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Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Theater Gives Texters the Boot
Hugh Pickens writes "Ever been annoyed during that nail-biting darkened hallway scene by someone turning on their phone to send a text? Well, don't mess with Texas or you may end up on the screen in a public service announcement. Alamo Drafthouse, a local chain of dine-and-screen movie theaters in Austin, Texas, has long waged a war against impolite moviegoers booting out customers who talk or text during performances. Phoebe Connelly writes that according to Tim League, the Drafthouse's founder, a woman was recently warned twice about texting during a screening, and then, in accordance with company policy, was escorted out without a refund. 'I don't think people realize that it is distracting,' says League. 'It seems like nothing, but if you spend as much time as I do at the movies, you realize the entire theater sees it and it pulls you out of the movie experience. It's every bit as intrusive as talking.' The irate customer called up the Alamo Drafthouse and left a profanity-laced (and perhaps slightly inebriated) message decrying the theater's policies, but the theater got the last laugh as they took the audio of the woman's voicemail, transcribed it, and turned it into an in-house preview [tl: Note, YouTube video contains some profanity] that warns theatergoers against cell phone use during movies. 'Part of what we're trying to do is have a comedic message about what to us is a very serious issue,' says League, declining to give any more details about the woman at the center of the recent PSA."
I went to Alamo Drafthouse with some friends a couple of weeks ago when I was in town, and there is NO way this woman could have been ignorant of the policy. Before the trailers there are multiple announcements (some quite amusing) that spell out very clearly that texting, talking, or using your bright-as-twenty-suns cellphone in any capacity are NOT tolerated. They also clearly state that you get one and ONLY one warning. After that, you're ass is outta there. But she apparently chose to ignore the multiple warnings, and now she's pissy that they enforced a clearly defined policy? Sucks for her. Maybe next time she'll put the damned phone away.
I knew this policy quite well and I've only ever visited the chain ONCE. Plus I don't even live in the area. This woman has no excuse.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
No you don't. A cinema isn't exactly a proper place to work.
Ceci n'est pas une
is here.
1 week sounds about right:
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Or.... you could not be an asshole, and wait an hour until the movie is over, and then text your friends that it was bad instead of annoying everyone else in the theater behind you.
For example, a friend of mine once worked as an emergency responder for the Red Cross. Part of that was to carry the emergency contact phone wherever she went while she was on call. If she was going to be somewhere that respectful quiet was expected, like a church, or the theatre, or a classroom, she made damned certain that the thing was set to vibrate. She also made sure to arrive at the venue early, so that she could get an aisle seat and, if she felt the phone vibrate, she could slip out to the lobby without shoving her ass in a row-full of faces. As far as anyone who wasn't in her group was concerned, she would just be politely nipping out to the bathroom. No ringtones, no sudden glare, no conversations, not difficult.
Here is what is playig at the theater. Brides mainds, kung fu panda. x-men, etc. Not a high end theater like landmark or Dundance where the films require a little more attention.
That's right. Only people who are watching appropriately high-class, cultured, artistic works of cinema should expect to be able to watch a film without unnecessary distractions. Folks who are going to watch mass-market movies just to have a pleasant night out aren't interested in paying attention; of course they shouldn't expect to be able to see or hear what they're watching. Their low-brow entertainment preferences don't deserve any better.
Seriously? For someone who's bemoaning Austin (Austin? Texas? Really?) as a city of pseudo-chic poseurs, you're awfully stuck up. Sure, this could just be a publicity stunt--but I hold out some faint hope that there might actually exist theaters which care about the audience's experience, and expect a better level of conduct than we seem to settle for in most venues.
~Idarubicin
When driving, for example, it is next to impossible to resist answering the phone when it rings.
Very not-true, unless you were raised by B.F. Skinner in a Nokia lab.
Put your phone on vibrate and step outside if you get a message you need to check.
Say what you will about Anderson Cooper, but he rips this drunk chick a new one in this video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2011/06/07/exp.ac.ridiculist.talk.text.movie.cnn.html
I don't live in Austin, but if I visit, I'll make a point to go to this theater.
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Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
Sometimes they get violent with me when I'm asking them - pushing me, getting in my face with "what you gonna do about it?", things like that. I am all too willing to stay in their face when that happens - pushing back, telling them I'm going to retaliate, even kill them if they get tough with me. [...] And if someone wants their day ruined by testing whether I'm nuts, they're going to get vastly more trouble than an annoying light in a dark movie theater.
That made me laugh out loud. The reason these people are behaving this way is precisely because they have the same attitude as you do. They react so bizarrely because they think "hey, don't fuck with me". They react to you because they perceive you to be fucking with them, not because they don't care about other people, and you are doing the same thing. It doesn't matter how polite your words are, if you have in the back of your mind that this person you are interacting with is possibly one of "those aggressive obnoxious people" then they won't react well to you. If you doubt that, see your own emotional reaction to this post, where I put you in the category of these people. I bet you were immediately set in a mindset to disagree with whatever I was saying. That's how it works. You are not suffering these idiots who can't handle a polite request, you are creating their behavior and disrupting everyone else's moviegoing experience. I know I find a fight and someone threatening to kill someone a lot more distracting than a lit cell phone.
So you admit that you didn't have to go see a movie, but you did anyway and don't see anything wrong with bothering anyone around you while you are paranoid about your kid. Ya know .. my phone vibrates differently for a text message and email than it does a phone call. One would think that if your kid got hurt, someone would CALL you. In fact, if I get a phone call and don't answer it, it vibrates for several seconds. Then, when a voice mail is left, it vibrates again. So I know if someone that just called me left a voice mail.
....
So NO ONE needs to check email or text messages during a movie. Tell someone if they really need to get hold of you to CALL YOU and leave a voice mail. NOW you know it's important and you can slip out, check your voice mail.
Your petty, self-centered excuses (along with others on this board) only show how inconsiderate, self centered, or technologically ignorant you are.
At least if you are technologically ignorant about your phone, you can learn
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Neither the theater operators nor the patrons have any style. Best avoid the whole state.
You shouldn't speak of things you know nothing about.
Alamo has its own style. I haven't been since we've had kids, so it's been a while. You don't take kids to Alamo! The place is not like a normal theater. They serve real food and beer at reasonable prices. Not stale popcorn at what calculates out to $150/lb.
But, I don't remember seeing previews there. Before the movie, they show clips from old, terrible 70's B-movies. Usually the type that Quentin Tarantino tries to emulate, but worse. Or, maybe they'll show a comedian. I guess it really depends on the type of movie you are going to see. I remember seeing boobs during the "previews" when going to see American Pie at Alamo. This theater marches to the beat of its own drummer. It is different than anything I have ever experienced at a movie and can't wait to go back. Alamo certainly has a style that is all its own. Ask anyone who has ever been there.
Just because you can't understand the "style", doesn't mean that it's not there. It's probably just too far above you for you to see. By insulting that which you don't understand not makes you an idiot, but an asshole as well.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I wonder if you have some sort brain damage or something, or are just assuming the least instrusive phone possible during the brightest scene possible.
How could you not find a bright backlit LCD distracting during a dark scene in a movie? The Alamo's policy is a great one - they prohibit children under a certain age, too, outside of certain designated showings They are well-loved in Austin for these kinds of policies - I won't go to other theaters now unless I want IMAX or they are not showing a movie I want to see. It really does make a different kind of experience, making sure that nobody is distracting their neighbors.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
I have a proven, reliable algorithm for not answering the phone when it rings, either while driving, or in a movie theater, or even while coding. Here it is, in all its unpatented glory:
Works every time!
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016
Yeah, this seems like an incredibly stupid thing to become so righteously anal over. I've never once been distracted by someone texting in a movie. Talking, yes, but never texting.
This is just some stupid theater owner's personal crusade to fight a really ridiculous cause. They've probably spent 10x as much fighting cellphone use as they would have lost in customers had they allowed them in the same capacity as any other theater. Heck, if they are escorting people out of the theater for texting, that would be WAY more distracting than someone just using their phone.
I would stay away from a theater with this policy out of spite.
You must not have to deal with many texters. Many times have I had to kick the back of somebody's chair because I'm being blinded by their lack of ability to keep themselves from chatting with their friends every minute of every day. It's not about being righteously anal, it's about not wanting to have your $11 experience be ruined by some self-centered asshole.
The Alamo's policies alone make me wish there was one around here that I could patronize, but the fact that they would take an angry person's voicemail and make it into a pre-show video (without trying to appease the hypersensitive by censoring the hilarious overuse of profanity) makes me want to travel to Texas solely to give them my money.
A friend of mine used to be an Assistant Manager for a company. Let's call it "Madio Shack". His District Manager insisted that he listen in on a teleconference involving the DM and server local managers - maybe the DM was trying to groom him to be a Manager? (This, by the way, was something he clearly did not want.)
The major problem about this teleconference was that it was taking place at around 21:00 on a Friday night. During a Dragonforce concert. I popped outside every five minutes or so and checked up on him, and he basically had this look on his face of "They're still going!". After about 20 minutes of this shit, I tapped him on the shoulder and he muted the phone.
"How's your battery doing?" I said.
"Fine," he replied.
"No it's not, it's dead."
"No, I have plent-"
That's where he got a smile on his face and disconnected the battery from the back of his phone. "Oops".
Friends help friends have a social life.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I sit on the isle and try to be subtle about checking.
I'm sorry that my job requires me to be available 24/7.
I guess that means no movies for me because some hypersensitive person might be offended.
I cannot believe this is even ambiguous to some people. If your job requires you to be on call, YES THAT MEANS YOU CAN'T GO TO A MOVIE THEATER! Holy shit, how could you possibly think otherwise?
You want to watch a movie while on call? Get a good home theater system, some comfortable chairs, and watch it at home. You think it's not reasonable to give up going to a theater? Don't take a job that requires you to be on call, or at least negotiate for somebody else to cover for you during the time you will be unavailable to do work. You cannot have both. This also applies to plays, concerts, and just about anywhere else where you are the member of an audience.
>Very not-true, unless you were raised by B.F. Skinner in a Nokia lab.
Yeah, and what about it? Next you're going to insult my dogs because they drool every time a bell rings?
The irony being that, although they do have a system to order food and drinks that doesn't necessarily involve talking, frequently one does need to talk. The wait staff is continuously whispering to people to make sure they are receiving the correct order. This is pretty distracting, but then I go to the Alamo Drafthouse for exactly this service and I just have to accept a certain level of distraction.
I like the Alamo Drafthouse, their "concessions" beat the crap out of the overpriced Cinemark down the street, but one thing you are not getting there is silence and full devotion and reverence to the movie. If anything it's a nod to the fact that many of us in the audience aren't there to watch a movie so much as sit in an air conditioned theater away from our own children, with each other, sharing a relaxing (and typically mind numbing) experience, but also resting the frayed nerves one receives after a week of maximizing shareholder potential, balancing our finances, maintaining our habitat and trying to raise our spawn to be good citizens.
The purchase of the movie ticket comes with certain obligations on the purchaser. In this cinema chain, one of those is no talking or texting.
An identical principal applies when I buy a train ticket. On Sydney's trains, you are not allowed to smoke or drink and by purchasing a ticket you agree to those obligations. Get caught and you get thrown off without a refund. In fact, you usually get fined as well.
There is no reason you should get a refund for not following the obligations attached to the ticket.
Yup - people look strangely at me when I have a meeting with somebody in my office at work, the phone rings, I glance at it, and then I don't answer it and proceed with the meeting. I find this bizarre - this person has taken the time to set up a meeting with me, and I made time on my calendar to meet because whatever we're talking about was important enough to discuss (and my calendar tends to book up quite a bit). Why would I then set aside that carefully prioritized calendar just because some random person wants something from me? When I have a free moment I'll find out what it was about, prioritize it accordingly, and deal with it. If they're having a heart attack they should be dialing 911, since there isn't much I can do for them personally.
Answering the phone when it rings amounts to prioritizing your work (or recreation) purely on the basis of the urgent, and not on the basis of the important. Learning the difference changed my life.