Alamo’s Movie Theater Subscription Is a Cool Gift for Movie Buffs

The Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass is the gold standard for movie theater subscription services, even if it’s also one of the more expensive options currently available for frequent movie watching. While it doesn’t have as many locations in the US as rivals AMC and Regal, every Alamo Drafthouse theater I’ve visited in New York, Virginia and California feels like it’s specially built for diehard movie fans, with customer service standards to match. Even with pricing that ranges from $17 to $30 a month, depending on your region, plus convenience fees, you can generally come out ahead of buying tickets a la carte with two visits or more per month. 

Why it’s a great gift: Alamo Drafthouse locations are a bit more complex than your standard movie theater. They offer a full bar, gift shop and, in some locations, home movie rentals alongside theatrical showings that mix new releases with curated classics. Over the past summer, I used the Season Pass to see new releases like Nope and Barbarian while also using it to see 1982’s The Thing for the first time (and oh my gosh, The Thing was gross).

The Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass lets you watch up to one movie per day, every day if you want, but each booking also comes with a convenience fee of roughly $1.79 to $1.89. The convenience fee is slightly higher for specialty showings like a 70mm projection or the occasional 3D film. It still scales well for a frequent movie watcher: Attending the Lower Manhattan location for 31 days straight would equal $88.58 when factoring in the $30 monthly fee and the $1.89 convenience fee per showing. This extreme example divides out to roughly $2.85 per movie. A more casual two visits per month to the same location comes out to $16.88 per showing, which is still a discount off the $19 per ticket cost without the subscription.

But my favorite thing about Alamo Drafthouse — and it’s especially helpful in more rowdy locations like in New York — is that the staff helps you when your theater is being interrupted by a talkative person or someone who is texting on their phone during the show. Before every screening, an often hilarious montage plays that lets every theatergoer know that they can use a notecard at each seat to report rude behavior in the theater. 

I’ve totally used this, and through it a staff member will first issue a warning to the perpetrator, which can escalate up to throwing them out of the theater. For this tool alone, it’s hard for me to even consider going to other movie theaters where reporting an issue typically involves leaving the movie to track someone down.

The same note system is also used to order food and drinks, and Alamo Drafthouse will often create themed menu items based on movies that are playing. The food is a step above most movie theater snacks, but I usually just sneak in my own snacks because it’s quite expensive (in New York, roughly $18 for a cheeseburger).

Alamo also gets major bonus points for its preshow, which for certain movies are specially made like a DVD movie extra. For instance, Alamo put together a recap of the entire Scream movie series that played before this year’s Scream film.

What you’ll pay: You can’t directly gift the Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass subscription, but you could either give someone a reloadable prepaid card or instead get an Alamo Drafthouse Gift Card for use towards food and drinks at the theater. Most people will likely fall into either the $20-per-month or $30-per-month version of the service, depending on their city. The cheapest option ($17 per month) only applies to Alamo’s Texas locations in El Paso and Lubbock.

If you like the idea of the Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass but there aren’t any Drafthouse locations near you, AMC’s A-List and Regal’s Unlimited service are alternatives for frequent moviegoers. A new version of MoviePass is also in the works, currently in beta as it ramps back up under a new credit-based system that could be more sustainable than the original $10 per month unlimited model that flamed out in 2019 under previous ownership.