Quick Snaps: Alamo Drafthouse Returns to Reserved Seating

The Alamo Drafthouse announced earlier this month that they are finally moving towards full reserved seating. So far, the Village location is the only theatre in the chain where it will be implemented. All shows at the Village are 100 percent reserved seating, which started yesterday (July 30).

Unlike earlier tests, however, there will be no upcharge for reserving your seat. In recent years, the Alamo Drafthouse team has been considering alternatives to their general seating plan (you know, folks showing up about 45 minutes before screening time, lining up in loud queues in the lobby, hoping to snag a good seat when the theatre opens). They tried out something like the Southwest Airlines cattle-call, priority seating.

Indeed, our editor Jette recalls that reserved seating was attempted at the original Colorado Street location once upon a time. Alamo Drafthouse COO Mike Sherrill corroborates this: "We did experiment with reserved seating back in early 2007 at the Colorado Street location. We've been thinking about ways to improve the pre-movie experience and how to eliminate lines for years now."

Jette also points out that the Alamo on Colorado had reserved seating for special events for a few years after it first opened ... and scanned the two tickets above, from 1999, as proof. (Yes, that's what an Alamo special-event ticket looked like back in the day.)

The success of other local theatres -- namely Violet Crown Cinema -- that offer reserved seating would seem to show that Austin movie fans are amenable to the concept of claiming seats beforehand. Perhaps after a few months, another Alamo location will transition to full reserved seating as well.