Quirky theater chain Alamo Drafthouse is betting that the uproar from longtime patrons over its new mobile food ordering system will die down as the dine-in theater chain improves new tech to bring you your burger.
Theatergoers were apparently irked that the chain moved to a phone-based ordering system, rather than have real-life servers take orders, since phone were always strictly verboten during movies at the cineaste sites.
The chain says it is improving the system. That includes integrating those Alamo Victory loyalty points, and 10% off for season pass holders.
Plus, the theaters will roll out “tap payments” for credit cards, so you’re not fiddling in the dark entering your AmEx and annoying everyone else to get your nachos. Got it?
A source also stressed to Page Six Hollywood that the new system has benefited Alamo employees, including increasing their take home pay by upping the number of orders.
The old pen-and-paper system was too archaic, while the new mobile ordering plan “future proofs” the biz, the source added.
Yesterday, Alamo announced a new initiative that its cinephile customers will also appreciate called Alamo Exclusives, a distribution program for festival films that weren’t able to find a buyer.
An Alamo source stressed that the theater is not buying films themselves but rather cutting deals with producers to show their movies at Alamo’s theaters, and, in the best case scenario, they get picked up after.
The first movie will be the music documentary on a famed Texas punk act: “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt.” It premiered during last year’s SXSW, and debuts in theaters on July 21. Alamo is close to finalizing deals for multiple additional films as well, we hear.
“It gives us another way to champion filmmaker-driven films that deserve to be discovered and connect them with the wider Alamo Drafthouse audience,” CEO Michael Kustermann said in a statement.
