Best Movie Theater Ever?

Anyone who haunts movie websites and blogs has frequently heard of The Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin, Texas, USA. Championed loudly by Harry Knowles in the early days of Ain’t It Cool News, the theater chain has taken on a legendary status among film geeks on major websites. The recent SXSW Festival held there has caused several sites to write up raves about their experiences, including First Showing and Cinematical.

By far the best and most detailed description of the place and its atmosphere came today from Peter Sciretta of Slash Film, who provides an adoring introduction to this amazing theater experience and how it works. He also provides some pictures guaranteed to make you ravenously hungry:

In my mind, The Alamo Drafthouse provides the method by which movie theaters around the world can save themselves from ruination. Many theater chains feel the noose of home theater tightening around their necks. Some blame the dearth of good films; others blame the glut of screens.

The movie industry feels that they need gimmicks like 3-D to entice audiences back into theaters. What they fail to realize, though, is the reason WHY audiences stay away these days. In modern theaters, the experience is the same as watching the film at home, except with more distractions; you grab a soda, sit down, and watch a movie … except in the theater, you deal with people talking, cell phones disrupting the silence, and people getting up to tend to their needs. With the affordability of home theater systems, people feel less urgency to deal with these distractions.

However, The Drafthouse theaters show that a movie theater is an EVENT, and they sell the experience of that event, not the film itself. While other chains mistakenly think that projecting a film onto a big white sheet is the end-product, The Drafthouse sees it as the starting point. This is the key. Humans are social animals, and a movie theater provides the modern equivalent of campfire stories told long ago. The Drafthouse experience allows a group of people to share a story together, as well as engage each other in conversation about a form of entertainment we all love. THIS is the missing ingredient for most theater chains.

In my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, USA - cultural home of Budweiser beer and flip-flops - the theater landscape is dominated by two huge chains: Wehrenberg and AMC. By far, the most popular chain theater in town is the Wehrenberg Ronnie’s 20 Cinema, but its popularity springs more from its central location and its regularly-updated technology. Architechturally-speaking, the building is a blight on the face of the earth, its fascade apparently derived from throwing various shapes into the air and drawing the resulting catastrophe. The huge foyer of the place swarms with teenagers all attempting to utilize their budding sexual organs for the first time … and screaming for no apparent reason. While the place has a neat upstairs game room and a cool little cafe, Ronnie’e epitomizes the wrong-headed thinking of most chain theaters.

However, we do have two awesome venues in St. Louis. The first one is the historic Tivoli Theater in the artsy Loop district. This three-screen theater shows hard-to-find movies. It also plays host to the growing St. Louis Film Festival every year. Additionally, they throw in some midnight showings of past favorites, like The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles.

The most striking feature about The Tivoli is the architecture, which evokes cinema’s first theaters. The main auditorium is cavernous, with sculptures rising to the ceiling and elaborate plaster work throughout. A major renovation several years ago restored this masterpiece to its full glory, making a night at the Tivoli an event.

The other unique theater experience in St. Louis is the Moolah Theater and Loungein the Central West End. Built inside an abandoned Moolah Temple, the theater houses a huge single screen, as well as luxury condos and a basement bowling alley.

The Moolah is famous in St. Louis for its leather couches and loveseats. You grab a beer or wine from their extensive, full-service bar, and plop yourself down in an oversized couch to enjoy the film. It’s much like watching it in your living room, except the informal feel of the space makes the film a communal experience.

Sadly, St. Louis has nothing that rivals the movie-loving atmosphere of The Alamo Drafthouse. I would desperately love to open something like it here, because St. Louis is a beer drinking town. Unfortuantely, I am several hundred thousand dollars short … as usual.

Now it’s your turn … Do you have any theaters in your hometown like The Drafthouse? Do you think something like this could work in your hometown?? Give us your comments, and include links to your favorite theaters from around the world!

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