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Your early ticket to the new Alamo Drafthouse theater
December 11, 2015
Weren’t lucky enough to get a ticket to see the new Star Wars movie when the Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission opens next week? There’s a way to get into the theater even earlier.
The Alamo Drafthouse is having a soft opening starting tomorrow, showing movies including Home Alone, Straight Outta Compton and Love Actually a couple of times a day until its grand opening on Dec. 17. Check out what’s showing and order tickets here. Tickets are selling out fast but I’m told additional showtimes will be added throughout the week.
Sneak preview: Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission
September 2, 2015
Not far from where the entrance to Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission will be, “drink on champagne lover” is written on a wall. It’s one of several spray-paint souvenirs from a rave that happened there in 2006. There’s a lot of exposed drywall, sections of plaster missing and so much scaffolding you’d think you were in SoMa.
And yet the soon-to-be resurrected movie house still stuns.
Nearing the home stretch of $10 million in renovations, the theater is expected to open this fall, possibly in November. On Friday, Capp Street Crap got glimpse of the theater’s soon-to-be grand interior.
Far more massive than it appears from the street, 2550 Mission St. ceased operations as a movie theater more than 20 years ago. It was empty when the Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse bought it in 2012, but it had had a long run as a furniture store. “Bunk Beds Futons” is still written in huge block letters, along with a couple of up arrows, below a landing and an elegant gold bannister that survived those retail years intact.
Many other old elements also remain: The theater’s 1930s mirrors were recently unearthed, vintage light fixtures now hang from the ceilings, and crews have begun to painstakingly repaint and restore its intricate ceilings and décor. Mike Keegan, the theater’s creative manager, said architectural historians have even been consulted for the project, and the goal is to match the former movie palace’s paint “as much as we can.”
The improvements aren’t just indoors. The New Mission’s 70-foot-tall sign and marquee have already been restored. The letters will soon glow green with illuminated yellow accents on a red background.
Declared a historic landmark by the city in 2004, the cinema – or at least the front portion of the building – dates back more than 100 years. A 2014 planning department document says that it was built in 1910 and renovated in 1916 by noted San Francisco architects the Reid Brothers, who added the theater’s three-story main auditorium along Bartlett Street along with “Neo-Classical Revival details.” Another renowned architect, Timothy Pflueger, is responsible for the balcony and the mezzanine and renovated the Mission Street façade in the Art Deco style in 1932.
The lobby/entrance of the theater [Photo by Jacob Zuckerman, courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse]
While a lot of the renovations will pay homage to the theater’s past, plenty have been planned with the modern moviegoer in mind. Along a wall that still has holes from the old projection booth, crews will build a bar called Bear vs. Bull, open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., movie ticket not required. A menu of bar snacks is also being crafted, Keegan said.
Once a massive 2,000-seat theater, the reborn New Mission will now have five smaller screens. The biggest theater will hold 320, another will have 90 seats, and there will be three micro-theaters, capacity 34, 34 and 42. Patrons will watch preshows, instead of advertisements, film shorts produced by an Alamo Drafthouse team that relate to the movies being screened.
Before the movies start, servers will walk around to answer questions about the food and drink menu, and patrons will be able to place orders from their seats. Staff will also check to ensure people aren’t on their cell phones. One infraction will get you a warning, a second gets you kicked out without a refund.
“We’re really serious, serious about the movie-going experience,” said Keegan, who got to witness the benefits of the strict cellphone policy firsthand at the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin. “You get so used to how nice it is.”
(If you want to know how serious the theater is about its no-phone policy, check out this hilarious voicemail message from an ousted patron at its Austin location. Language NSFW)
When Alamo Drafthouse first bought the building in 2012, the hope was to have the theater open in 2014. That timeline was pushed back due to what Keegan describes as “the slow grind of a project this size,” and the fact there were a lot of requirements to meet given the building’s historic status.
The ranks of the construction crews seem to grow the further along the project gets, Keegan said, although he admits there’s still much work to be done before the theater’s re-opening.
“Everyone is pretty confident though,” he said.
Want to see more of the theater construction? Check out the slideshow below. Photos by Mike Keegan and Jacob Zuckerman.
Remember [how] the Alamo [Drafthouse] is opening?
October 19, 2015
It’s so close! We’ve now got an opening date for the Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission. In a post this morning, the company announced its new theater at 2550 Mission Street will open its doors Dec. 17, showing a sneak preview of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In addition to single tickets, the theater is offering package options that come with memorabilia from the movie.
Hoping to get into the theater on that first day? Good luck. Presumably due to high demand, Alamo Drafthouse’s server crashed tonight. As of writing this, they were still trying to get it back online.
Our entire team is hard at work to correct the website issues and sell you those Star Wars tickets ASAP!
— Alamo San Francisco (@DrafthouseSF) October 20, 2015
[Photo via Alamo Drafthouse San Francisco’s Facebook Page]
Small fire at New Mission theater quickly extinguished
January 28, 2016
Had to leave the Anomalisa showing. Fire at the New Mission. Smelling smoke but not much to see. pic.twitter.com/vOj6lvSMyk
— Steven Young (@fivepockets) January 28, 2016
A fire broke out this afternoon at the barely one-month-old Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission but was brought under control within minutes, authorities reported.
According to social media posts by the San Francisco Fire Department, the one-alarm fire broke out at the 2550 Mission St. theater sometime before 3:40 p.m. and was under control within minutes. The fire department noted on Twitter that a heating unit on the roof that had been smoldering was put out and patrons were given the OK to return to the theater just after 4 p.m.
We’re good! There was a small electrical issue on the roof – thanks to @sfgov and @SFFFLocal798 for the swift response! — Alamo San Francisco (@DrafthouseSF) January 29, 2016
‘Cinema school’ could bring movie making to Mission Street
January 15, 2016
Less than a month after the new Alamo Drafthouse movie house opened, plans are getting underway to bring another old Mission Street theater back from retirement.
In recent weeks, signs have been hung across the timeworn marquee of the former Tower theater at 2465 Mission St., declaring it the future home of Mission Cinema School. The project aims to create a state-of-the-art movie production facility that will ultimately be donated to City College of San Francisco.
Rodrigo Santos, structural engineer for the project – and for the Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission as well – served on City College of San Francisco’s Board of Trustees. A principal at the Mission-based structural engineering firm Santos & Urrutia, Santos is self-described movie buff whose mother was a film critic in Mexico City.
Santos also has another motivation for the project — his love for the city.
“San Francisco has been a very generous city to me,” he said. “At some point you have to start thinking about your legacy. I’m 57 years old. I might as well start now.”
Plans call for increasing the height of the 1911 building to six stories and digging out basement space. The goal is to raise $14 million, according to project director Todd David, who said it could take 12 to 18 months just to get through the approval process.
In the meantime, David, Santos and architect Leonardo Zylberberg have been meeting with various community groups to fill them in and answer questions.
“We want feedback and want this to be a really collaborative effort,” said Todd, a community activist who led the effort to turn a 24th Street lot into Noe Valley Town Square.
The inside of the Tower Theater last fall. Photo by Catherine McMillan.
In addition to a new theater, plans for the school include a coffee shop on the ground floor, with mixing, editing and other production space, classrooms, computer labs, and a cafeteria upstairs. A sound stage, green room, and storage space will occupy the school’s basement, which will require significant excavation.
Currently, the 400-plus students in City College’s cinema department use space at the main Ocean Avenue campus, which Santos called “totally inadequate.”
Not only will they have better digs, but students will get to screen their films on Mission Street.
“Some of the films will be shown on the marquee,” Santos said. “Really cool stuff.”
If approved, the Tower would be the third Mission Street theater brought back as an arts space in recent years. Art and technology theater Gray Area opened in the former Grand Theater space near 23rd Street in 2014.
David said given all that’s been going on, the timing couldn’t be more appropriate.
“It just feels like a great fit for what’s happening there,” he said.
Want to learn more about the Mission Cinema School project? Check out the architectural drawings below.
CCSF-CINEMA-SCHOOL-SD-1416How the Roxie got her moxie back
October 24, 2015
With recent upgrades that include a makeover and, now, new management, the Roxie Theater is getting back in fighting shape.
Over the past year, the nonprofit has purchased a state-of-the art projector, acquired a license to sell beer, and spent a week sprucing up its theaters with everything from a deep clean to new paint. Interim Executive Director Dave Cowen was appointed earlier this month and the theater’s new creative director, Sam Fragoso, started work Monday.
The goal, according to Tracy Wheeler, president of the 16th Street theater’s board of directors, is to “re-establish the Roxie as a premier American art house.” The longest running theater in San Francisco, which faced a crisis over its lease earlier this year that could have lead to its closure, the Roxie is also concentrating more on ongoing fundraising than it had in the past, Wheeler said.
“In a nutshell, reinvention with a huge nod to the past audacity and energy,” Wheeler wrote in a recent email.
Helping to lead that effort will be Cowen, a long-time information technology professional and movie buff, and Fragoso, a freelance journalist who founded Movie Mezzanine, an online publication devoted to covering movies.
Formerly with the Kapor Center for Social Impact, Cowen has been part of the SF Cult and Psychotronic Film Society, bringing more obscure films to the city. He’s also done a lot of work supporting nonprofits, Wheeler said. Fragoso, whose film criticism and reporting has appeared in numerous publications including Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and Vice, is a member of both the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and Online Film Critics Society. He’s also just 21.
“We’re taking a chance on both of them, which I love, but they’re both just film fanatics,” Wheeler said.
With Cowen on board, former Executive Director Isabel Fondevila will be overseeing the theater’s expansion into Spanish-language films and cultivating relationships with a wider range of film festivals. Wheeler said she’d love to see the Roxie give Spanish-language movies the same kind of treatment it has other films, a Dolores del Río film festival, perhaps.
Wheeler said to expect programs that are “smart, audacious and inviting” and a lot more guest appearances. Both Cowen and Fragoso are very interested in the making of the movies, including sound and production design, she added.
Sam Fragoso (left) and Dave Cowen. Photo courtesy of the Roxie Theater.
“We’re hoping we can draw on the people we have in the Bay Area, people who are behind the scenes,” she said. “The Bay Area is phenomenally gifted when it comes to [making] films.”
The Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission, which opens Dec. 17, was a huge impetus for getting the changes in place, something Fragoso touched on when his hiring was announced earlier this month.
“Restoring the Roxie’s reputation as one of America’s most innovative independent theaters is a daunting and exhilarating endeavor in and of itself,” he said in a press release. “To do so while The Mission is experiencing a revival as a movie-going destination makes it a truly timely challenge.”
Because the two theaters emphasize different things, Wheeler anticipates more of a friendly one-upmanship rather than a direct competition. Mike Keegan, the Alamo Drafthouse’s creative manager, is a former programmer at the Roxie.
“I think it’s going to be really fun,” Wheeler said.
From a money perspective, the Roxie is increasing its efforts to court new donors and members. This week, the theater began an early promotion to existing members, offering discounted prices to entice them to renew. Soon, it will focus its efforts on gaining new membership and a year-end gift-giving campaign will start in December. There are also plans to recruit more volunteers.
That forward-looking attitude comes after the theater faced huge uncertainty earlier this year. According to an Oct. 6 San Francisco Chronicle article, the Roxie faced a monthly rent increase from $5,552 to $12,000 this spring before an attorney found a loophole that extended the theater’s lease for another three years. Wheeler said it has become clear that the theater can no longer scrape by, rely on another “Save the Roxie” campaign or “resort to old tricks.”
“We really need to make sure we can advance the Roxie as an organization — with the public’s help,” she said.
Once a big player on Mission Street, a clothing store prepares to shut its doors
September 22, 2014
A banner announcing House of Jeans’ closure near the entrance to the store on Mission Street
It announces the store’s closing, but the bright yellow banner hanging in front of House of Jeans could easily be seen as another sign: that Mission Street is shifting from a district of bargain and produce stores catering to Latinos and the working class to a play land for the well-heeled.
A little over three decades ago, the clothing store at 2645 Mission near 22nd Street did such a gangbuster business that owner Norm Anand launched more than a dozen other stores along the street based on that success. Now, as the tony new condo project Vida takes shape and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema prepares to open on the street next year, Anand is down to just three stores and working on shuttering the flagship business due to what he claims are the unscrupulous tactics of his new landlord.
On May 29, Mission 22nd LLC acquired 2639 to 2645 Mission Street, a three-story, 11-unit building, which is also home to a sports store and residential units. As a result, House of Jeans’ rent went from $4,350 to $6,500. Then, a month ago, Anand said he received a 3-day notice to vacate and was told he owed back rent. Anand still has three-and-half years left on his lease and said he owes nothing save for September rent which he is withholding at the advice of his lawyer. He claims the landlord agreed to buy him out if the landlord terminated the lease early, is now reneging on that deal, and that the rent money he supposedly owes is for months before the sale of the building.
“They just unnecessarily want us out,” he said.
Michael Yancey, managing member of Mission 22nd LLC, declined to say what months Anand owed for but that “House of Jeans is substantially in arrears in their contractual rent.
“They are being evicted for not paying the delinquencies on their lease,” he wrote in an email.
Anand provided Capp Street Crap with copy of the first amendment to his lease that he and his son and co-tenant Nitin Anand signed May 1. He said it confirms that Mission 22nd LLC agreed to buy out the remainder of his lease for $50,000 plus two months of base rent should it decide to end the lease early.
“We accepted. We said, ‘we want to get out.’ We never heard anything,” Anand said.
But according to Yancey, the landlord simply negotiated an option to buy out the lease, and whether to do so or not was the landlord’s sole discretion.
“It was not an OFFER to buy them out. Landlord has decided not to exercise their ‘option,’” he wrote.
Yancey said there are no long-term plans for the building but confirmed that buyout offers had been made to residential tenants upstairs. Anand thinks otherwise, noting that architects have been by to take measurements in the store’s basement.
House of Jeans’ owner Norm Anand
In the meantime, Anand said he’s not sure what his next move will be.
Mission 22nd LLC claims he owes $18,000 and is also suing for $5,700 in attorney fees. Anand said he can’t afford to pay his lawyer to fight it in court because he owes on taxes, is dealing with other legal troubles and because sales have dwindled at House of Jeans. These days the store typically brings in only $200 or $300 a day although Ananda said he could probably continue to scrape together rent because business at his other stores is better.
“They have money,” he said, referring to Mission 22nd LLC. “They have big pockets we don’t have.”