https://grandviewtheater.com/home

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that features a full bar, deep & varied tap list and serves some food that does great business. They focus largely on new releases but are able to mix in a decent amount of the specialty stuff, too. To your point, it is located in an upscale and fairly progressive neighborhood.

to support independent businesses versus those who have sold to PE. This even goes as far as local plumbers, HVAC, etc, as those fucking vampires have started to infiltrate that space in recent years.

Of course, I say this as someone whose employer is in the final stages of selling out to a company owned by private equity and whose livelihood has been hanging in the balance for many months.

Michelin star. Directors coming in to talk. $400 a head per night type stuff. Feels like at that point you're pretty far from the spirit of what you're going for.

Swanky co-working a la guild row could maybe swing it I guess. Point being a normal food and bev model is nigh unworkable as is so adding more degrees of difficulty would probably kill it.

One other model that I guess could work would be to by a lecture hall building from a defunct college or something

that could also double as an event space or performance venue. I guess what I'm saying is that you couldn't just do movies and have that be your main business model.

It couldn't be a standalone structure. It would have to be a loss-leader amenity within a multi-use building, probably luxury rental or condos. Great for empty nesters and affluent midlifers without children. The developer would have to realize that the thing would never make money but was instead part of the ongoing marketing of the property. Definitely a play for a motivated family office rather than a traditional REIT or dev shop.

I've typed "how to build an independent movie house" into google search and chatGPT more than once. There is a niche for it but it's got to be in a perfect sweet spot location with a natural audience living nearby.

There's an admixture of low real estate basis, nostalgia, technology lock-in, and timing that likely can't be replicated anymore. Like the salons of revolutionary Paris or something

I had only ever seen the Bond classics on television, usually as an ABC movie of the week ("Bonnnnd is Baaaack!") with ads and edits, and while fun to watch they always seemed a little corny and dated. But seeing From Russia With Love and Goldfinger on the big Music Box screen with a devoted crowd was a blast. Whole crowd singing along with Bassey. And Connery in his prime was riveting.

lobby of the Music Box once. We went to a screening of THE ROOM and we were totally unprepared for the raucousness of the crowd. We took frequent breaks walking around the lobby and at one point we were just out there with Sestero and Wiseau.

Sestero seemed like a totally good and normal dude (I kind of recall talking about Indiana Hoosier basketball with him but may be misremembering, this was at least 15 years ago). He was in the ennui-laden space of being sick of being the butt of the ironic enjoyment of the film but not so sick that he was ready to get off the gravy train (such as it was)

Wiseau was just totally bizarre. Not at all engaging, kept his sunglasses on and responded to stimuli in the oddest ways. He sort of gave the impression of being addled but really moreso it was like some benign version of the T-600

I was a regular at the Music Box in my Chicago years, but that place is a unicorn. There is nothing like it, even in Los Angeles.

It's part of a small family-owned chain, Classic Cinemas, in the Chicago area that owns most of the old "downtown" movie palaces in the suburbs - Elmhurst, LaGrange, etc.

I likely disagree with the politics of the owners.... but they employ people with special needs and everyone is always friendly, etc.

With the recent upgrades, they have a couple rooms with good projection and comfy seats.

When I really want something special, I'll go to The Music Box.

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I enjoyed the occasional trip to the one in Wrigleyville. As the article points out, so stupid to famously tout your anti-phone policy and then suddenly require it. I'll stick to going to our local place, an old semi-restored theater.

It was under construction and I haven’t been back.

r/enshittification on Reddit is an encyclopedic collection of corporate decisions to short change consumers. Threads document the large volume of businesses taken over by private equity, and the subsequent degradation Customer Service and Hospitality at those businesses.

Fascinating and depressing. Faux cacao from Hersheys, any takers? How about AMC Theaters advertising "dine-in at your seat" movies but switching to kiosk in the lobby ordering and self-pickup of your dinner at a takeout window, also in the lobby?

Whenever I read something like that, I know the experience just got shittier.

I've never been to an Alamo, but I'm going to assume the change has been similar to what LuckyStrike/Bowlmor does for bowling alleys. Also, big shout-out to our local "Dine-in" AMC theater which now makes you order food at a touchscreen in the lobby and pick it up at a window yourself. They still get to charge the inflated prices though.

We don't have an Alamo near us, but I know it was an exceptional moviegoing experience before these latest changes.

Venerable NY film critic David Ehrlich went on an extended (and enjoyable) rant called "The Absolute Hell of Watching a Movie at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2026".

https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/alamo-drafthouse-sucks-now-1235188253/

The situation appears to have degraded even further after Sony Pictures acquired the entire business in the summer of 2024 (thanks for nothing, Paramount Decrees!), a move that precipitated mass layoffs across the board despite healthy annual profits.

Surprisingly, firing a slew of hard-working people in order to flatter the bottom line didn’t make for a happier workplace — or for more equitable business practices (a trio of strikes popped off in February of 2025, two of which lasted for 58 days). What it did, and perhaps had always been intended to do, was to set the stage for one of the most idiotic, nonsensical, brand-nuking heel-turns in the long and sordid history of late capitalism.

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Like an evil blight spreading across the land from the spires of Mordor, Alamo’s new phone-based service model began to roll out in February as part of a hilariously misguided effort to “reduce distractions and, in the long term, make the experience even better.” Or maybe I’m looking at it from the wrong POV, and the Drafthouse’s initiative is part of a ruthlessly calculated effort to reduce distractions and make the experience even better for them (by “distractions” they mean “employees,” and by “make the experience better” they mean “lol go fuck yourselves”).

The chain’s website goes on to claim that “Putting ordering control directly in our guests’ hands allows us to move faster and more efficiently, creating a smoother, more responsive experience without added distraction.” Based on my limited experience with this new system, however, pivoting to QR codes will only allow the Drafthouse to move faster and more efficiently into going out of business forever.