March 2017 | Business View Magazine

36 37 The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas ous way, that the real movie fans, regardless of age, will gravitate, and make this their movie theater of choice. I hope that courteous movie watching is not just a thing of a bygone era.” In an attempt to cater to that younger generation of cinephiles, League created a special pro- gram for them. “If you are in high school and you fill out a questionnaire and understand the policies of no texting, no talking in the theater, then you can see every movie that we show for five bucks,” he adds. Another thing that differentiates Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas from the larger chains is its no-ads policy. “We don’t show ads before movies,” League declares. “You’re paying ten to fifteen dollars as the premium for a movie; you shouldn’t have to sit through ads. So, we’ve always said ‘No’ to that revenue stream. This isn’t a commodity business for us.” And then, of course, there’s the food and beverages. Every Alamo Drafthouse Cinema serves beer, wine and freshly-made, award-winning cuisine, delivered right to a patron’s seat. More often than not, the beer is from a local brewery. “We average about 32 beers on tap and at least 80 percent of those are local,” League says. “In New York, they’re a hun- dred percent local, on tap. That’s one of our brand pillars – to always supporting local breweries.” And finally, there are the films. At an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, any- thing on celluloid has a chance of turning up on the screen.”We have one foot in the art house and one foot in the commercial world,” says League. “We show classic films, foreign films, documentaries, and indie films, and that allows us to be more profitable by playing a wider range of movies. So, right now, for example, we’re playing Star Wars; we’re playing La La Land; we’re playing Jackie. But we’re also playing Elle, which just won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.We make it a point to have a pretty diverse slate of films at the theater at all times.” League adds that Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas is also committed to the preservation of 33mm film and that most locations have 35mm pro- jection for repertory screenings. In addition, the company founded the