Alamo Drafthouse CEO clears the air on that controversial new phone policy

In February, Alamo Drafthouse—the theater chain known for its food and drink service, retro branding, and diverse film programming—started rolling out a major operational change. The brand phased out its on-paper food and drink ordering system for a QR code system that requires viewers to order from their phones. The move was designed to solve a host of operational problems for the brand’s employees and guests. Then, the uproar began. “This hurt more than, like, most of the breakups I’ve had,” Andy Young, a film and TV editor in Los Angeles, told The New York Times. The actor Elijah Wood tweeted that the new experience was “truly awful.” The Alamo Drafthouse subreddit exploded with backlash. Employees at one location in Denver held a strike to protest disruptions to their work. A Change.org petition, which now has over 10,000 signatures, emerged to call for a reversal of the new policy. [Images: Alamo Drafthouse] The vocal response was almost entirely negative—and it largely stems from the fact that the Alamo has long established itself as a distraction-free movie viewing space with its “Don’t Talk” marketing campaign. To many loyal fans, the Alamo was one of the last bastions of the phoneless world, and this new mobile ordering system represented the downfall of that ethos for a corporate check. Alamo Drafthouse’s executive leadership sees things differently. Multiple sources told Fast Company that, in many ways, Alamo’s previous operational design was broken—causing more interruptions for guests and more work for employees behind the scenes. The results of the new mobile ordering system, they say, simply don’t match up with the backlash: Alamo is having its best year for box office revenue since 2019, employees are netting higher take-home pay on average, and guests are placing more in-theater orders than ever before. “Alamo Drafthouse has always been focused on delivering the best moviegoing experience possible,” CEO Michael Kustermann says. “Technology has evolv