March 2017 | Business View Magazine

38 39 The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) in 2009, a non-profit organization focused on the outlaw exploitation movies that were produced from the 1960s through the 2000s. The collection contains over 6,000, 35mm prints and trailers. League says that while all 25 Alamo Draft- house locations are given a certain level of creative freedom, they also must strictly adhere to company values and operating principles. “It’s very decentralized,” he explains. “We have standards for customer service that everybody lives and breathes by, and we do a lot of mon- itoring, and training, and coaching from the head office. But the personality comes locally. So, we have a creative manager in each mar- ket.We want each theater that we build to be a community gathering point. And the only way you can do that is to be somewhat local.” Although we live in a time when many people prefer to stay home to watch films on Netflix or cable TV, League does not see those outlets as his main competition. “We’re com- peting against the ‘go out’ options,” he says. “We’re competing against the best of the best in ‘out-of-home entertainment’ and we have to be world class in our offerings. That’s what I’m always focused on. I think it’s all the more important for us to understand that every time someone makes the investment in time and money to leave the home, they want to have a special experience. So our hope is that we can create a very special memory for people, which takes work and effort. But as long as we can be an affordable great experience against the