Alamo Drafthouse Opening New D.C. Area, Aviation Themed Theater This Month
19.10.2022 - 23:01
/ deadline.com
Alamo Drafthouse Crystal City, the chain’s newest location and its fourth in the Washington, DC metro area, will open Oct. 24 as the exhibitor continues to roll out sites.
This latest entrant is a 49,000-square foot, 915-seat, aviation themed theater at 1660 Crystal Drive in Arlington, Va., joining the Alamo Drafthouse Bryant Street in D.C. proper, and the Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun and Alamo Drafthouse Woodbridge locations in Northern Virginia.
Crystal City features the company’s premium large format standard called The Big Show (a 100% recliner, 237-seat auditorium with 4K laser projection system and Dolby Atmos audio).
Every Alamo cinema has a motif. In July, the chain opened a kung-fu themed location in Staten Island, its fourth in NYC. The Flying Guillotine, a collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA, is part bar and part martial arts museum.
Crystal City, close to the historic Washington National Airport, incorporates aviation and aviation-movie design elements throughout the lobby and hallways, including a horde of snakes attacking a plane at the entrance to The Big Show. A blue-and-white second-floor bar, Departures, with oval bar and round booths, is meant to evoke the feeling of a vintage lounge found within an airport gate. “An outdoor patio provides views up and down Crystal Drive with the sights and sounds of nearby airplanes departing in the distance,” the company said.
Other new Alamo theaters are planned for Boston, Chicago and St. Louis.
As exhibition recovers post-Covid — a revival that’s been especially slow for arthouses — there’s been a push to make theater-going an experience beyond just the movies. Alamo theaters, which run a mix of first-run films, both wide release and traditional