Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has unveiled its opening day at The Village at San Antonio Center in Mountain View, ahead of a summer movie season that is shaping up to be filled with new releases.
The luxury movie chain plans to open its doors to the public on Monday, June 16.
“Good food, good beer, good film all in the same place. That’s what we are,” said John Smith, the company’s West Coast marketing director.
Last year, the movie chain took over two ShowPlace Icon theater sites after they abruptly closed in Mountain View and at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose.
The Valley Fair multiplex is opening this summer as well, but Smith did not provide a set date for it.
“We were lucky to step into two locations here in Silicon Valley that will present not just our largest Alamo Drafthouses ever, but our largest screens ever,” Smith said.
At nearly 51,000 square feet, the Mountain View multiplex has 10 auditoriums that includes three “Big Show” rooms with massive screens and state-of-the-art projection and audio systems.
“It’s an immersive experience,” said Scott Dunaway, the cinema’s general manager who worked at the Mountain View Icon theater for five years and oversaw its closure in July.
Moviegoers will see a number of changes the moment they enter the multiplex, Dunaway said. A concierge service will greet people at the entrance and help them check in, purchase tickets and order food and drinks.
The previous Icon theater kiosk system did not work well, according to Dunaway. It had a terrible user interface and has been replaced with real people, he said.
The company plans to hire 300 employees across both locations.
As part of the Alamo Drafthouse experience, “guest attendants” will be available during movies, delivering food and drinks directly to people’s seats. Each seat has a call button on it to alert staff of a pending order. Dunaway described the process as discreet and not disruptive to the movie experience.
Moviegoers also will have a wide selection of beverages to choose from with 24 draft beers on tap, twice as many as what Icon theater offered. The food menu has been expanded too, with freshly prepared foods coming straight from the kitchen. “It’s not frozen pizza,” Dunaway said.
The separate balcony seating for people 21 years and older has been axed, however. It was not an efficient use of space, especially during children’s movies, Dunaway said.
Another big upgrade is the recliner seats, which have all been replaced. The Icon theater opened fairly recently, back in 2018. But the seats wore out during the pandemic because of the frequent use of chemical sprays. It degraded the leather, Dunaway said.
“People didn’t complain about the price of tickets but they did complain about the seats,” he laughed.
The rehab to the multiplex is mostly complete, although there will be some final touches added after the theater opens on June 16. “You’re going to notice aesthetic differences between right now and three or four months from now evolving in real time,” Smith said.
Mountain View resident Marion Gill expressed a lot of excitement about the theater’s imminent opening. Gill had noticed some people milling around the building Thursday afternoon and stopped to inquire about the activity.
“It makes it a real neighborhood,” Gill said, noting that she often walks to San Antonio Center from her apartment across the street. “It has grocery stores, coffee, restaurants and now a movie theater. The place is filling up.”
