don’t talk or text” advert that will be played at all the chain’s R-rated movies this weekend.
Entertainment Weekly is another publication that’s run with the texting story, which has people posting comments left and right in arguments whether or not the actions in kicking her out were too severe. The publication previously named the Alamo Drafthouse the “best movie theater in America.”
The chain started in Austin and currently has five theaters in the Capitol City, four in San Antonio, two in Houston and one in Winchester, Va.
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