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Creating Community Through Film: Heather Morgan's Alamo Journey | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:03
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
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  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:10
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:13
  adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
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  today's guest is Heather Morgan, Chief Content Officer at Alamo
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  Drafthouse Cinema. Founded in 1997 Austin, TX,
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  Alamo Drafthouse originated as a second run movie theater
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  offering food and drinks and it quickly expanded with a
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  reputation for unique programming including food
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  themed cinema events. Today, Alamo Drafthouse operates
• 0:39
  locations across the nation, delivering unforgettable movie
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  going experiences and fostering a vibrant film community known
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  for it's strict no talking policy and focus on guest
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  experience. Alamo Drafthouse was once named
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  the number one movie theater in the country by Entertainment
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  Weekly. Now, Heather has held several
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  roles at Alamo, including Chief of Staff and Strategy, where she
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  integrated content strategy with broader organizational goals.
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  Before joining Alamo, she served in leadership roles at Harkins
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  Theatres and AMC Theatres, contributing to operational
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  strategies that enhanced film offerings and partnerships.
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  With her wealth of experience in cinema and her passion for
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  elevating audience experiences, Heather continues to make a
• 1:29
  strong impact in the entertainment industry.
• 1:32
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:35
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• 1:39
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• 2:04
  All right, now back to our guest today, the Chief Content Officer
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  at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Heather Morgan.
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  I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
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  Hi, Anthony. Thanks for having me.
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  OK. So Heather, you've had multiple
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  experiences in the theater business before coming to Alamo.
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  What kind of first drew you to the industry?
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  You know, I'll be honest, I wasn't drawn to the industry.
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  It was, it was quite by accident actually.
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  I got my PhD in industrial organizational psychology and I
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  was doing organizational consulting.
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  So I was working for a company called Service Management Group
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  and they consult for companies in the restaurant, retail, and
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  entertainment spaces. They collect guest survey
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  feedback and then advise companies and how they can do
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  better and where they seem to be excelling based on what their
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  guests were telling them. So I thought, that sounds really
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  interesting. I would love to help companies
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  with their overall operational strategies, how they're taking
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  care of their employees, and help as many companies as
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  possible. So I went to work for them and I
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  had a very large portfolio of companies that I was consulting
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  for. AMC Theatres ended up being one
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  of those companies and after about a year of consulting for
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  them, they wanted to know if I would come work for them
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  exclusively as their director of guest experience.
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  So overseeing all of their operational execution efforts,
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  their escalated guest complaints anytime the company, anytime the
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  letter, a letter was being written to the CEO or, you know,
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  a threat of a lawsuit based on an experience someone had had in
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  the theater, me and my team would get involved and, and de
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  escalate that situation. And then also just coach theater
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  managers on how to resolve guest complaints and how to deliver
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  better service from the onset so that you didn't have those
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  escalated issues. So I was do that's, that's
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  actually how I stepped into the industry to begin with.
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  That was how my career first started in theatrical
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  exhibition. So that role that you had that
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  was less about, I don't know, sort of making sure that the
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  employees were happy and it was more about making sure that the
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  guests were happy. And obviously the the two kind
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  of go hand in hand, but your focus was more on the guest
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  experience. Yes.
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  OK. Can you give us a specific
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  example of something that happened, whether it's a
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  lawsuit, maybe you can't talk about it or just like a a
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  particular example of a time where you know a guest is really
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  upset and then you kind of helped to de escalate it with
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  the skills that you have. You know, there were so many
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  examples often. Often what ended up happening
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  the the things that became most escalated is when people felt
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  like you were somehow attacking their character or
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  discriminating against them based on how they were treated
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  in the cinema. And generally what that would
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  come down to is a misunderstanding in terms of how
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  something was was handled or how something was interpreted.
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  It really came down to a communication issue usually, and
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  so sometimes I would fly to where the guest actually was and
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  have a face to face meeting. Often we were able to resolve it
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  over the phone. But what I consistently found is
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  people just want to be heard when when they've been upset and
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  they feel like they've been wronged in in any way.
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  They want to have a platform to make sure that they they have a
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  place to express what it is that they're upset about and they
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  want to feel like someone is genuinely listening and that
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  someone genuinely cares. And sometimes, depending on who
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  they've interacted with, either at the theater or at the
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  corporate office before it got to me, they didn't feel like
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  they were really being heard or that the person hearing them
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  didn't really care about what their issue was.
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  And I understand why that is. When you're dealing with
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  hundreds and thousands of guests on an ongoing basis, sometimes
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  it's difficult to make every interaction feel genuine and to
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  feel like you care. But that's really what people
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  need. And that's, and that's what de
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  escalates things. So part of the time I had to get
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  involved and do that directly. But the biggest part of my role,
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  I would say in that capacity was to teach other people how to do
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  that, how to listen with empathy, teach them what other
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  people were looking for. That's that's sort of where the
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  psychology degree comes in very handy.
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  Can you give us some pointers folks listening now like a
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  couple 3 bullet points like how, how can we be more empathetic
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  listeners and help to de escalate situations that may
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  happen at work or just that kind of in our personal lives?
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  Well, sure. I would say the first thing is
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  always to listen with the intent to understand and not with the
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  intent to respond. Most people listen to others
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  with the intent to respond. And so you start mentally
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  planning out what you're going to say before the other person
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  is done talking and they can usually tell that that's what's
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  happened. And then the end result of that
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  is what you say often doesn't address what it was that they
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  were trying to get across. So first and foremost is just
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  listen with the intent to understand the other person's
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  perspective without having your own agenda, without being
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  certain that your point of view is the right one.
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  Sometimes people approach resolution as a negotiation, as
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  though their job is to, you know, get the other person to
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  see it from their point of view. If you're trying to de escalate
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  a situation, that's that's not your job.
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  Your job is to give give the other person space to feel heard
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  and understood. So that's the first of which,
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  the second of which I would say is to ask questions.
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  And that feeds the first, you know, ask leading questions so
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  that they know that you want to understand their situation and
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  then apologize for whatever it is, whether whether the company
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  was at fault, wasn't at fault, regardless of what the
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  particulars of the situation were.
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  You can still be upset. You can still be apologetic that
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  someone had a situation that upset them, that they felt like,
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  you know, didn't go the way that they thought that it should.
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  So you can be apologetic about how something has made them feel
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  without necessarily, you know, admitting fault or guilt or, you
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  know, but to interact with people on a, on a human level,
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  first and foremost before a business level, I would say
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  what? Do you mean by leading
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  questions? Leading questions like tell me
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  more about that situation from your point of view or tell me
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  why you think the manager did that or said that to you.
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  Or tell me you know what we could do in this situation to to
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  make you feel better about how that was handled.
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  And so, OK, so just to kind of summarize what I heard, listen
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  with intent to understand, not to respond, ask leading
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  questions. You want to help bring out their
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  story. You're you're showing a genuine
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  interest in trying to understand why they're upset and then
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  apologize. That last step, the apology does
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  in in your role there, does that traditionally come with some
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  sort of, I don't know, compensation?
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  Hey, here's free popcorn. Here's 10 free movie tickets.
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  Does does that generally help as part of this formula?
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  Yeah, often it does. You know, it's interesting
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  though, sometimes I would encounter people that were
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  somewhat maybe I would say cynical about the, the nature of
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  guest complaints. So people that might work for
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  the company that say people, you know, they, they just come to us
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  to complain. They just come to complain
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  because they know they can get free popcorn or they can get
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  free movie passes or whatever. And interestingly, the large
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  majority of the time, once you gave people that space on that
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  platform and they felt like you cared about how they were
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  feeling and that you genuinely wanted to help them with the
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  issue that they were having, they didn't want compensation.
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  They would say, Oh no, that's not necessary.
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  I don't need anything. I just, I really enjoyed the
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  time talking to you today. Thank you for listening.
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  I feel so much better. And even if you offered it, they
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  wouldn't take it. So I would say that, you know,
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  the majority of the time people are not out to just get
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  something free. If they've come to you because
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  they're upset, it's because they're genuinely upset.
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  And once you make them feel better, they don't they don't
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  need or want anything. That said, if they've paid good
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  money to come have an experience at a theater, and that
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  experience hasn't been what they felt like they should have
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  gotten, then yes, giving them passes to come back again on us
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  have another experience is normal course of business.
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  What's the? What's the single biggest
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  complaint that comes from folks at a movie theater?
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  People that come or don't come. I guess come let's do that one
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  first. OK, I well, it varies based on
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  it varies based on what theater chain I've worked for.
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  Alamo takes a different stance to the in theater guest
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  experience. So that changes things.
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  I would say that with my prior companies that I've worked for,
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  the largest guest complaint is usually about other patrons.
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  Yeah, that's what that would have been my guess.
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  This person's making noise. Yeah, they're.
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  Like watching a communal experience, you want to enjoy a
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  movie with someone else, but you don't want to hear them talking
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  to their children, you don't want to hear them eating their
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  popcorn, you don't want them getting up and walking past you
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  all the time. And so, you know, with a, I'll
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  call it a traditional cinema experience, usually you have
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  other guests being the primary source of complaint.
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  OK. So you you'd already mentioned
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  Alamo takes kind of a a different point of view to the
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  customer experience and I want to hear about that in just a
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  moment. But you know, you went from AMC
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  to another theater. It was Harkin.
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  Yeah, Harkins Theaters. Harkins theaters and then from
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  Harkins to Alamo, is that right? Is that sort of how the how did
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  that opportunity, Alamo first come about for you?
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  The opportunity at Alamo first came about the CEO.
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  So Shelly Taylor was hired as the CEO, and she was relatively
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  new to the industry. She came from outside an
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  exhibition space, and she and I had crossed paths along the way
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  very briefly. And she reached out to me to
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  say, actually, no, let me back up.
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  So I had expressed desire when I was at Harkins, I was overseeing
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  content and programming. So essentially the same thing
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  that I'm doing now for Alamo. And I've been doing something
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  very similar at AMC. So by the time I was, you know,
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  four years into my tenure at Harkins Theatres, not only had
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  we made it through a pandemic, but I had also spent a number of
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  years at that point, I'm going to say six or eight years, eight
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  years in content programming. So I was ready to stretch my
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  legs and do something else. And Alamo, I got wind that they
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  were looking for a chief operating officer.
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  And I thought, that sounds really interesting to me because
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  I came from an operations world at AMC, albeit I've never run a
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  theater, but I know, you know, the general tenants of how to
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  operate a theater. I feel like I could do really
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  well with that. And so I did what you should do
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  when you're seeking a new role with a new company, especially
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  if it's at an executive level. I called somebody from the
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  industry and said, hey, they have this position open.
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  I'm interested in it, but I don't my resume on paper isn't
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  going to look compelling. So is there a way that you can
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  put in a call on my behalf and get me an in like give me a
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  conversation. And they said, yes, absolutely
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  happy to help. So I had someone call endorse me
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  and I ended up interviewing for the chief operating officer
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  role. And so I had, I had multiple
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  rounds of interviews and in the end, what it came back, what it
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  came down to was we think you're great.
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  We would love to have you join our company in some capacity,
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  but we just don't think you're qualified to be the chief
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  operating officer. You've never, you know, overseen
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  multi unit operations. And I said that's fair, that's
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  completely fair. So I just went back, you know, I
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  continued working at Harkins and doing what I was doing.
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  And then they called back, maybe it was a few months later and
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  said I don't know why we didn't think of this before, but we
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  have desperate need for a chief of staff and strategy, chief of
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  staff and strategy to join the company and we think you'd be
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  great for it. And these are all the reasons.
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  And that is what led to the Alamo opportunity.
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  So interesting to me that you were already overseeing content
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  and programming at Harkins because I, I, I thought we were
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  going to sort of get into that transition once you got to
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  Alamo. In my outsider brain, it seems
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  like a little bit of an unusual transition from the role that
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  you were in before. Was it?
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  And and if it wasn't, tell me why I'm wrong.
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  So meaning how did I transition from operations into content and
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  programming? Yes, exactly.
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  Sure. So this all happened actually
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  when I was at AMC. So I was at AMC as their
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  director of guest experience. I was doing that for a few years
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  and that was when Jerry Lopez was the CEO and he placed a lot
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  of value on what he called organizational athletes.
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  So these are people that you could take from 1 area of
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  expertise, pluck them out, put them into a totally different
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  area where they didn't know anything and they would learn
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  and grow and deliver results. And and so he he placed high
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  value on that versatility and breadth of knowledge and the
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  diversification of skill set. So I was approached by Elizabeth
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  Frank, who is the chief content officer for AMC.
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  And she said, you know, we want to we want to do this.
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  We want to diversify your skill set.
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  We would like to have you learn another aspect of the business,
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  how we acquire our film content, how we get film on screen, how
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  we program things, how we negotiate our film terms.
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  You know, we want you to learn that side of the business.
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  And she said, what do you think? And I said, well, I think it
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  seems like an odd transition. I didn't, I, I don't think I'm
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  qualified. I didn't go to film school.
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  I like movies as much as the next person, but I'm not a
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  cinephile per SE. I can't tell you who different
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  directors are. I, I, I just don't think I'm
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  qualified. And she said, I understand your
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  concern that that questioning of one's capabilities is completely
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  normal, common and understandable.
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  But we think you'll do really well and we think it'll be good
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  for your career. So I encourage you to come to my
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  team, give it a shot. We'll see how it goes.
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  So I went over to her team as a film buyer, and that was how I
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  started. I had 35 or 40 theaters that I
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  booked, and you learn the process of how you determine
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  what's going to come off screen, what's going to go on screen,
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  how you negotiate those things with your studio salespeople.
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  I was doing that for a few years and then got promoted at AMC to
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  vice president of studio partnership and film finance.
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  In that role, I was still on the content team, but I was
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  interacting with the presidents of distribution for various film
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  studios to do things like negotiate the terms that AMC was
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  going to pay for the films that they were playing, arrange
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  partnerships with marketing, help keep track of the holistic
• 16:35
  quality of the relationship with each studio.
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  I was doing that when Harkins recruited me to come over, see
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  their content programming vertical.
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  Really, what I went over to Harkins to do was an
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  accumulation of the various roles that I had at AMC.
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  So when you're at AMC and they approach you to do this career
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  shift, sort of a two-part question.
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  The second part, I'll say first, what was, did this even enter
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  your mind? Was it important to you?
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  The first part of the question is as you sort of look at the
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  org chart and where you were and where you were moving to and
• 17:08
  what sounds like a more junior role, like did that, I don't
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  know, how did that feel? Did that concern you?
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  Was it done with the understanding that you know,
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  you're going to slot here in a learning position, but you know,
• 17:19
  in two years time we're going to make sure that you move up?
• 17:24
  Good questions. All.
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  I would say it did concern me somewhat.
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  It was for. I would say that from a
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  compensation perspective, it was more of a lateral move rather
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  than what you might consider a step down, but definitely,
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  definitely a more junior position at the company in terms
• 17:44
  of level of visibility and level of impact.
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  So yes, that did concern me. And no, there was no guarantee
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  there wasn't a, you do this for a certain amount of time and
• 17:53
  then we're going to move you here, here or here.
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  It was very much a let's see how you do this is an opportunity to
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  grow your skill set, diversify your knowledge, learn another
• 18:04
  and very important aspect of our business.
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  And then we'll see how you do with that and who knows what
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  that could lead to. So I, I chose to go that path
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  without any guarantees. And I would say I did have some
• 18:19
  concerns about really my main concern actually was where that
• 18:23
  career path would go. Was I, was I all of a sudden
• 18:27
  establishing a permanent career path in the content side of the
• 18:32
  a triple exhibition? And how would that allow me to
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  still do things like leverage my industrial organizational
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  psychology degree, connect with people, lead people, mentor
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  people, lead teams. Those are the things that I, I
• 18:44
  want to do that I thrive on that fulfill me.
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  And so I wanted to make sure that at some point that career
• 18:48
  track would lead back around to those aspects because that
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  initial position didn't really have those inherent in it.
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  It, it is a little bit of a risk, right, because when
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  people, you know, when they're looking at your resume, when
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  they're looking at your LinkedIn profile, right, they want to see
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  different track. But you know, a marketing
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  assistant, you know, marketing manager, marketing director, VP
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  of like, they want to see that you were on this trajectory.
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  And when you from an outsider's perspective, when you kind of
• 19:21
  ping pong around a bit, it's like, oh, Heather's all over the
• 19:24
  place. Like what is she doing?
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  I love what, who, who is the CEO Lopez of AMC that she, I love
• 19:34
  that style of thinking. Like, let's give you a more
• 19:37
  well-rounded view of this entire industry because you're going to
• 19:42
  be able to eventually connect dots, you know, across these
• 19:45
  different departments that you've worked for in ways that
• 19:47
  other people can't. But on your side it it takes a
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  little bit of, I don't know, hoot spot to like say like, I'm
• 19:53
  going to roll the dice and but you know, let's see what happens
• 19:56
  here. Yeah, I try not to.
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  I, I take my career path and my career growth seriously, but I
• 20:01
  try not to take myself too seriously.
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  I there's no one, very few things are permanent.
• 20:06
  There's no decision that can't be undone.
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  If things don't work out, you can always pivot.
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  So I try not to put quite too much pressure on it, but also.
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  If I would have felt like that path was going to lead to a
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  zigzagging or a ping ponging in terms of career progression, I
• 20:20
  would have been more concerned what actually has ended up
• 20:23
  happening. And I didn't know this at the
• 20:24
  onset, but in hindsight, my career has really been more of
• 20:27
  an L shape. So I went from operations over
• 20:30
  to programming and then just up from there.
• 20:33
  So it's been more of an L. So if anybody looks at my
• 20:36
  resume, they'll still see that, you know, vertical ascension,
• 20:40
  just with different companies but in similar roles.
• 20:42
  It'd be nice if there were a way to actually structure our CDs
• 20:45
  that way, right? So you can kind of see that L
• 20:48
  shape happen. Let me lay this out graphically.
• 20:53
  I wasn't ping ponging. This was very strategic.
• 20:56
  OK, great. So now we've kind of painted a
• 20:59
  little bit of a picture on sort of your, your trajectory and,
• 21:02
  and kind of how you got to Alamo.
• 21:04
  Now for folks like myself who have never been to an Alamo
• 21:09
  Drafthouse Cinema, take a picture.
• 21:11
  What is, what's going on there? What, what happens when I walk
• 21:14
  inside the door? What am I seeing?
• 21:16
  OK, so first of all, I would say that you really do need to go
• 21:20
  visit an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and I will give you passes to go
• 21:23
  do that if that's what it takes to get you there.
• 21:25
  Now we don't have one in Ohio yet, but whenever you're
• 21:28
  travelling, let me know and I want you to go.
• 21:31
  So Alamo is so unique and that's actually what I always had my
• 21:37
  eye on Alamo as a company when I started in theatrical exhibition
• 21:41
  because it has from from the outside looking in, it has this
• 21:45
  strong brand presence. You get the impression of Alamo
• 21:49
  if you, if you look at their marketing, if you look at their
• 21:51
  social channels, if you look at different, you know, programs
• 21:54
  that they run in their theatre, it presents this image of just
• 21:58
  being very like cool and edgy and irreverent And like that's
• 22:03
  just not me. And it's never been me.
• 22:06
  And I've always wanted to be affiliated with like the cool,
• 22:09
  edgy non conformist group. And that was just how I saw
• 22:14
  Alamo. And I think it's how a lot of
• 22:15
  people see Alamo. And so I loved it from the
• 22:20
  beginning and I always, you know, kind of had my eye on it
• 22:23
  when you walk into Alamo. So I don't want to spoil all the
• 22:26
  surprises 'cause I'm just trusting that you're going to
• 22:27
  get there at some point. But Alamo is a dine in cinema
• 22:30
  chain. So you go in, you go to your
• 22:33
  auditorium. You buy your tickets generally
• 22:34
  in advance. You've got them on your phone.
• 22:37
  You go in, you find your auditorium, you go to your seat.
• 22:39
  It's reserved seating. You sit down and the first
• 22:41
  person you're probably going to interact with is the server.
• 22:44
  And he or she is going to come up to you and say, hey, welcome
• 22:46
  to Alamo, can I see your tickets?
• 22:48
  You bring them up on your phone. They verify that you're in the
• 22:50
  right auditorium, right row, right seat.
• 22:52
  Great. Then they'll say, have you ever
• 22:54
  been here before? And you will say, no, I haven't.
• 22:56
  And they'll say, oh, great, well, here it works.
• 22:58
  Your menu is right here. And it's like a full menu.
• 23:00
  So it's not the typical, you can have nachos or you can have a
• 23:03
  hot dog. It's like you could have, you
• 23:05
  know, you can have. I can have a burger, I can have
• 23:07
  a salad like you can. Have a burger, you can have
• 23:09
  Buffalo cauliflower, you can have a salad, you can have a
• 23:11
  bowl, you can have whatever you want.
• 23:12
  Chocolate chip cookies, like pick your poison.
• 23:14
  So they'll show you the menu and then they'll say I can like I
• 23:18
  can get you something started now I can take your order.
• 23:20
  Or if you want time to look, you can just, you know, like ring me
• 23:23
  back when you're ready. And we have call buttons at the
• 23:25
  tables so you can look, take your time, look through the menu
• 23:29
  and then write down what you want.
• 23:30
  But it's not just that. So while you're doing that, we
• 23:33
  have a custom pre show that's playing before or the movie.
• 23:36
  So you do go to movies though, right?
• 23:38
  If not an Alamo, do you go to movie theater somewhere?
• 23:42
  I do, yes. Yes.
• 23:44
  So you're accustomed to like normally it's it's pre show
• 23:47
  advertisements playing, you know, it's like you're watching
• 23:50
  an ad for T-Mobile or an insurance company or whatever,
• 23:53
  right? Alamo doesn't play those.
• 23:55
  Instead, Alamo does a custom pre show that's usually themed to
• 23:59
  the movie that you're seeing. So there's this like funny,
• 24:04
  entertaining content playing. So for example, if you would
• 24:07
  have gone to Alamo to watch the newest John Wick, you would have
• 24:10
  seen a whole catch up tutorial that we did letting you know
• 24:15
  like this is what's happened from John Wick one through John
• 24:18
  Wick now, like this is the evolution of the character this.
• 24:20
  Is, and this is content that you guys have created like Alamo
• 24:23
  specifically has created. Yeah, wow.
• 24:25
  OK. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:27
  And it's so fun. We do it for every film.
• 24:29
  I took my I have a 12 year old daughter and I took her to go
• 24:32
  see. Are You There?
• 24:33
  God? It's me, Margaret.
• 24:35
  And the whole pre show was like advertisements for sanitary
• 24:38
  supplies from the 60s and 70s. And she almost died.
• 24:42
  It was like Mom and I, I was I was entertained so thoroughly
• 24:46
  the whole time. So anyway, whatever you're going
• 24:48
  to go see my point being the content highs in.
• 24:51
  Get there early like you don't, you don't want to show up right
• 24:54
  at screen time. You you want to get there early
• 24:56
  for the early, yeah. Yeah, no.
• 24:58
  So This is why the Alamo experience is different.
• 25:00
  So you not only do you you want to show up early because the pre
• 25:04
  show is part of the entertainment and it gives you
• 25:06
  time to look through the menu and write down your order and do
• 25:08
  your thing. So it's just a relaxing,
• 25:12
  enjoyable experience kind of from start to finish.
• 25:14
  But we also, as you read about Alamo, we have a strict no
• 25:18
  talking, no texting policy. That's one of the things that
• 25:21
  guests love about the Alamo brand the most is they have this
• 25:25
  a very strong reputation for being strict on talkers and
• 25:28
  texters because we protect the movie going experience.
• 25:31
  So if you go to a regular cinema and you show up 15 minutes late
• 25:35
  and you're scooting past people to find your seat at Alamo, you
• 25:38
  can't do that. If you show up 15 minutes late,
• 25:40
  we'll just let you know that unfortunately we can't let you
• 25:42
  in because it's disruptive to the other guests that are
• 25:44
  watching the movie. But we can give you a refund.
• 25:46
  We can exchange your ticket for another Showtime, but we can't
• 25:49
  let you in late because it's distracting.
• 25:51
  Similar to talkers and texters, like we don't tolerate talking
• 25:54
  and texting. If you're doing that, we have
• 25:56
  to, we'll escort you out of the theater and then you don't get a
• 25:58
  refund. And the brand is kind of
• 26:01
  unapologetic about that. And we've had like we had APSA
• 26:04
  go viral. You can find it on YouTube.
• 26:06
  But basically, and this was from a long time ago, but basically
• 26:09
  there was a, an intoxicated patron who she was using her
• 26:14
  phone and turning the light on and trying to find her seat
• 26:17
  Anyway, So she was ejected from the theater.
• 26:18
  She got mad. She called back and left this
• 26:20
  really angry voicemail. And the company took that
• 26:24
  voicemail and turned it in to a no talking, no texting PSA.
• 26:28
  And it's got, I don't even know how many, it's got millions of
• 26:31
  views. It's, it's just one of the funny
• 26:33
  things that people love about Alamo.
• 26:35
  So anyway, that's kind of the experience that you can expect.
• 26:38
  So I'm giving you all of the insider knowledge to make sure
• 26:40
  that you yourself don't either get a denied entry or B get
• 26:44
  escorted out. I appreciate that.
• 26:47
  Yeah, a couple of things there. So let's say I'm going for a
• 26:50
  7:00 movie. What time do I want to get
• 26:52
  there? 6:30. 6:30 is enough time.
• 26:55
  So that gives me enough time I'll be there in time for the,
• 26:58
  the custom content that you guys have have created or curated be
• 27:03
  enough time for me to place an order for whatever food that I
• 27:06
  want. So I'm not going to the
• 27:07
  concession stand. Like when I get there, I'm I'm
• 27:11
  just, I'm showing my ticket, I'm going right to my seat because
• 27:14
  whatever it is, I want the the service going to bring to me.
• 27:17
  Yes. And there is no concession
• 27:19
  stand. So we have in theater dining and
• 27:22
  we have bars. We have bars in the lobby and
• 27:25
  they often operate as kind of independent hangout bars.
• 27:27
  Some some people, we have certain locations where the bar
• 27:30
  is very popular and people utilize it as kind of their
• 27:33
  neighborhood bar even if they're not going to see a movie.
• 27:36
  And we host different types of events in the bar.
• 27:38
  So we'll host trivia nights with Geeks Who Drink and we'll host
• 27:43
  Drag Queen Bingo and we'll host all different kinds of things at
• 27:46
  the bar. So we sort of operate those in
• 27:50
  addition to the movie theater. They're a great place to stop
• 27:52
  and grab a beer if you get there early and you just want to hang
• 27:55
  out before your movie or after your movie.
• 27:57
  But they are also kind of stand alone destinations just in their
• 28:00
  own right because they have their own set of programming
• 28:03
  involved. So you the bar or you go to the.
• 28:07
  There's programming at the actual bar itself.
• 28:10
  Yeah, not like film programming, but programming meaning trivia
• 28:13
  nights, bingo nights, you know, comedians, all different kinds
• 28:18
  of things. That was going to, I think that
• 28:20
  kind of answers my next question, which is we've got
• 28:22
  Alamo Drafthouse and cinema and Drafthouse and cinema kind of
• 28:29
  feel a little bit different. But the way that you just
• 28:30
  described it there, they kind of like work together as well as
• 28:35
  having the the, the bar, the Drafthouse part of it kind of be
• 28:38
  its own stand alone thing as well.
• 28:40
  Yeah, we really love beer and we really love cinema, and so when
• 28:43
  you just put those together, you get Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
• 28:46
  Gotcha. It's like chocolate and peanut
• 28:48
  butter coming together. Two things that make each other
• 28:51
  better. Beer and good movies go together
• 28:53
  like chocolate and peanut butter.
• 28:55
  You can use that as your new tagline if you want no charge
• 28:58
  I'm. Just going to text that to
• 28:59
  marketing real quick. Who's the genius that came up
• 29:03
  with that? That's right.
• 29:04
  So I'm looking at your website here and am I seeing like
• 29:08
  stainless steel food trays? Is that part of the experience
• 29:12
  here? We have wouldn't, No, we have,
• 29:15
  well, stainless steel like back in the kitchen.
• 29:17
  Yeah, but no, most of your food again, it's supposed to be a
• 29:21
  distraction free environment. So our servers are, they wear
• 29:25
  black and dark clothing, black pants, black T-shirts, because
• 29:28
  you don't want, you know, you don't want your server, your
• 29:31
  silent service server not disrupting the movie, but
• 29:33
  wearing a neon green T-shirt, right?
• 29:36
  So the servers wear dark, your food is served on dark plates.
• 29:39
  The tables are a dark wood color.
• 29:41
  It's all very, you know, because the focus is on the screen.
• 29:43
  The focus is on the art. But is there enough light where
• 29:45
  I can see what I mean eating? For the most part, yeah,
• 29:49
  probably. From the screen, yeah.
• 29:51
  I mean, I'm going to say if it's a really dark scene in a movie,
• 29:54
  you might want to just wait to grab that burger and take the
• 29:56
  big bite so that it doesn't end up in your lap.
• 29:58
  But as long as you're, you know, careful under normal
• 30:01
  circumstances, yes, you can absolutely see enough to see
• 30:03
  what you're eating. OK.
• 30:05
  So Heather, give us a little bit about the heritage of the brand,
• 30:08
  started out as a second run theater and has evolved quite a
• 30:12
  bit, kind of take us through that.
• 30:14
  Yeah, So Tim and Carrie League, they, they founded the company
• 30:18
  originally about 30 years ago and Tim is a devout film lover
• 30:23
  and so is Carrie. They loved movies, they've
• 30:26
  always loved movies, but they didn't love going to theaters
• 30:28
  and they didn't love going to theaters for all of the reasons
• 30:32
  I think that people sometimes today complain about going to
• 30:34
  the the theaters, which is we don't want to sit through ads
• 30:37
  for T-Mobile and insurance companies.
• 30:39
  We don't want to sit through 8 trailers before a movie starts.
• 30:41
  We don't want to have to endure people talking or texting during
• 30:46
  the movie where it's distracting.
• 30:47
  So what they decided to do was just open up a theater and it
• 30:51
  was in a parking garage and they built it like with their own two
• 30:55
  hands and they decided they were going to serve food and make it
• 30:58
  cool and put in all kinds of edgy programming, very much a
• 31:02
  community theater. And so they designed this movie
• 31:06
  theater concept for their single screen, upholding all the
• 31:10
  tenants that they felt like we're really important for the
• 31:12
  movie going experience. And since then, the company has
• 31:17
  grown and it's changed ownership and it's changed leaders.
• 31:21
  But through all that, it's held firm to those brand standards of
• 31:25
  what it is that's most important to the company and to the guests
• 31:28
  and why people love Alamo and making sure that those don't get
• 31:31
  lost amidst all these other changes that might be going on.
• 31:34
  So that's very reminiscent of the Alamo that you'll experience
• 31:37
  today. So what kind of mix of content
• 31:42
  do we see second run, sort of the the first run blockbusters
• 31:48
  that my kids would know about that those are the only movies I
• 31:51
  go to anymore. By the way Heather, I've got 8
• 31:53
  and 10 year olds, so whatever they want to see.
• 31:55
  Right. You have just recent, you've
• 31:56
  just recently seen Sonic 3 and Mufasa and maybe Wicked and
• 32:00
  yeah. We still need to get to Wicked
• 32:03
  in Moana too. But yeah, I don't even know what
• 32:06
  anything outside of the the kid genre is right now.
• 32:09
  So, So what what do we see in terms of programming at at Alamo
• 32:12
  in terms of like the the indie flicks that you wouldn't see?
• 32:16
  It's sort of the the major run theaters, the second run stuff
• 32:19
  kind of coming back around and sort of that I don't know, first
• 32:22
  tier programming that I would be familiar with.
• 32:25
  Yes, you're all of all of the. All of that so.
• 32:27
  This is where Alamo shines, I would say, Well, it shines in a
• 32:31
  lot of places, but this is I oversee content in programming,
• 32:34
  so this is probably the thing that I'll get most excited
• 32:36
  about. And it's just that, again, the
• 32:40
  entire company was founded based on this love of cinema and the
• 32:44
  strong desire to celebrate that love of cinema with people in
• 32:47
  the community, whether it's people that are working for
• 32:49
  Alamo or people that are coming to Alamo as guests or whether
• 32:52
  it's the film makers that have created the art.
• 32:54
  Like we love film and we want to celebrate film of all sizes and
• 32:58
  shapes. So we play all of the first run
• 33:02
  studio. We play almost all of the first
• 33:04
  run studio content, like all of the mainstream films that you
• 33:07
  would expect to find at most other cinema chains.
• 33:09
  But we play about twice as many films per year as the average
• 33:14
  circuit does. We play a lot more pieces of
• 33:17
  content, and that's because we do a lot of repertory
• 33:20
  programming. We do a lot of what?
• 33:22
  Does that mean? Repertory means like the older
• 33:25
  films. So if you want your kids to see
• 33:29
  Goonies in the theater, you know you can find it at Alamo
• 33:31
  Drafthouse. And we'll not just play it, but
• 33:33
  we'll turn it into a movie party and plus up the experience,
• 33:36
  which is it's something that I didn't tell you about, but if
• 33:38
  you want to know, I'll answer any questions.
• 33:40
  But so repertory films are like all of the old stuff.
• 33:43
  We play so many smaller indie films, so first run films, but
• 33:48
  that are more obscure that larger cinemas might not have
• 33:50
  any visibility to or might not pick up.
• 33:52
  Alamo can take those and actually help launch them and
• 33:55
  make them big. So certain types of films
• 33:58
  perform much better at Alamo than they they're they're films
• 34:03
  that Alamo will punch above its weight class in terms of our
• 34:06
  guest to help launch those films.
• 34:08
  So an example might be Neon's Long Legs that released last
• 34:13
  year, you know, Long Legs starring Nicolas Cage.
• 34:16
  It did well for the industry overall, but in the grand scheme
• 34:20
  of things, it was a very small film.
• 34:22
  But for Alamo, it was a pretty big film and we significantly
• 34:25
  over indexed on it. Similarly, Focus released
• 34:28
  Nosferatu. It's still playing in theaters.
• 34:30
  It does pretty well for the industry.
• 34:32
  It does really well at Alamo. So the Alamo brand plays really
• 34:37
  well to certain types of content.
• 34:40
  And those tend to be the types of pieces of content that could
• 34:42
  use our marketing and our amplification and our word of
• 34:45
  mouth. So we lean into those because
• 34:47
  what we don't want is an industry that is only fueled by
• 34:51
  sequels, only fueled by tent poles, only fueled by
• 34:55
  franchises. You know, we want, we want a
• 34:57
  healthy industry that's fueled by a love of all different kinds
• 35:00
  of things. So we play all different kinds
• 35:03
  of things. So does a typical.
• 35:05
  Location have a lot more screens than a more traditional theater?
• 35:08
  Or are you maybe cycling through the movies a little bit faster
• 35:14
  than someplace else might? We don't have more.
• 35:17
  Screens. We actually have fewer screens,
• 35:19
  so your average cinema has around 12 to 14 screens.
• 35:24
  Most of our buildings have around 8 screens so we have
• 35:27
  fewer screens and we do cycle through films faster because
• 35:31
  they can't live on screen at our locations quite as long.
• 35:34
  To your point because we need to bring in new content, but we
• 35:36
  also just save dedicated space for the non mainstream.
• 35:41
  Stuff like Rep and indie programming is so important to
• 35:45
  us that we just save screen space in all of our buildings to
• 35:49
  make sure that we're getting it on screen and it doesn't get
• 35:51
  boxed out because it's, it's a brand pillar.
• 35:54
  It's a brand pillar for us to play different types of content.
• 35:57
  So what we don't want to do is prioritize all of the mainstream
• 36:00
  stuff and to say we've got 8 screens of the mainstream.
• 36:04
  So for this week or this month, we don't have room to play any,
• 36:07
  you know, indie content or repertory bring backs.
• 36:09
  We, we just never allow that because again, it's a brand
• 36:12
  pillar for us and it's identifier.
• 36:14
  So we save screen space dedicated for other types of
• 36:17
  content that are not mainstream, if that makes sense.
• 36:20
  So. I'm looking at your website
• 36:22
  here. Looks like you're in.
• 36:25
  I don't know, this is 26 with 27 theater locations or this is 26
• 36:30
  different cities that you're currently in.
• 36:33
  We have 40. Two locations, so some some
• 36:37
  cities you've got. Multiple locations, Yeah.
• 36:42
  Are there. I'm trying to find a pattern,
• 36:44
  obviously. I see, you know, a number of big
• 36:46
  cities here, Houston, New York City, Chicago, Boston, but, you
• 36:51
  know, also some places that are maybe a little bit smaller, like
• 36:56
  Raleigh and Yonkers and Omaha and El Paso.
• 36:59
  Like what, what kind of environment do you guys look for
• 37:03
  when you think about expansion? What, what is kind of a a good
• 37:08
  breeding ground for a new Alamo Cinema?
• 37:11
  Yeah, it's a good. Question.
• 37:12
  So part of the reason why you see us in so many different
• 37:15
  places is because Alamo is the only theater company that has a
• 37:19
  franchise component. So of our 42 theaters, 26 of
• 37:23
  them are company owned and the rest are franchise owned.
• 37:27
  And so we have franchisees that want to open up Alamos in I
• 37:32
  would say smaller or non major markets and that is how we tend
• 37:36
  to get a presence in those types of markets.
• 37:38
  If you ask about the company real estate strategy from a
• 37:42
  corporate perspective, we want to be in as many major markets
• 37:46
  as we can and especially in markets that are necessary for
• 37:49
  awards consideration. So we just opened Chicago not
• 37:52
  that long ago, we just opened Boston not that long ago.
• 37:55
  We're bringing in two more locations in California later
• 37:58
  this year that are around the Bay Area, though not directly in
• 38:02
  San Francisco. And so, yeah, we're pursuing
• 38:06
  major markets, I would say from a corporate perspective and then
• 38:10
  kind of relying on some of our franchisees to help us have
• 38:13
  representation in smaller markets.
• 38:15
  So I'm in Columbus. Ohio stats I've read put us at
• 38:20
  sort of 14th largest metro area. Does that sort of meet your,
• 38:23
  your kind of top tier or is that something that you would kind of
• 38:27
  wait for like a franchise to come in and say, hey, I, I want
• 38:30
  to open up there? Yeah, it's a good question.
• 38:33
  I will tell you that it's like that particular location isn't
• 38:36
  on our radar eminently, but it doesn't mean that it couldn't be
• 38:39
  in the future. We are.
• 38:40
  We are making very opportunistic real estate decisions.
• 38:45
  So the effect that COVID had on the industry has brought a
• 38:49
  number of, you know, real estate opportunities to the table, far
• 38:53
  more than we could ever execute on right away.
• 38:55
  So we're having to be very deliberate and very strategic
• 38:58
  about which locations we pursue and in what order.
• 39:01
  So makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
• 39:03
  That said, if you want to franchise.
• 39:05
  An Alamo Drafthouse. You just let me know and we'll
• 39:07
  talk about it. I don't know.
• 39:09
  You might. Need to hire me first so that I
• 39:11
  can make one of those L moves and you can kind of teach me the
• 39:14
  industry because I've I've got, I've got no background in this
• 39:17
  space. We'll diversify your skill.
• 39:19
  Set. That's the term I was looking.
• 39:21
  For thank you. So OK, so you guys started out
• 39:26
  this cool indie brand. You're still this cool indie
• 39:28
  brand, but this cool indie brand that was, back in summer of
• 39:33
  2024, acquired by Sony. Tell me about how that all came
• 39:39
  about. What was sort of the benefit for
• 39:41
  each party? Yeah, so.
• 39:44
  There was a step in between going from a cool indie brand to
• 39:47
  being Sony owned. So we were a cool indie brand
• 39:49
  and then we were owned by Altamont Capital Partners.
• 39:52
  So we were owned by APE Firm for several years.
• 39:56
  And then per just normal life cycle in the PE world, they
• 39:59
  periodically want to change out their portfolio companies, which
• 40:02
  is, you know, perfectly normal and expected.
• 40:04
  And so we started looking for. A new home.
• 40:07
  And Sony was interested in welcoming Alamo Drafthouse into
• 40:11
  its company. And we felt like that was the
• 40:15
  best possible scenario for us to land.
• 40:17
  There was, you know, natural concern about, well, what's
• 40:20
  going to happen to the company if we're bought by another
• 40:22
  cinema chain, you know, do does Alamo keep its uniqueness?
• 40:24
  Does it keep its brand voice? And Sony is the one major
• 40:30
  distributor that doesn't have a streaming platform.
• 40:32
  They are devoutly dedicated to the theatrical experience and
• 40:35
  always have been, even during. So during COVID, when you had a
• 40:38
  lot of studios leaning into streaming because they wanted to
• 40:41
  experiment with different avenues to get their content in
• 40:43
  front of consumers. And I think they were maybe
• 40:46
  losing faith in the value of theatrical just because of the
• 40:49
  COVID influence that it had on the industry there.
• 40:51
  For several years, Sony didn't do that.
• 40:54
  They kind of stayed tried and true to valuing the theatrical
• 40:57
  experience. And so when Sony started talking
• 41:01
  to us about joining their company, it felt like a very
• 41:04
  natural and fortunate fit for both sides.
• 41:08
  How do you feel about? The whole streaming universe,
• 41:12
  does it feel threatening? Is there a way to kind of view
• 41:16
  it as complimentary? Do you?
• 41:18
  I don't know. Obviously, like you said, there
• 41:19
  was this big shift that happened during COVID because there was
• 41:22
  no opportunity to go see movies in the traditional sense.
• 41:25
  And now, you know, everybody's shifted to streaming.
• 41:29
  Now it feels like some people are coming back.
• 41:31
  How do you wrap your head around all that?
• 41:33
  Heather I. Don't.
• 41:35
  It's a, it's a great question and depending on who you ask,
• 41:37
  you'll get vastly different answers.
• 41:39
  I personally don't view streaming as a threat and I
• 41:42
  never have because I feel like there's so many different
• 41:45
  segments of consumers. There are people like you who
• 41:48
  have an 8 year old and a 10 year old.
• 41:50
  And so there's only certain types of movies that you're
• 41:53
  going to be able to go see in theater, but you still want to
• 41:55
  watch those movies and streaming is your Ave. to do it.
• 41:59
  There are other types of consumers where their kids are
• 42:01
  older or they don't have kids at all, or they're, you know, in
• 42:04
  their 20s and they want to go out to cinema often to to watch
• 42:08
  movies and streaming doesn't appeal to them.
• 42:10
  And then there is another group of audience goers where certain
• 42:15
  films they want to see in cinema and certain films they're OK
• 42:18
  watching at home. And so I don't think that one
• 42:21
  threatens the other. I think that they there's plenty
• 42:23
  of room and plenty of eyeballs for both to exist in a very
• 42:26
  healthy fashion. So now is the.
• 42:29
  Chief Content Officer, there you are responsible for sort of
• 42:34
  curating the mix of the films as well as overseeing the creation
• 42:39
  of that custom content that comes at the beginning of each
• 42:43
  movie. Is that correct?
• 42:45
  And is there also more that sort of falls under your umbrella?
• 42:49
  It's partially. Correct.
• 42:50
  So the team that I lead, they they curate all of the content
• 42:54
  that we play on screen, both from a first run and an indie
• 42:59
  and a Rep side. So everything that plays on
• 43:01
  screen at Alamo Drafthouse is is coming through my team.
• 43:04
  And then we also do all of the, you know, non sexy nuts and
• 43:08
  bolts on the back end, which are negotiating the terms that we're
• 43:11
  going to pay the studios, making sure that we're, you know, doing
• 43:15
  the best business for one another that we can, helping to
• 43:18
  forge partnerships. The marketing team actually
• 43:20
  overseas, the pre show content curation.
• 43:24
  So that lives in the marketing world, but everything else comes
• 43:27
  through my team in terms of on screen, do you feel?
• 43:31
  Like, you're still able to kind of leverage that expertise from,
• 43:35
  you know, the PhD in industrial organizational psychology.
• 43:40
  Or does it feel like you've kind of left that life behind and,
• 43:44
  you know, gone on to having to develop a whole new set of
• 43:47
  skills? No, interestingly.
• 43:49
  I leverage it more now than I did before and it's because I
• 43:53
  will tell you my team is brilliant.
• 43:57
  They, they are cinephiles through and through.
• 44:00
  Their depth and breadth of film knowledge far exceeds my own.
• 44:06
  I mean, not even I couldn't compete with them if I wanted
• 44:09
  to. They know film.
• 44:11
  So if I weren't there, they would still be able to come up
• 44:15
  with the best in class programming for Alamo
• 44:18
  Drafthouse. They don't need me for that at
• 44:19
  all where I contribute to the team.
• 44:22
  What they need me for is leadership development and
• 44:25
  helping to ensure that their strategies that they're
• 44:29
  deploying coincide with other department strategies within the
• 44:32
  company. And to ensure that if they have
• 44:35
  a conflict with a distributor that we have a way to resolve
• 44:38
  that, that that that things have a way of, you know, escalating
• 44:41
  and getting resolved. That is healthy and
• 44:43
  collaborative. And so they need me really from
• 44:45
  I would say an IO psychology perspective because they
• 44:49
  certainly don't need me from a content programming perspective.
• 44:52
  They have that so in hand it. Sounds like they are.
• 44:56
  Better at that than you would be 1000%. 1000% and when.
• 45:02
  They're negotiating these rights and they're sort of choosing the
• 45:04
  films. I am I correct in assuming that
• 45:09
  just because they got the rights to distribute a film, they're
• 45:11
  not necessarily trying to get those rights for every single
• 45:14
  theater like it may? Hey, this feels like a fit for
• 45:17
  New York City, but maybe not so much Omaha.
• 45:19
  So the the content's gonna be a little bit different depending
• 45:22
  on the theater? Yes, exactly.
• 45:24
  Depending on where. The theater is you have
• 45:26
  different types of demographics of guests and psychographics of
• 45:29
  guests that come to that theater.
• 45:30
  So you'll have certain you'll have certain locations across
• 45:33
  our circuit that play really well to family content and
• 45:36
  others don't play as well. You'll have certain locations
• 45:39
  that play really well to R rated horror films.
• 45:41
  Others play less well. And our film buyers are such
• 45:44
  experts in the locations that they book that they know what
• 45:48
  content works well and doesn't work well.
• 45:50
  So they work with the studios to to joint.
• 45:53
  We agree upon what we're going to put where when you're going.
• 45:57
  Into a brand. So obviously when you've got an
• 45:59
  established location, you know, you've got some history, you can
• 46:02
  look back and say, yeah, OK, the horror movies did well here, you
• 46:05
  know, family content, not so much.
• 46:07
  You've got that historical perspective to look at.
• 46:09
  But when you're going into a brand new location, are you just
• 46:12
  kind of throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks or
• 46:15
  is there, I don't know, a more analytical data-driven approach
• 46:20
  that can give you some sort of sense of, you know, the, the
• 46:24
  demographics and the, you know, 15 mile surrounding area.
• 46:28
  It's a little bit of. Both.
• 46:29
  So we do go in with a pretty informed perspective like for
• 46:32
  example we recently opened a new location in Naples, FL Naples,
• 46:37
  FL you would argue maybe doesn't fit the stereotypical Alamo
• 46:41
  demographic and that we were maybe going to need to tailor
• 46:43
  our programming to to meet that audience.
• 46:45
  So we know that going in based on looking at demographics and
• 46:48
  psychographics of the market. Plus if it was operating as a
• 46:52
  cinema before, this is the this is the case with any location.
• 46:55
  If we take over location and it was operating as a cinema
• 46:58
  previously, we can still go back and look at what it's film
• 47:02
  grosses were on certain films. So we can see how it's played in
• 47:06
  terms of family film, horror film, romantic comedies, you
• 47:10
  know, pick your pick your genre. So that helps inform our
• 47:14
  perspective as well. So we go in with a point of view
• 47:17
  and then we go in smart enough to know that we don't know
• 47:20
  everything. So we lean our programming in
• 47:22
  the direction we think it's going to work.
• 47:24
  And we also throw a little bit of unknown stuff at the wall
• 47:26
  just to see what surprises us. And we'll do that for an
• 47:29
  extended period of time. Because when you, when you go
• 47:31
  into a new market where you haven't had a presence before,
• 47:33
  be it Chicago, Boston, Naples, it takes your guests a while to
• 47:38
  find you. So sometimes if people aren't
• 47:41
  familiar with Alamo Drafthouse, like if you come to Austin,
• 47:43
  everybody knows Alamo Drafthouse.
• 47:45
  They know exactly what it is, what the brand is like, what the
• 47:47
  experience is like, and they they know if they're an Alamo
• 47:49
  person or not an Alamo person. When you go into a new market,
• 47:53
  people don't necessarily know the brand.
• 47:55
  So what you have to do is attract large numbers of people
• 47:59
  into the cinema to have those first few experiences where
• 48:02
  they're determining if they like it or not.
• 48:04
  Do I like this kind of programming?
• 48:06
  Do I like this pre show experience?
• 48:07
  Do I like having a server in the auditorium?
• 48:10
  Do I like eating while I'm watching a movie?
• 48:12
  Do I not like that? And the people that try you and
• 48:15
  decide that you're not really for them.
• 48:17
  And if that's just not the kind of cinema experience they're
• 48:19
  looking for, then you won't get them back.
• 48:21
  And that's OK. And then eventually you'll find
• 48:23
  who your people are going to be and you'll get that stability
• 48:26
  and you can start routinely programming to that stable group
• 48:29
  of people who come, you know, come to your theater regularly
• 48:32
  and and know you and love you. What does that marketing?
• 48:36
  Look like as you enter a new city for the first time.
• 48:39
  Oh, another Yeah, our. Marketing team is best in class
• 48:44
  Alamo has a best in class marketing team and the way that
• 48:47
  they are able to attract people into the cinema and build
• 48:51
  community relationships is. It blows me away every time.
• 48:56
  So when we went into Boston, like our team didn't just go
• 49:00
  into Boston, they developed a partnership with the Red Sox
• 49:04
  where you know, we're going to host free screenings in in the
• 49:08
  stadium and people are going to get to know the Alamo brand that
• 49:12
  way because we're right across the street and we'll do things
• 49:16
  like we have a rolling roadshow. So Rolling Roadshow is this
• 49:20
  initiative where basically we bring like the best of cinema
• 49:24
  outside of a theater and we go to on location places to have
• 49:29
  experiences. So for example, our probably our
• 49:32
  most famous one is doing a screening of Jaws on the water.
• 49:35
  So at a lake, for example, you would have people.
• 49:39
  I can think of nothing. More terrifying, Heather.
• 49:42
  OK, so this is great. We purposely don't watch.
• 49:45
  Jaws for the month before we go on our beach vacation, OK?
• 49:50
  I really need you to get on board with Alamo because I feel
• 49:53
  like you're going to experience so much.
• 49:55
  So in the Jaws Rolling Roadshow, not only do we have people
• 50:00
  watching Jaws while sitting in inner tubes on the water while
• 50:04
  the movie is playing, but we might also hire some scuba
• 50:08
  divers to go around and pull on people's feet while they're
• 50:12
  watching because that's just what makes Alamo cool.
• 50:16
  It's it's fun. Right.
• 50:18
  It's because we love the. Movie you want to celebrate the
• 50:20
  movie by doing fun things with them.
• 50:21
  I give you a hard time, but. That's that's, that's really
• 50:24
  fun. That's cool, we recently did.
• 50:26
  A a rolling roadshow with Nope on the ranch by the Hollywood
• 50:30
  sign, you know when it was getting ready to release.
• 50:32
  So we partner with studios as way, you know, as a way of
• 50:36
  eventizing their films in this new and unique way.
• 50:39
  So we can do things like this when we're going into a new
• 50:41
  market where we'll we'll bring out the community and introduce
• 50:45
  them to Alamo and explain how we love film.
• 50:48
  We'll give them film experiences.
• 50:50
  We'll we'll make partnerships with, you know, brands that are
• 50:54
  beloved and local to them, even if they're massive like the Red
• 50:57
  Sox. And it it just that we drive
• 51:01
  traffic that way by just having this really big presence in the
• 51:05
  market. You know, we like go in quietly.
• 51:09
  I love that the two. Examples that you pulled out
• 51:11
  there aren't they're not even at the physical locations of your
• 51:16
  movie theaters, right. I would think like sort of a
• 51:18
  traditional like marketing ideas.
• 51:20
  I don't know, we're running a bunch of Facebook and TikTok and
• 51:23
  Instagram ads letting people know that this is here.
• 51:25
  Maybe we're sending out mailers to your mailboxes.
• 51:28
  Maybe you guys do all that stuff too, like trying to get people
• 51:30
  into the the physical location of the the new theater.
• 51:34
  But I love sort of the outside the box thinking of, hey, man,
• 51:39
  we're close to the the Red Sox stadium.
• 51:43
  Let's do a partnership with them because I mean, they're one of
• 51:47
  the biggest brands in, you know, the entire sports world.
• 51:51
  Let's do something fun around Jaws.
• 51:53
  And it's not at our physical location, but it's a chance for
• 51:57
  us to establish our brand as being sort of cool, edgy, a
• 52:01
  little bit of a different experience and and get to have
• 52:06
  people get to know at least the brand, if not the physical
• 52:09
  location that way. Yeah, I think that that's.
• 52:11
  We do this because it's reminiscent of not reminiscent.
• 52:14
  It's characteristic of what people are needing and wanting
• 52:17
  today. So yes, we do all of those
• 52:19
  standard marketing levers, like we, we pull the, the table
• 52:23
  stakes of marketing levers, but we go above and beyond because
• 52:26
  you have to, you have to find people where they are.
• 52:29
  People are busy. You can't ask them to just go do
• 52:33
  something extra that's above and beyond.
• 52:34
  And when we're going into a new market, we need them more than
• 52:38
  they need us. They don't, I mean, I would
• 52:40
  argue that they do need us, but they don't know that yet.
• 52:43
  So we have to go find them where they are.
• 52:46
  If they're at the zoo, we have done a screening of The Lion
• 52:50
  King in the lion enclosure so that you, you know, are watching
• 52:55
  The Lion King while surrounded by the lions, right?
• 52:58
  When you're at the zoo, you like entertainment.
• 53:00
  We're going to meet you where you are and tell you about us.
• 53:03
  Have you get to know us. And then by the way, you can
• 53:05
  find us over here at this address.
• 53:08
  So it's, it's very much a, you know, people are busy and they
• 53:11
  don't have a lot of discretionary income and they
• 53:14
  don't have a lot of free time. And so if you want them to spend
• 53:16
  it with you, then you need to make a really compelling case
• 53:20
  and you need to get in front of them.
• 53:21
  Don't expect them to come to you just because you asked them.
• 53:25
  I like that. Speaking of compelling case,
• 53:28
  somebody made a compelling case for you being one of the top 50
• 53:32
  women in global cinema. How did that come about?
• 53:38
  Celluloid Junkie. Is a publication in our industry
• 53:42
  that I dearly love, by the way, It's it's not as large as like a
• 53:46
  Deadline or a Hollywood Reporter or Variety.
• 53:48
  It's smaller. And I think that's why I love
• 53:50
  it, because they have such a small team and they do such
• 53:52
  great work. But Celluloid Junkie has a
• 53:55
  program where they want to elevate and recognize women in
• 53:59
  cinema. They also do it on the
• 54:01
  distribution side of the business.
• 54:02
  And every year they pick people, write in, they can nominate and
• 54:06
  make their case. And then they have a committee
• 54:09
  of people who meet and determine who's going to make the list of
• 54:12
  the top 50. And yeah, in 2023 and 2024 both,
• 54:16
  I was, I was honored enough to make the list, fortunate to make
• 54:20
  the list. Who would be?
• 54:21
  Another recognizable name that's on that list.
• 54:24
  Y'all have so many. I mean so many recognizable
• 54:27
  names. Elizabeth Frank from AMC would
• 54:30
  be on the list. Wanda Gerhart Fearing from
• 54:33
  Cinemark would be on the list. Aaron von Hutsendorf from NATO
• 54:38
  would be on the list. Jackie Brenneman, formerly of
• 54:41
  NATO and now with the 50 and group, has been on the list.
• 54:43
  I could go on. There are our industry has so
• 54:46
  many very, very capable, very strong, very intelligent women
• 54:51
  who are on the list. And it also has a lot of those
• 54:53
  types of women who didn't make the list because there's far
• 54:56
  more than 50. That's nice.
• 54:58
  Of you to say and I was going to say sounds like you're in really
• 55:00
  good company, but I think that they're also in really good
• 55:04
  company with you that's. Very kind of you to say I.
• 55:07
  Often feel like I snuck in. I don't know how I got to like,
• 55:10
  I don't know how I got an invitation to this particular
• 55:12
  party and I'm just hoping that I don't get found out a little.
• 55:16
  Bit of imposter syndrome there. We all carry it, yeah.
• 55:20
  And that's. So true, you know, I, I actually
• 55:23
  referenced this in another interview recently, but I, I,
• 55:26
  one of my guests, they talked about how, you know, they sort
• 55:29
  of have come to deal with their imposter syndrome.
• 55:33
  And they used to think of it as sort of this encumbrance, right?
• 55:37
  This thing that sort of like brought them down and the more
• 55:39
  that they lived life. Now he views it as his
• 55:42
  superpower, right? It's sort of that thing that
• 55:45
  gives him a kick in the rear end to do better to get up and, you
• 55:49
  know, keep proving himself every day.
• 55:50
  So interesting little sidebar there.
• 55:53
  I very much like the. I very much like the perspective
• 55:56
  of using it as a means of fueling yourself and what you do
• 55:59
  as a as opposed to a means of letting it hold you back.
• 56:03
  I think that that's fantastic. I'm glad you shared that with
• 56:06
  me. I like that, yeah.
• 56:09
  Shifting gears on you, Heather, I'd be curious to hear about a
• 56:13
  particular challenge that you've overcome in life, something
• 56:16
  professional, personal, maybe a combination of the two, what it
• 56:21
  was like going through that and some lessons that you learn.
• 56:29
  This is a difficult one for. Me to answer, because I just
• 56:34
  have the perspective of knowing that my challenges in life have
• 56:38
  paled in comparison to what actually represents the
• 56:42
  challenges that most people are dealing with.
• 56:43
  I've been really unduly fortunate in my life.
• 56:47
  I haven't ever, I would say, endured any true, true hardship
• 56:53
  the way that other people do. So when I talk about difficulty,
• 56:56
  it's just know that I'm doing it with a very humble perspective
• 56:59
  of my difficulty is still not all that difficult.
• 57:04
  But I would say there's a couple probably on a personal front, I
• 57:08
  would say motherhood, like getting into motherhood was a
• 57:14
  pretty challenging experience for me.
• 57:17
  And on the work front, I would say COVID and what it did to the
• 57:21
  industry and, and to my profession in particular was
• 57:26
  certainly the most frightening professional experience that
• 57:30
  I've had and something that lasted far longer than any of us
• 57:33
  thought that it would. So I would say that that
• 57:35
  affected both personal and professionally.
• 57:39
  Let's talk about motherhood. For just a moment, because this
• 57:42
  is something that I think doesn't get enough attention and
• 57:46
  and tell me if the picture that I paint resonates with you at
• 57:50
  all. Very intelligent, highly driven,
• 57:54
  very educated woman is on a great path for her career and
• 57:59
  then decides that she's going to become a mom.
• 58:03
  And there's sort of this, I don't know, this identity crisis
• 58:09
  that kind of kicks in, you know, am I the professional?
• 58:13
  Am I the mother? Lots of mom guilt for, you know,
• 58:16
  wanting to continue the professional career.
• 58:19
  Any of this feel like it sticks? That's pretty insightful.
• 58:23
  Sir, I get the impression that maybe you've heard this before
• 58:26
  from some of your interviewees because yes, that's, that's
• 58:30
  pretty much spot on. And it's, it's fueled by all
• 58:32
  kinds of things. It's fueled by the expectations
• 58:36
  that we place on the expectations and the challenges
• 58:40
  that we put in front of women when it comes to advancing their
• 58:44
  careers and also performing well as a mom.
• 58:48
  So some of it is obstacles and expectations and some of it is
• 58:51
  just this implicit. Sometimes it's implicit,
• 58:54
  sometimes it's explicit. But it's this messaging that you
• 58:56
  receive that says you can either be a really successful and
• 59:00
  dedicated career professional or you can be a really attentive
• 59:03
  mom, but you're not going to have enough time to be both.
• 59:06
  So you're going to have to choose which isn't true, but I
• 59:10
  didn't know that it wasn't true at the beginning.
• 59:12
  So yes, all of those things that you are articulated were exactly
• 59:17
  what I felt and just sort of also crippling anxiety because I
• 59:22
  didn't grow. I I wouldn't say that I'm
• 59:25
  naturally extremely maternal and I didn't grow up with younger
• 59:29
  siblings. I didn't really do a lot of
• 59:31
  babysitting, so I didn't have experience caring for something
• 59:35
  very small, and so the whole bonding process took a lot
• 59:39
  longer. I was deathly afraid of the
• 59:41
  children for quite a while. Now that they're older, it feels
• 59:44
  totally different. It feels great.
• 59:47
  What I found from other moms is that they tend to feel
• 59:49
  comfortable at different phases. Some moms that I know love that
• 59:52
  infant phase and the toddler phase, and then when their kids
• 59:56
  get a little older and a little bigger and more independent,
• 59:59
  they start having more trouble figuring out how to mother.
• 1:00:02
  And with other people, it's the opposite.
• 1:00:04
  I really struggled in the beginning when they can't
• 1:00:06
  communicate and they can't. Tell me what's going on.
• 1:00:08
  And I have to try to figure it out.
• 1:00:10
  And they're not independent at all.
• 1:00:12
  They're dependent upon, you know, adults for everything.
• 1:00:16
  They're they're very sustainability.
• 1:00:17
  So the beginning was really rough.
• 1:00:22
  I think it's great that we. Talked about this for a few
• 1:00:24
  minutes because it's another aspect that I think doesn't get
• 1:00:27
  enough attention is the parenting experience is
• 1:00:30
  different for everybody. I was, as a father a little bit
• 1:00:34
  more, and you're a lot more in your camp of being just
• 1:00:39
  terrified of the responsibility of how do I care for this thing
• 1:00:44
  that can't even tell me what it needs.
• 1:00:46
  And I have to care for it completely and totally because
• 1:00:50
  it can't even hold its head up, you know, let alone feed itself.
• 1:00:54
  And I, as a dad, felt a lot of shame and guilt in those early
• 1:00:59
  days because for me, there wasn't that, like, instant sense
• 1:01:05
  of immediate love and connection that I've heard so many other
• 1:01:08
  parents talk about. It was just this supreme feeling
• 1:01:11
  of enormous responsibility. And so I think it's so important
• 1:01:16
  to for people to hear that there are different ways to experience
• 1:01:20
  being a parent. And you know, none of them are
• 1:01:22
  wrong. And I've been.
• 1:01:24
  So I love to hear you say this because I love, I love hearing
• 1:01:27
  about it from, you know, the dad's perspective as well.
• 1:01:30
  I think also, I used to show I've been talking about this
• 1:01:33
  kind of from the beginning because I'm pretty transparent
• 1:01:36
  in most respects. And so I had so many funny
• 1:01:39
  conversations with people when I was a young mom.
• 1:01:41
  And people would say, oh, how old are your kids?
• 1:01:44
  And I would say 03 and six months.
• 1:01:46
  And they would say, oh, those are great ages.
• 1:01:48
  And I would say really, because I'm not finding that, like I'm
• 1:01:51
  not finding that to be the case. Are you sure?
• 1:01:53
  And they always looked shocked and then they always started
• 1:01:56
  laughing. But you know, it's true.
• 1:01:58
  It's, it's like, you know, if your kids are older and you're
• 1:02:01
  thinking back on it, you tend to remember it more fondly than
• 1:02:03
  maybe it actually was. And once I said that every now
• 1:02:07
  and then I'll remember 1 conversation that I had with
• 1:02:10
  another young mom. And so she said, how old are
• 1:02:13
  your kids? And I said three and six.
• 1:02:15
  And she said, oh, mine are about the same age.
• 1:02:17
  You know, how's it going? Don't you love it?
• 1:02:19
  And I said, not really, no, I'm, I'm not loving it actually at
• 1:02:23
  all. And she looked at me for just a
• 1:02:25
  second and then she started crying.
• 1:02:27
  And she said, I don't love it. I don't love it.
• 1:02:30
  I'm hating it. And I said, do you want to talk
• 1:02:31
  about hating it? Because that's OK.
• 1:02:33
  Like it's OK to feel that way. And, and a lot of people do.
• 1:02:37
  And she's like, yeah, I really do want to talk about it.
• 1:02:39
  And so we sat down and had like a 2 hour, you know, coffee
• 1:02:42
  session. And I think she just felt so
• 1:02:45
  relieved to find somebody who wasn't, you know, just saying
• 1:02:48
  what they're supposed to say. Amen.
• 1:02:52
  Yeah, Well put. Well, good.
• 1:02:55
  I'm glad we were able to give a little bit of voice to that here
• 1:02:57
  today. I want to give you a chance to
• 1:03:00
  maybe give a shout out to any particular mentors, maybe books,
• 1:03:04
  other types of learning experiences that have been
• 1:03:07
  helpful for you in your trajectory.
• 1:03:11
  How much longer do you have? Because I'm I'm a bit of a book
• 1:03:14
  person, so I have a lot, I have a lot of books.
• 1:03:18
  I have a lot of books and people that I would mention.
• 1:03:23
  I love all SO. I love reading.
• 1:03:25
  I have two different types of books.
• 1:03:26
  I have books that I consider like cookies, which are, you
• 1:03:30
  know, my like sweet treat adult fiction, you know, fantasy,
• 1:03:35
  romance, comedy, like, you know, just the, they're like dessert,
• 1:03:38
  right? They're the enjoyable to read
• 1:03:39
  books. And then I have the books that I
• 1:03:41
  read that I feel like I'm supposed to read because I'm
• 1:03:43
  supposed to get knowledge from those.
• 1:03:45
  Those are like my broccoli books.
• 1:03:47
  And I try to make sure that I'm balancing out my cookies with my
• 1:03:50
  broccoli so that I'm getting a good enough balance.
• 1:03:54
  Give us a cookie and give. Us a broccoli.
• 1:03:57
  Oh. Cookie Books.
• 1:03:58
  I have been hitting Sarah J. Moss hard, so hard for months
• 1:04:03
  now. I am flying through all of her
• 1:04:05
  book series and I just really love them.
• 1:04:07
  And I, she writes in the fantasy realm, which is new to me.
• 1:04:11
  I didn't I, it's not a genre that I'm that familiar with, but
• 1:04:14
  I'm loving Sarah J. Moss books, really all of the
• 1:04:16
  series. So if you haven't delved into
• 1:04:19
  those, do yourself a favor. They're just escapist and she
• 1:04:23
  does great character development.
• 1:04:24
  Broccoli books. I am reading a new one right now
• 1:04:29
  that I'm almost finished with and I have taken so much from
• 1:04:31
  that book. It's by Allison Fragile and it's
• 1:04:34
  called likable Bad ass. It it basically it basically
• 1:04:38
  she's a PhD psychologist and so it's fuelled with a lot of
• 1:04:42
  really applicable stories, but also science backed research and
• 1:04:46
  it talks about how in order for with people in general, but
• 1:04:49
  women in particular. It's written for women, no
• 1:04:51
  doubt, but but it's applicable to everyone.
• 1:04:55
  To be ultimately successful or as successful as you want to be
• 1:04:58
  in your career, you really have to find this blend of being seen
• 1:05:02
  by people as both competent and likable.
• 1:05:05
  And she calls it out like, is that a fair expectation?
• 1:05:08
  Should you have to be likable in addition to competent?
• 1:05:10
  No, you shouldn't have to be. But these are the rules of the
• 1:05:13
  game. And you have to figure out how
• 1:05:15
  to navigate the game according to the rules that exist today.
• 1:05:18
  Because if you wait for the rules to change, you'll be done
• 1:05:22
  with the workforce by the time you, you know, you'll never see
• 1:05:25
  the benefit of that because the rules will take a very long time
• 1:05:28
  to change. So you can still work on
• 1:05:30
  changing the rules of the game, but you have to navigate them as
• 1:05:33
  they are. So you have to be seen as both
• 1:05:35
  competent and likable. These are the obstacles to women
• 1:05:38
  being seen as both competent and likable.
• 1:05:40
  And these are very applied tactics that you can deploy to
• 1:05:44
  help on either side. If you're seen as highly likable
• 1:05:47
  but not all that competent, this is what you need to do.
• 1:05:50
  If you're seen as highly competent but not all that
• 1:05:52
  likeable, which I would argue is more commonly what I encounter
• 1:05:56
  from women, that this is what you need to do.
• 1:05:59
  So I love that it's very applied and it's very specific.
• 1:06:03
  To women like the is it the the likeability component is more
• 1:06:08
  something that seems to apply more to women like it's easier
• 1:06:12
  for guys to get away with being competent, but not likeable we
• 1:06:16
  have noticed. Yeah, the the ladies in our I'll
• 1:06:20
  speak on behalf of our collective.
• 1:06:21
  Yes, we've noticed that the rules do seem to be written a
• 1:06:23
  little differently for us and I hear a lot of frustration from
• 1:06:27
  women about that. And so this book, I think is
• 1:06:29
  just very, you know, poignant in what it does.
• 1:06:32
  There's also again, the tried and true books like Atomic
• 1:06:35
  Habits, Anything, anything, anything built big is, is built
• 1:06:40
  by small incremental steps and just vigilant, you know, habits
• 1:06:44
  that make small incremental improvements.
• 1:06:46
  So I love, I love how that book breaks it down in terms of, you
• 1:06:51
  know, getting results and being very applied.
• 1:06:53
  Those are a couple that are top of mind.
• 1:06:55
  Radical Candor is another favorite.
• 1:06:57
  But you know, I could list, I could list more for you, but
• 1:06:59
  they would be everyone else's favorites too.
• 1:07:01
  Fair enough. I've just got kind of one more
• 1:07:05
  two-part question for you before we go, Heather.
• 1:07:07
  But before we do that, I want to do 2 things.
• 1:07:10
  First of all, everyone listening today, I know that you love
• 1:07:13
  today's content because Heather has been an amazing guest.
• 1:07:16
  So please hit the like, share or subscribe button on your
• 1:07:19
  favorite podcast app so you can continue to hear more wonderful
• 1:07:22
  content like this. Heather, I also want to let
• 1:07:24
  people know the best way to get in touch with you.
• 1:07:27
  What would that be? So I.
• 1:07:30
  Am not a big personality in the social space, and I'm far more
• 1:07:34
  an introvert than most people would expect, so if people do
• 1:07:37
  want to find me, they can find me on LinkedIn.
• 1:07:40
  Fair enough. We'll include that.
• 1:07:41
  Link in the show notes. So last question I have for you,
• 1:07:44
  I kind of want you to wear both the industry hat as well as the
• 1:07:47
  Alamo hat. And I'm curious to hear what you
• 1:07:51
  see being kind of the big changes coming in the next
• 1:07:54
  couple of years. For the industry.
• 1:07:58
  For the industry as. Well, As for Alamo, if you want
• 1:08:01
  to talk about maybe new directions that you're taking,
• 1:08:05
  new projects, new locations and then also, yeah, from an
• 1:08:08
  industry perspective, yeah, from.
• 1:08:11
  From an Alamo specific perspective, I think that we're
• 1:08:14
  going to continue to diversify our content and we're going to
• 1:08:17
  continue to grow in a way that is is scalable and executable.
• 1:08:24
  So, you know, small amounts of locations at a time similar to
• 1:08:29
  these two locations in California and just continuing
• 1:08:32
  to try to keep the best of our guest experience.
• 1:08:36
  All of the things that guests love about Alamo, making sure
• 1:08:40
  that we're bringing those front and center to the brand in every
• 1:08:43
  guest interaction that we have. So just strengthening our
• 1:08:46
  foundation and making sure that we don't lose sight of the
• 1:08:49
  things that are really important amidst larger industry trends
• 1:08:54
  for the industry itself in the next handful of years.
• 1:08:57
  I would say, if I had to predict, I would say that people
• 1:09:00
  are going to lean increasingly heavily into premium large
• 1:09:04
  formats and differentiated experiences.
• 1:09:07
  So we had COVID and it essentially shut down the
• 1:09:10
  industry for a period of time. And we were used to being a, you
• 1:09:14
  know, 11, almost $12 billion box office industry for a number of
• 1:09:20
  years. And then we went down to, you
• 1:09:23
  know, 2 million or $2 billion for COVID and then six and seven
• 1:09:27
  and eight. And we've not yet gotten to 9.
• 1:09:30
  And so we're not yet even close to being back to where we were
• 1:09:35
  pre COVID. And I think what that's making
• 1:09:38
  every exhibitor do is really look at the value proposition
• 1:09:41
  that they're offering and and marry that up with what
• 1:09:44
  consumers are seeking and expecting today.
• 1:09:47
  Again, decreasing share of time and decreasing amount of
• 1:09:51
  discretionary spending means that you have to increase the
• 1:09:55
  value proposition that you're providing to consumers.
• 1:09:57
  So that either means keeping your ticket price the same and
• 1:10:00
  enhancing the experience or finding ways to to change your
• 1:10:03
  ticket price. And I think we'll see both of
• 1:10:04
  those trends playing out. So things like enhancing the
• 1:10:07
  experience, that's things like Screen XD, Box 4, DX, I don't
• 1:10:13
  know what any of those words. Mean it's everything.
• 1:10:16
  Like you sit in the seats and you're watching the movie and
• 1:10:19
  the seats move. Or, you know, a gust of wind
• 1:10:22
  blows on screen and twister and you get wind blown in your hair
• 1:10:26
  or water sprays at you, right? Experiential things that feel
• 1:10:31
  increasingly different than a traditional cinema experience.
• 1:10:35
  And Screen X is an offering where instead of having one
• 1:10:38
  movie screen in front of you, you actually have one screen in
• 1:10:40
  front and two screens on the sides.
• 1:10:42
  And periodically through the film content will be playing on
• 1:10:45
  all of those screens. So it's more immersive than, you
• 1:10:48
  know, a standard screen image. Different exhibitors are really
• 1:10:52
  leaning in, I'm seeing to those different types of formats
• 1:10:55
  because they want to create more value for the consumer.
• 1:11:00
  They they want to give people a reason to come out to the
• 1:11:02
  theater and to pay for parking and get the babysitter and pay
• 1:11:06
  the ticket price, right. You need to make it worth their
• 1:11:08
  time and worth their money. So those premium formats also
• 1:11:13
  enhancing with movie parties. You know, Alamo's really big on
• 1:11:16
  content that we play on screen, but we have a movie party host
• 1:11:19
  and we have props and we make it very interactive.
• 1:11:21
  So it feels like you're doing something more than just going
• 1:11:25
  to a standard cinema experience. So those are all enhancements.
• 1:11:29
  And then I would also say I'm seeing a lot of playing with
• 1:11:32
  ticket pricing right now, which I think is actually a very good
• 1:11:35
  thing because again, you have different segments of consumers
• 1:11:38
  and some are willing to pay the prevailing ticket price because
• 1:11:42
  they want to see the newest film on opening weekend, Friday,
• 1:11:45
  Saturday. But then you have other segments
• 1:11:47
  that do want to see the film. They do want to see it in
• 1:11:49
  cinema, but they can't necessarily afford to pay A10 or
• 1:11:52
  A12 or a $15 ticket, depending on the size of their family and
• 1:11:55
  depending on a number of other factors.
• 1:11:57
  And so you're seeing exhibitors do things like leaning into
• 1:12:00
  their Tuesday discount day pricing or subscription programs
• 1:12:04
  where you can pay a monthly fee and then go see a certain number
• 1:12:07
  of movies. I think that you're going to see
• 1:12:09
  exhibitors continue to try to pull those either experiential
• 1:12:13
  or pricing levers to figure out how to bring new segments of
• 1:12:17
  consumers into cinema and or to get existing cinema goers to
• 1:12:22
  come more frequently. Nice.
• 1:12:25
  Heather, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing
• 1:12:27
  both your time and your story with us today.
• 1:12:29
  I really appreciate it. It was my pleasure.
• 1:12:31
  Thank you. For the invitation, I've enjoyed
• 1:12:33
  it, folks. That's.
• 1:12:34
  A wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 1:12:37
  Thanks for learning with us today.