How Alamo Drafthouse Transformed The Movie Experience In El Paso

Alamo Draft House is shutting down both El Paso locations and I’m gonna miss them. They were the ones that got me going to movies again after a long theater boycott.

Alamo Drafthouse shut down several locations in Texas back in 2024 which I wrote about here. That article had the phones melting at our Alamo, (who actually called to request we take it down), even though they weren’t among the ones closing. People freaked … that’s how much they meant to us here in El Paso.

I certainly didn’t mean to prophesize the El Paso Alamo demise but that’s what ultimately happened. Both of ours are gone, effective immediately.

Why Was Alamo Draft House So Cool?

They changed the game for movie-goers. I myself gave up on theaters completely. I’d had enough of overpriced, stale popcorn and flat sodas. I’d also had enough of people yapping through the movies, crying babies, people on phones and lousy sound.

No offense parents, I know you need a life too but I’m sure, (before you had your kids), you complained about other peoples kids at movies too.  Alamo changed things.

How Did Alamo Change Things?

They cleaned things up in a number of ways:

• Good, actually tasty, food … not just snacks … and a full bar. (They practically won right there.)
• Good, full, sound and comfy chairs with a little more room.
• The knockout punch: No kids, no talking, no cell phone rules that were strictly enforced.

READ MORE: Best “Worst” Horror Movie Filmed Near El Paso

Something For True Movie Lovers

They also brought back classic movies so we could see them as they were intended to be seen – on the actual “big screen”. They also brought back great concert and musical features like “The Wall” and the “Decline Of Western Civilization Pt 2” so music lovers could enjoy them the way they were meant to be enjoyed – loud and clear.

They had visitors, too. Actors would stop by for meet ‘n greets and Q ‘n A’s. That’s how I met Crispin Glover who played Layne in River’s Edge, Andy Warhol in The Doors and Marty McFly’s Dad.

An Open Plea To Flix Brewhouse

Not an open letter, a plea … I’m begging here. I haven’t, (yet), been to a Flix Brewhouse but, please, maintain the standard. Reach, hell, overreach, the bar Alamo set. I ask this because, if you didn’t already know, that’s what our former Alamo’s are set to become.

Thankfully, we’re not going back to those subpar, “theaters suck” days I described before. Flix seems to have the same approach Alamo did so, the future for movie-goers should be bright.

I hope so anyway. C’mon Flix – I’m/we’re counting on you.