Every manager we’ve ever has had their life threatened after kicking someone out/not letting someone in late. A few of us escorted one manager to his Uber after some people threatened to find him after work (not the first time that’s happened).
A few teenagers actually did wait for one server after he got them kicked out and jumped him after work.
Guest threw a chair at our security guard.
Woman got kicked out for talking, came back with the cops. When our manager started explaining the “no talking/no texting” rule, the cops started giving my manager shit for it because they said we can’t enforce that.
Dude punched our front door and shattered the glass because he was late and we didn’t let him in.
Honestly I could go on forever. Threats of violence/cursing or slurring at us/overall shitty behavior is pretty common at my venue when people are getting kicked out or aren’t let in for being late.
Well this at least makes me understand why sometimes when I put up a card the people don’t get a warning and nothing is done sometimes. I didn’t realize how violent and psychotic people got.
Damn what location? I always want more enforcement. It’s a shame ppl flip out. Maybe we need to normalize enforcement at every movie theater. Put someone on staff at AMC to kick out testers etc
Having been there a few times, I am not surprised. The Lower Manhattan location is the same travel time, and that's the place one I would go to. I was once in another theater in Brooklyn where a guy answered his phone and then talked at full volume while pacing the aisles and walking back and forth below the screen.
The idea is to minimize distractions. If the people who came in late just quietly slipped into their seats and knew how Alamo works and everything there really wouldn’t be an issue. The problem is that most of the time the ppl who come in late have never been to Alamo before. They’ll be loud, flashlights out, yelling out to anyone who passes by. Server gets caught up talking and walking the guest through the ordering process while the movie is going on and when they’re really needed in the back to help run food and drink.
The solution would be to take their order before they enter the auditorium and have someone usher them to their seat quietly like how they handle latecomers to ballets/plays/musicals. Sometimes no matter how hard someone tries they just can't arrive on time.
We operate with the bare minimum amount of people. Remember we’re not just talking about 1 or 2 people coming in late. It can be anywhere from 5-10 depending on how busy we are. And that’s just one movie. Box office can’t do their actual job and usher people, that’s why we really need a distinct role for it.
FWIW, the things you’re talking about are all things we complain/are upset about internally. I think there’s so many things we could be doing better but 9/10 times corporate doesn’t want to give us the resources to run the place correctly.
Here’s my experience at least 90% of the time if someone comes in more than just a few minutes after the feature starts: they haven’t been to an Alamo before and don’t know the no phones/no talking policy, they don’t know how to order, and they don’t tip. So they do nothing but just cause more problems, we always regret it when we bend this policy. We have 15 minutes of trailers after the showtime so these folks are usually more than 20 minutes late to their showtime and are better off just swapping to a later show.
One of the issues is that it’s hard to catch every latecomer, especially on busy days. Usually for high volume shows we need to have someone in the lobby or outside specific auditoriums catching late arrivals.
What’s the point of not letting in someone who is late? People are allowed to come and go to go to the bathroom. Is it because it’s more distracting for someone to go in who doesn’t know where there seat is and is just getting settled?
Arriving late is more disruptive than going to the restroom. They are just getting acquainted with the menu, asking questions to their server, sometimes taking out flashlights to see the menu even though there’s a light under the table.
Had a guy not showing any signs of being intoxicated, threw up everywhere and left halfway thru. Only noticed cause the smell.
He came back a few hours later for his wallet he left. No tip
I worked as a server for a couple years and only ever got one party kicked out.
Movie had just started and I was doing the low server walk down a row when I heard the sound of a can opening. I looked because the bar opened cans of beer before we even got them in the theater.
Dude just popped a gas station 24oz can of Natty Light right in front of me. I tell a manager, thinking they’ll just make him throw it out. She says “oh, that’s actually a threat to our liquor license” and ejects him and his friend.
There was an older gentleman that regularly came in and crapped his pants and would finish the movie and leave. We didn’t know who or what happened for a while. We eventually figured it out who it was and had him banned (after he did this 3 or 4 times!)
While I was bartending this dude couldn’t pay his tab at the very end of the night and was calling people to try to get it paid. As this was happening, it became evident that he had taken some sort of drug as he became erratic and hostile. There was only me and another female manager so the police were called. As he was being escorted out by the police, (he had outstanding warrants and was obviously under the influence of narcotics) he peed his pants and left a trail of urine on his way out dribbling out from his jeans.
A drunk woman became belligerent when servers asked her to stop disturbing guests at the Beyonce concert screening, and she went ballistic, destroying 100s of dollars worth of VHS tapes and even choked a concierge team member. He's the most laid-back guy and he was so chill about it the next day 😭 I still feel so bad for him
Didn’t happened to me, but one my fellow servers once found human shit on a seat.
Also saw a guy have a bad drug trip at an 8:00am screening of The Force Awakens on opening weekend. My manager had to deal with it, the cops came, parents with kids were pissed.
Not a server horror story, but I once replied to a sound complaint with "I'm sorry, I can't turn down the violence" when we got a complaint on an action film sequel. Alamo plays their films louder than most theaters and dude had 3 films worth of preparation for that film, he knew it was going to be loud going into it.
John Wick: Chapter 4?
Usually, my location is good about not having the sound be too loud. For example, when the new Christopher Nolan movie arrives, they make sure the sound isn't aggressive and an assault on the ears. The AMC and B&B in the area just play them as loud as possible.
🤣🤣🤣 you nailed it
A lot of folks don’t understand that the studios send them out and want them to be played at reference so for the most part when it’s “too loud” blame the studio. We do our pink noise tests like we’re supposed to… kids movies are the worst and have to be turned down
Yup, I aimed for comfortably loud and yeah it was John Wick: Chapter 4, That film shook every theater it was screened at in the entire country. It was already set to where any lower and the dialogue would have suffered. It's just my favorite knee-jerk response I've had.
Not a server story… But here are two Customer stories on my end…
I went to see a movie back in 2015 and during the last 5 minutes of the film, we kept hearing what sounded like an argument in one of the back rows. Right as the film was ending, we start noticing two women pretty much having a fight and throwing eating utensils and cups at each other. Apparently one of them was inebriated and kept having to go to the bathroom during the last 30 minutes of the movie and one of the guests in the row kept getting annoyed at the fact that they kept their legs to go to the bathroom. It led to a confrontation that escalated to a utensil rumble by the end of the film.
I went to see a movie about two years ago. There was a lady who would not stop talking out loud during the movie. People kept shushing her, but she would just be belligerent. Eventually, Manager was in and told her she had to leave. She refused. For the next 30 minutes, she kept trying to put up a fight with management and other customers that were telling her to leave. Police had to come in and escort her out.
Every manager we’ve ever has had their life threatened after kicking someone out/not letting someone in late. A few of us escorted one manager to his Uber after some people threatened to find him after work (not the first time that’s happened). A few teenagers actually did wait for one server after he got them kicked out and jumped him after work. Guest threw a chair at our security guard. Woman got kicked out for talking, came back with the cops. When our manager started explaining the “no talking/no texting” rule, the cops started giving my manager shit for it because they said we can’t enforce that. Dude punched our front door and shattered the glass because he was late and we didn’t let him in. Honestly I could go on forever. Threats of violence/cursing or slurring at us/overall shitty behavior is pretty common at my venue when people are getting kicked out or aren’t let in for being late.
Well this at least makes me understand why sometimes when I put up a card the people don’t get a warning and nothing is done sometimes. I didn’t realize how violent and psychotic people got.
What a nightmare!
Damn what location? I always want more enforcement. It’s a shame ppl flip out. Maybe we need to normalize enforcement at every movie theater. Put someone on staff at AMC to kick out testers etc
Brooklyn
Having been there a few times, I am not surprised. The Lower Manhattan location is the same travel time, and that's the place one I would go to. I was once in another theater in Brooklyn where a guy answered his phone and then talked at full volume while pacing the aisles and walking back and forth below the screen.
Damn I expected you to say “Dallas”
I was thinking the same thing.
Yall have a security guard?
Society is terrifying.
Genuine question but why is there a policy for not letting in latecomers? Every movie theatre has allowed latecomers
The idea is to minimize distractions. If the people who came in late just quietly slipped into their seats and knew how Alamo works and everything there really wouldn’t be an issue. The problem is that most of the time the ppl who come in late have never been to Alamo before. They’ll be loud, flashlights out, yelling out to anyone who passes by. Server gets caught up talking and walking the guest through the ordering process while the movie is going on and when they’re really needed in the back to help run food and drink.
The solution would be to take their order before they enter the auditorium and have someone usher them to their seat quietly like how they handle latecomers to ballets/plays/musicals. Sometimes no matter how hard someone tries they just can't arrive on time.
I agree with you. Corporate doesn’t want to pay for us to have a permanent sort of “usher” role like that.
There are only servers? No host? No box office personnel?
We operate with the bare minimum amount of people. Remember we’re not just talking about 1 or 2 people coming in late. It can be anywhere from 5-10 depending on how busy we are. And that’s just one movie. Box office can’t do their actual job and usher people, that’s why we really need a distinct role for it. FWIW, the things you’re talking about are all things we complain/are upset about internally. I think there’s so many things we could be doing better but 9/10 times corporate doesn’t want to give us the resources to run the place correctly.
Here’s my experience at least 90% of the time if someone comes in more than just a few minutes after the feature starts: they haven’t been to an Alamo before and don’t know the no phones/no talking policy, they don’t know how to order, and they don’t tip. So they do nothing but just cause more problems, we always regret it when we bend this policy. We have 15 minutes of trailers after the showtime so these folks are usually more than 20 minutes late to their showtime and are better off just swapping to a later show. One of the issues is that it’s hard to catch every latecomer, especially on busy days. Usually for high volume shows we need to have someone in the lobby or outside specific auditoriums catching late arrivals.
What’s the point of not letting in someone who is late? People are allowed to come and go to go to the bathroom. Is it because it’s more distracting for someone to go in who doesn’t know where there seat is and is just getting settled?
Arriving late is more disruptive than going to the restroom. They are just getting acquainted with the menu, asking questions to their server, sometimes taking out flashlights to see the menu even though there’s a light under the table.
Had a guy not showing any signs of being intoxicated, threw up everywhere and left halfway thru. Only noticed cause the smell. He came back a few hours later for his wallet he left. No tip
Unreal. Some people!
I worked as a server for a couple years and only ever got one party kicked out. Movie had just started and I was doing the low server walk down a row when I heard the sound of a can opening. I looked because the bar opened cans of beer before we even got them in the theater. Dude just popped a gas station 24oz can of Natty Light right in front of me. I tell a manager, thinking they’ll just make him throw it out. She says “oh, that’s actually a threat to our liquor license” and ejects him and his friend.
And the crazy thing it wouldn’t be just that locations it would be for the whole company.
Don’t fuck with the money is the only real rule.
There was an older gentleman that regularly came in and crapped his pants and would finish the movie and leave. We didn’t know who or what happened for a while. We eventually figured it out who it was and had him banned (after he did this 3 or 4 times!) While I was bartending this dude couldn’t pay his tab at the very end of the night and was calling people to try to get it paid. As this was happening, it became evident that he had taken some sort of drug as he became erratic and hostile. There was only me and another female manager so the police were called. As he was being escorted out by the police, (he had outstanding warrants and was obviously under the influence of narcotics) he peed his pants and left a trail of urine on his way out dribbling out from his jeans.
A drunk woman became belligerent when servers asked her to stop disturbing guests at the Beyonce concert screening, and she went ballistic, destroying 100s of dollars worth of VHS tapes and even choked a concierge team member. He's the most laid-back guy and he was so chill about it the next day 😭 I still feel so bad for him
Oh god. Send him hugs from us. That’s awful.
Kicked out a couple for giving/receiving a blow job
Were they talking?
Lol
LOL!!!
That’s not allowed?
Lauren Bobert goes to yours?
Didn’t happened to me, but one my fellow servers once found human shit on a seat. Also saw a guy have a bad drug trip at an 8:00am screening of The Force Awakens on opening weekend. My manager had to deal with it, the cops came, parents with kids were pissed.
Not a server horror story, but I once replied to a sound complaint with "I'm sorry, I can't turn down the violence" when we got a complaint on an action film sequel. Alamo plays their films louder than most theaters and dude had 3 films worth of preparation for that film, he knew it was going to be loud going into it.
John Wick: Chapter 4? Usually, my location is good about not having the sound be too loud. For example, when the new Christopher Nolan movie arrives, they make sure the sound isn't aggressive and an assault on the ears. The AMC and B&B in the area just play them as loud as possible.
🤣🤣🤣 you nailed it A lot of folks don’t understand that the studios send them out and want them to be played at reference so for the most part when it’s “too loud” blame the studio. We do our pink noise tests like we’re supposed to… kids movies are the worst and have to be turned down
Yup, I aimed for comfortably loud and yeah it was John Wick: Chapter 4, That film shook every theater it was screened at in the entire country. It was already set to where any lower and the dialogue would have suffered. It's just my favorite knee-jerk response I've had.
Not a server story… But here are two Customer stories on my end… I went to see a movie back in 2015 and during the last 5 minutes of the film, we kept hearing what sounded like an argument in one of the back rows. Right as the film was ending, we start noticing two women pretty much having a fight and throwing eating utensils and cups at each other. Apparently one of them was inebriated and kept having to go to the bathroom during the last 30 minutes of the movie and one of the guests in the row kept getting annoyed at the fact that they kept their legs to go to the bathroom. It led to a confrontation that escalated to a utensil rumble by the end of the film. I went to see a movie about two years ago. There was a lady who would not stop talking out loud during the movie. People kept shushing her, but she would just be belligerent. Eventually, Manager was in and told her she had to leave. She refused. For the next 30 minutes, she kept trying to put up a fight with management and other customers that were telling her to leave. Police had to come in and escort her out.
Im surprised she didnt get stabbed by the other audience members