A warning to all chatty power brokers/movie fans: Alamo Drafthouse plays no favorites and does no political favors.
Greg Abbott, the arch-conservative Republican nominee for governor in Texas, recently released a campaign ad that emphasizes his seeming inability to speak into the camera unless he’s sitting in a movie theater. This did not sit well with the Drafthouse, which has a famously strict ban on talking in its theaters, prompting the 18-house chain to release a very public threat to the man who not only wants you to talk in theaters, but also text “Freedom” to his campaign while watching a film.
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“The only thing worse than talking in a theater is a politician talking in a theater telling you to text,” Alamo Drafthouse founder and CEO Tim League scolded in a statement. “This isn’t about where you sit on the political debate, it’s about when you sit in a movie theater. At the Alamo Drafthouse, we believe in two things: freedom and quiet cinemas.”
Yeah, well, just know that Abbott is not easily intimidated. He’s so conservative that he’s asking people to text “Freedom” to his campaign in order to be drafted into an endless barrage of political alerts.