In a quick turnaround, Alamo Drafthouse has revamped the movie theater at Westfield Valley Fair, transforming it into a Kaiju and Godzilla-themed theater for movie lovers. Alamo stepped up last July, when the previous theater owners, ShowPlace Icon, suddenly closed with little to no warning.
“I think our team came in pretty early on last summer, when the space became available, started working with the Valley Fair team and with the city and everyone involved to try to escalate this and get it open by this summer, because we know there’d be such a an awesome run of movies that we wanted to be open in time for,” said John Smith, marketing director for West Coast Alamo.
Smith admits there are finishing touches that still need to be done, but the theaters are open for business and in time to show a preview of the newest “Superman” as its grand opening showing on July 9.
The packed grand opening featured local business leaders, members of the local media and the entire Santa Clara City Council.
“Kicking things off with a new Superman film and a Japanese monster-themed celebration is a brilliant move, because whether it’s capes or kaiju, this theater knows how to make an entrance,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor told the crowd. “Clearly, you picked the perfect place to do it. After all, you’re now in Santa Clara, the heart of Silicon Valley, where innovation meets imagination. Thank you for bringing your signature brand of movies to our city. Your arrival adds even more character, creativity and energy to this destination location of Valley Fair.”
The Alamo team showed everyone what a premium movie experience could feel like. Bustling servers slipped between the reclining movie-goers, taking orders before the show and delivering meals during the movie.
Everything at Alamo is made from scratch, including the bottomless popcorn with its real butter. There were also vegetarian and vegan options. The nationwide theater chain prides itself on being a company “for film lovers by film lovers,” and it seems to attract employees who feel the same.
Smith is one of those employees. He donned his Superman cape during the interview and admits he may have selfishly chosen the Superman movie as the targeted preview movie. As for what the Valley Fair theater will feature, Smith said there will be more Godzilla-themed features coming, as Godzilla’s birthday, Nov. 3, nears.
“We were joking about in the intro, but we’re literally showing a Godzilla movie tonight during the same time, and we’ll be showing more Godzilla movies throughout the month and throughout the months,” said Smith.
Alamo Drafthouse hired over 300 employees when it took over the two ShowPlace Icon theaters that closed (Westfield Valley Fair and Mountain View), and while it didn’t go out of its way to hire back the former employees, many of them did return.
“Our Mountain View theater, it’s the same general manager,” said Smith. “He was a GM over there since 2019 and continues. He wound up coming over to our company last year and helped manage the new Mission location so he could learn our system, and now he’s taken back over the Mountain View theater.”
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