"Last week I went to the movies to see The Testament of Ann Lee. The movie itself was fantastic; my experience seeing it was less so. This was largely due to something that took place about 10 minutes into the film, when a family wandered into the theater, spent what seemed like an eternity using their phones' flashlight app to find their seats in a not-very-crowded matinee showing and then walked out of the theater 10 minutes later."
"This experience, I should stress, did not happen in an Alamo Drafthouse theater. In fact, it went a long way towards explaining why Alamo has attracted such a loyal following for the chain's distinctive policies, including not letting moviegoers in after a movie has begun and recruiting stars to record PSAs about not talking during the movie. Part of that ethos of a distraction-free environment involves keeping one's smartphone off."
"In January, however, Alamo Drafthouse announced that by mid-February it would start changing the way moviegoers order food during a film, shifting away from jotting an order down on a card and moving to ordering digitally. Which means keeping one's phone on. Which seems like something of a paradox, doesn't it? Alamo Drafthouse's own FAQ on the subject argues that it's not."
A patron experienced a family using a phone flashlight to find seats and leaving ten minutes later, causing distraction during a matinee. Alamo Drafthouse enforces strict no-entry-after-start and no-talking policies to maintain a distraction-free environment and emphasizes turning smartphones off. The chain plans to switch from paper order cards to digital in-theater food ordering by mid-February, requiring patrons to use smartphones and a custom 'dark screen' during films. Alamo asserts staff can distinguish dark ordering screens from disruptive use and that eliminating late check-ins and checks will reduce overall distractions. Skepticism remains about keeping phones on in theaters.
Read at InsideHook
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