Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

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The drinks at Alamo aren’t distracting like at a dinner theater.

And that isn’t the allure anyway. The people who run Alamo have concentrated so hard on customer experience that it’s almost embarrassing to the other theaters.

1) Nobody takes your ticket. Buy it online and walk directly to your seat.

2) no advertisements for liposuction of real estate before the movie starts. The media playing while you wait is interesting clips that are relevant to the movie you are about to watch. When I saw “hackers” there, it was a bunch of hilarious old computer ads from the 90s, music videos of the soundtrack, etc.

3) if you talk, text, or arrive late you get kicked out. People follow this rule.

4) There might be some alternative revenue stream[1] but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like you exchange money for a ticket to a movie.

Honestly Alamo feel less hip, and more like it’s run by cranky old cinema buffs that want you to shut up and pay attention during the movie. It’s like a theater for adults.

[1] at other theaters it feels like they don’t care about you buying a ticket, and the ticket is really just an excuse to sell you extremely expensive popcorn.

Those things are all good ideas, but they honestly don't bother me much. Perhaps SF is just a fairly savvy/respectful cinema audience, but I've very rarely had any distracting audience members. The advertisements and preroll clips are obnoxious, of course, but with reserved seating you can know when to show up to avoid most of it. And so it really just comes back to the audio/visual tech and the seating, and the local AMC and Cinemark are far and away the best in that regard.

It probably helps that kids are a rare sight in SF which are generally the cause of annoyance at a theater. Alamo has a strict no children rule except for family specific showtimes, so it's a good option if you live in a more kid friendly city.

> kids are a rare sight in SF

Wow that’s a dark thought when you say it out loud isn’t it?

Out of all the places that are deliberately kid- and family-friendly, I don’t see a concern with some places being more adult friendly. If it was “kids are a rare sight in California” or event “a rare sight in the US”, sure. But one city, with a ton of family-friendly towns nearby? Not that dark.

An entire city with no children seems like a plenty large space to be concerning.

Not that San Francisco needs any more stuff to make it seem even more distopian.

How many non-tourist children do you see in the Chicago Loop? How many in Manhattan? How many in downtown LA? Cities inherently are not family friendly and not places many people want to raise their children. That's why the suburbs exist. It's not a San Fransisco problem, it's a city problem. Parents tend to want large private fenced-in green places for their children to grow up in, which don't exist and cannot exist in cities.

Again, there are enough family-friendly places that exist that you don't need to fret for the future generations not spending their childhood playing street hockey on Broadway.

Manhattan has plenty..... especially Upper West Side, and UES, and Kips Bay area (I have a school nearby, so see them everyday) and there is a high-school right next to Madison Park, and the East Village is dotted with schools.

I know this as I play rec. Volleyball during the winter, and they are always held at local school's gyms.

While I agree the west side of midtown doesn't have many though... (Hells Kitchen/Chelsea/West Village) as they are not necessary family friendly areas.

Same for Brooklyn, While you maybe not see any in Williamsburg, If you go to Park Slope, it is stroller nation..... you'd be out of place if you are young and single...

just saying...

> Parents tend to want large private fenced-in green places for their children to grow up in, which don't exist and cannot exist in cities.

These do exist in cities - for example even in central London.

With the exception of tourists around Times Square, there are large areas of Manhattan that are the same way. Kids are sometimes seen but not too often.

Also not true. There about 120,000 kids living in SF. I raised a child here. The reason you don’t see kids is that you are probable going places where there are not that many kids. Check out your local parks, schools, zoo and child friendly museums (Exploratorium) to see local children.

Just to add to the comments above you, all of the Alamo Drafthouses I've been to have been the best screen and audio I've been to. I've frequented chains and independent theaters. But I should point out that I don't live in a city as big as SF, so it's just one man's opinion. Your AMC and Cinemark might just be better.

The ones in Austin (where the company is based) are old movie theaters with old screens that are small. I don't mind, because other parts of the experience are better, but ALamo Village for example may as well be a theater from 1984.

The Alamo Village location is an old theater, but the other five (soon to be six) Austin locations have all been built in the last 10 years or so.

AMC Metreon is pretty top notch. It has the largest-format true IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and all the seats have been recently replaced so that even the base model theater has nice recliners.

The Cinemark at the Westfield Mall also has fairly recent new seats, and their XD screens are quite nice.

So yes, I'm spoiled, but I've honestly never even given much thought about attending a showing at the Alamo Drafthouse because I'm fairly sure it can't compete.

That sounds amazing, and I'm jealous. The closest Alamo Drafthouse to me (Twin Cities) has one of their new Big Show screens which I'm dying to see: https://drafthouse.com/twin-cities/the-big-show

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