Austin Improv

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETIkkMVUBw4[/youtube]

COMING APRIL 2010
3225 Amy Donovan Plaza
Austin, TX 78758

~$65 per person with food and drink.

Eh.

...and why would anyone want to waste their money on this?

Silly Domain. Let me know when you build a min-golf course with giant robots.

hahaha
I think this is funny. It just can't compete with the Drafthouse, especially at those prices.
Are there enough rich people who don't support local businesses in town to make this thing stay alive?

kaci_beeler wrote:hahaha
Are there enough rich people who don't support local businesses in town to make this thing stay alive?

I sure hope not. If so, I will be very very sad.

I dunno, they might be able to get away with it due to the small numbers of seats in the theater, but the idea is still pretty ridiculous.

Can we please stage a silly protest in front of this place? Perhaps partner with one of the local move theater chains that also happens to serve food?

Can we just get GWAR to go there opening night and devour a pizza in full costume?

kbadr wrote:Can we just get GWAR to go there opening night and devour a pizza in full costume?

I like it.

Kareem: WIN!

I think this is about as sustainable as was Pangea, interestingly enough, the bar that took over the old downtown Alamo, and charged stupid amounts of money, and died quickly. I'm not paying that kind of money just to have first-class airplane seats.

Feh.

I think the real idea behind this, or perhaps motivation for you to go, with a date, is that in the non-sensical wealthy-pop-culture set will believe they might actually get laid.

So, so stupid.

ive got bad news for everybody. this is going to work. because you know you can get cheap food anywhere and you can get expensive food anywhere. but both coexist because the people who can afford the expensive food go there so they dont have to deal with poor people and so they can say they went and felt wealthy. and if tickets are $20 that's not much more than your standard multiplex, at like what 12 or 13 dollars. so, i think any place that caters to the "wealthy" or dumb people who want to waste their money, i.e. Americans, will be successful if they run the business well.

This is actually a good thing for those of us who want careers acting or writing in the entertainment industry. Every festival I go to or people I know working in the industry have the same sentiment - it's not a good time to make movies. People arent going to the movie theater as much anymore and the industry is in trouble. Experiments in distribution are happening all over. Sadly a lot are failing (rip local company b side that was doing some really great stuff that might have been slightly ahead of its time). I've heard about this company (or one similiar) and they are just trying to get people to come out to the movies, and in this economy it makes sense to appeal to the wealthy since non wealthy are staying in and renting these days (and even the rental market is complicated with blockbuster likely to file bankrupcy soon). I hope this company is successful (if anything local jobs is good).

i dont think they are at all trying to compete with the alamo drafthouse at all, they are trying to appeal to a different clientele. even if you arent in the industry, it's still great that the rich are getting out their and spending their money.

this anti yuppie mentality amuses me because its not like most of you are bohemians, you just draw a different line.

I'm not sure this will work. The bottom line is that you have competitors in this market who deliver the same goods/services for lesser cost, a flagging economy, not to mention competing with digital distribution to many a home with similar comforts and convenience. Theaters are built on a volume business and limiting the volume you serve to start sounds pretty damn risky.

Where they may score is in the novelty & anticipated first releases - people who don't want to stand in line for hours with the next Harry Potter film. However, even those have an extremely short sustain.

To prognosticate a bit, I anticipate this theater will need to re-open at some point as a regular movie-going venue as they try to recoup the original investment costs.

I hope the local owners find some success, but it sounds like a rough road to me.

There was (is?) a place just like this in Chicago. It worked because the high price made it exclusive. It is sort of the diametric opposite of hooking a projector to a car battery and staging a guerrilla drive in. I admit that I tried it out and yeah - it was nice but not my scene really. Long live the Alamo Drafthouse.