AUSTIN, Texas – The Alamo Drafthouse is introducing changes coming soon to a theater near you. 

The company is set to start requiring people to scan a QR code to order food or drink. The days of pen-and-paper are over at Alamo.

The backstory:

“It’s complicated for the waiter to go back and forth between the location and the food service area, and so you have to push a button otherwise, and then there’s like a wave them down in the middle of a movie, which would be distracting,” said Walter Stroup.

​Instead of pressing the call button and having a waiter come to your seat to write down your order, the movie theater is going mobile.

“This is cynical, but I don’t trust people just to order something and then get off the phone again,” said Kevin Eby.

The online system uses a custom-built dark screen in an effort to minimize distractions.

“I mean, if people are loudly blasting music, that’s a different thing, but they’re using the app to quietly get their order and mosey about their business, that is like a different thing,” said Stroup.

It will allow guests to browse the full menu, place orders before and during the film, request service, and pay the bill. Other dine-in theaters use a similar model. However, the Alamo Drafthouse is known for its no-phone policy. It is the reason many movie-goers prefer to go there.

“That’s honestly the reason why we come so much, because they’re like pretty strict about it,” said Eby. “Some say it’s overly strict, but I say we’ve gotten ourselves to this point of needing to be told not to be on our phones in a movie theater.”

The other side:

There is an online petition with nearly 2,000 signatures that calls for the theater to return to analog. 

In the ‘Articles of Grievance’ portion, it states in part, “One minute I’m ordering a Dr. Pepper, and the next, I’ve accidentally seen a terrifying NextDoor notification about a porch poacher. The theater is supposed to be an escape, not an extension of my neighborhood watch.”

The move to mobile starts in February at locations nationwide. The company stated that it is still preserving the strict no-talking, no-texting policy.