The Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain offers customers a simple promise: a distraction-free theater experience where they can also order food and drinks right to their seats. Yet the Austin-based company has faced controversy as it rolls out a major change to its system: online food ordering.
In January, Variety broke the news that the movie house famous for its strict “no texting and talking” policy — as a number of celeb-studded PSAs warn audiences before every show, violators will be booted from the theater without a refund — would soon be implementing a QR code ordering system. The old way: Flipping through a physical menu before writing down your order using the slips of paper and mini pens and pencils provided at every table, with servers swinging by to grab orders midshow and signaling a last call by flashing a thumbs-up as the movie drew to an end.
After initially introducing a mobile ordering option preshow, Alamo Drafthouse — which, as of 2024, is now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment — has transitioned into its new QR system. Gone are the menus and stationery; instead, each table has a QR code. You scan the code, peruse the online menu and place your order and pay via smartphone. And while a server still delivers your food, all other interactions take place in the app. Need another drink or some mozzarella sticks midmovie? Pull out your phone and put in the order.
Though Variety reported that the change was “designed to minimize interruptions that currently take place as guests are placing orders and paying their checks while the movie is playing,” the system does appear to contradict Alamo’s “no texting” rule. The chain says its rules are still in place. Customers can report any rule breakers by using their phones to flag the issue, which, as a new pre-show announcement concedes, is indeed ironic.
In a statement to Variety in January, Michael Kustermann, CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, said, “Putting ordering control directly in our guests’ hands allows us to move faster and more efficiently, creating a smoother, more responsive experience without added distraction.”
Still, the policy sparked immediate pushback. In a January post on X responding to the initial Variety article, Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood wrote that the move was “completely antithetical to the ethos of the Alamo and to those who love the theatrical experience they provide,” declaring it “a profound and upsetting mistake.”
Amid complaints like Wood’s came support for the change, however. One X user, for example, said that they preferred the idea of a QR code to the current Alamo Drafthouse experience. “Having waitstaff paper deliver checks and block your view during the last 20 minutes of a movie was already the worst innovation to happen to the moviegoing experience,” the user wrote.
Now that the policy has officially rolled out, some of that optimism has been drowned out by moviegoers expressing their frustration. In a post titled Heading to the movies? Not without your smartphone, sent this week, Substacker the Gamer Educator complained about a rare phone-free zone deciding to embrace phones so wholeheartedly. “One of the things I love about Alamo Drafthouse is their ‘no talking, no texting, no visible phones’ policy,” the post read. “I know at Alamo, movies will be dark and silent from extra noise, as they should be. Plus, being able to order made-to-order food from a human being … is a wonderful feature.”
By contrast, the policy is “enraging” and “probably a nail in the coffin for Alamo as a company,” the post continued.
“They blew it” is how film influencer Nick Garza put it in a new Instagram Reel railing against the changes this week. The post has nearly 46K likes.
As an Alamo Drafthouse regular, I’ve personally faced one major problem with the system: At a recent screening of Scream 7, it took me 10 minutes to scan my QR code to place a Diet Coke refill — distracting me, and likely others as well. Ironically, a waiter had to come over and shine his flashlight on the QR code … so I could place my order online. A colleague also had QR code issues and admitted to being distracted by (silenced) texts that had come through while she added to her order during Hoppers.
Meanwhile, one Drafthouse goer launched a petition urging the chain to change the policy. It now has nearly 7,000 signatures.
Over on the Alamo Drafthouse Instagram page for their Los Angeles location, a Thursday post about the upcoming movie Ready or Not: Here I Come was flooded with negative comments about mobile ordering. “Just had my first 100% mobile ordering experience,” read one comment. “As an Alamo Drafthouse moviegoer of nearly 10 years, this is the single worst thing that has happened to not just Alamo but the entire movie-going experience.” The poster added that the move “reeks of corporate greed” and that it could lead their loyal fans to “leave in droves.”
Another commenter said they will be canceling their season pass over the issue. “Mobile ordering is antithetical to going to the movie theater, and now makes the extremely high prices completely unjustifiable,” they wrote. “Hope you get it together before you go out of business.” Others complained about getting texts midmovie with a prompt to close out their bill.
And New Yorkers aren’t pleased, either. A Feb. 20 post promoting Project Hail Mary was met with comments from people threatening to see the Ryan Gosling movie elsewhere in protest over the ordering system.
But at least some movie buffs are keeping a sense of humor about the change. Take Alamo’s March 12 post for The Devil Wears Prada 2, which was met with this quip: “Mobile ordering? At a phone free theater? GROUNDBREAKING.”
Yahoo has reached out to Alamo Drafthouse for comment.