Boxoffice - October 2018

SHOWEAST 2018
A big part of the identity that you
guys have grown has really come
through programming. Curation
might a better way to put it. It’s
something that permeates the
brand: your film festival Fantastic
Fest, digital publishing with Birth.
Movies.Death, and now theatrical
distribution with Neon. Why has
this curatorial component been so
central to the Drafthouse brand?
I think they all stem from the same
idea: that we’re for movie lovers, by
movie lovers. We love a wide swath of
films. In particular, I personally love
very strange films and genre films. So
we bill Fantastic Fest as a celebration
of those and to provide opportunities
for young genre filmmakers. Helping
them find distribution, helping them
find press and word of mouth for really
amazing films that were flying under
the radar. It’s certainly similar with
what was first Drafthouse Films and
is now Neon, being a distributor that can
bring really interesting and amazing stories
to as many people as possible. It’s a nice
synthesis between the brick-and-mortar
theater, our repertory programming, the
distribution, and the editorial side. They’re
all serving the same idea, to get people
excited about really awesome movies.
Another big part of the Alamo experience
is the no-talking, no-interruptions
policy. How did that policy evolve?
We had to make a decision in terms
of our identity really early on: are we a
restaurant where there’s a movie on the
wall, or are we a cinema that offers upgraded
concessions? We chose the latter.
We want to have great food, beer, and
wine—we want to deliver on that side
of the promise—but, first and foremost,
we love movies and want it to be a respectful
environment where people can
go to enjoy movies. I’m very particular
about that.
We didn’t have a policy for the first
couple of months; we just opened up.
Then at this one particular screening, a
midnight screening of Blue Velvet, we had
a very cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon special.
You could get six for the price of five.
There were a few people in the audience
who were enjoying it too much. They
started shouting at the film, acting up. I
went in and it was out of control. I was
almost physically sick. This was not what
I had signed up for; this is not what I’m
trying to build.
So we got a copy of Final Cut Pro
[software], and by the next weekend we
had a video of the “kick your ass out”
policy. Don’t talk during the movie. We
tried that policy, launched it with live
introductions and the video that we’d
cut. And we enforced it. Once we started
enforcing it, we became known for it. The
audience expected it and became part of
the enforcement squad.
Do you remember the first time you had
to enforce it?
I don’t remember the exact first one,
but I was in charge of throwing them
out initially. I wasn’t the best at it. We
got much better systems and policies. I
was a little ham-handed about the
enforcement but got the job done.
We don’t usually kick that many
people out—though now that we’re
bigger, by numbers, we do. But generally,
you stop having an issue if you
warn somebody one time and say, “If
I have to come back again, I’m going
to kick you out.” I’ll never forget
the time I did that to a guy and he
was quiet for the whole movie, but
he was apparently brooding. After
the film, he came up to me and was
obviously angry. I thought maybe
he was going to punch me. It just so
happened that Quentin Tarantino
was in town—shooting a movie, I
think—and this guy is up in my face,
waving his finger at me. Quentin
walks up behind, taps him on the
shoulder, and says “No, man, you’re
in the wrong.” Then he just wandered
off, amazed.
There was a period between 2004 and
2010 when you stepped back from
leading the company.
I’ll tell you, when I stepped away, I
wasn’t stepping totally away from the
company. I was nervous about growing;
my headspace wasn’t wrapped around it.
So we sold the company to somebody
who did want to grow it. They started
building up this infrastructure for operations
and accounting, kind of building
the growth engine. At the same time,
I pulled back. My wife and I were just
managing and overseeing the original
three Austin locations. During that time,
I really focused on the idea of being a
part of a community. In that same time,
we built Fantastic Fest in 2005. It was
really dialing into building out the special
local Austin-based brand. Then years
later, these two companies—Alamo Austin
and the Alamo that was growing—we
didn’t always see eye to eye. We were in a
bit of conflict. Then something amazing
happened. Instead of going to war,
we sat down and talked about how we
could potentially work together. That’s
66 BOXOFFICE ® OCTOBER 2018