The story
Founded by Tim League in 1997.1
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema was founded by Rice University alums Karrie and Tim League at 409 Colorado St, in an Austin, Texas warehouse district building that was being used as a parking garage. It was their second attempt at operating a movie theater; the Leagues had relocated to Austin after spending two years operating the unsuccessful Tejon Theater in Bakersfield, California.
The company began as a second-run movie theater. It distinguished itself by the food and drink service offered inside the theater, including cold beers, which continues to set Alamo Drafthouse apart from many other cinemas. The seating is arranged with rows of cabaret-style tables in front of each row of seats, with an aisle between each row to accommodate waitstaff service. Customers write their orders on slips of paper, which servers pick up.
Soon after opening, the original downtown theater began offering occasional unique programming such as silent movies scored by local bands playing live accompaniment, food-themed films such as Like Water for Chocolate served with a dinner matching the meals shown on screen, and retrospectives of various directors and stars.
In 2001, the Leagues renovated a four-screen art-house theater at 2700 Anderson Lane in North Austin called Village Cinema, which had recently closed, and opened it as an Alamo Drafthouse which specialized in first-run movies. With this new Alamo Drafthouse Village, the downtown location ceased showing second-run movies and began to concentrate almost exclusively on unusual programming, including classics, cult classics, independents, documentaries, special guest appearances, movie mockery and audience participation shows.
In 2003, the Alamo Drafthouse, under the direction of CEO Terrell Braly, opened on 13729 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin. The Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek had seven screens, all dedicated to new movies. In May of that year, the Alamo granted their first franchise, which opened in the West Oaks Mall in Houston, Texas with six screens.
In July 2004, Tim and Karrie League sold the brand, including the brand name, intellectual property, and rights to all future Alamo Drafthouse expansion to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas CEO Terrell Braly, John Martin, and David Kennedy, but retained an irrevocable license for the Austin locations (Village, Lamar, Downtown), which includes their Rolling Roadshow.
In August 2004, the second largest Alamo (Westlakes) opened in San Antonio, Texas, with eight screens.
In August 2005, Entertainment Weekly named the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema "The #1 movie theater in the country doing it right".
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Since February 2005, the new company has purchased the original franchise unit from Doss, opened a theater in the Katy Area and in Spring, Texas, and built a new-build multi-screen theater in the Rio Grande Valley; though it was announced in 2006 to open, the building has remained unfinished since the original owner was foreclosed upon.
In 2006, due to rising rent in downtown Austin, theater owners took steps to hand the theater over to a non-profit group called the "Heroes of the Alamo" foundation, operating the theater as a cultural arts center. However, with the historic Ritz Theater on 6th Street offered as an alternative location, the original Alamo was closed. The final event at the original site consisted of a special triple-feature event on the evening of June 27, 2007. The final movie shown was Night Warning, with star Susan Tyrrell attending. After the movie, audience members were allowed to disassemble their seats and take them home as souvenirs of the theater.
Of the first seven theaters, the downtown Austin theater was unique for being the host of many important film events in Austin, such as the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival and Harry Knowles's annual Butt-numb-a-thon.
After six months of construction, the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz opened on November 2, 2007, with a triple feature of Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People, with a five-course mushroom feast; a sneak preview of No Country For Old Men; and a Terror Thursday screening of War of the Gargantuas, introduced by Quentin Tarantino who flew out from Los Angeles for the night to attend the opening.
In 2009, the first outside of Texas was opened in Winchester, Virginia.
A second San Antonio theater opened in 2009 (Park North), with six screens. In June 2010, founder Tim League was brought back as CEO of the franchise operations. A third San Antonio location (Stone Oak) opened on November 5, 2010, with six screens. In 2013, the Lake Creek location was closed upon the opening of the brand new, larger Lakeline location. In June 2017, the current largest Alamo opened in Springfield, Missouri with 14 screens seating 1,050 people.
In late 2017, Alamo purchased the historic Baker Center from Austin ISD. They had promised to convert the building into public housing for teachers, but have yet to do so. The Baker Center is now Alamo Drafthouse’s corporate headquarters and was added to the NRHP in 2023.
In March 2019, Business Insider reported that Alamo Drafthouse's movie-ticket subscription service, Alamo Season Pass, will launch nationwide at all Drafthouse theaters by the end of the year with the unlimited plan costing $20 a month in most regions of the country.
In March 2020, Alamo Drafthouse announced that all locations were closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2020, Alamo announced that former Starbucks executive Shelli Taylor would become the new CEO of Alamo Drafthouse and that founder Tim League would transfer from his current role as CEO to become the chairman of the board of directors.
The company announced the launch of the "Alamo on Demand" video streaming service on May 7, 2020. With a video-on-demand platform provided by Shift72, the streaming service will have films from Drafthouse Films, its film distribution arm, as well as partner with name-brand studios like Sony Pictures Classics and Lionsgate.
On March 3, 2021, Alamo Drafthouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As part of its restructuring, locations across the southern U.S. were closed, and plans to open an Orlando, Florida location were cancelled. The debtors were represented by Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor as counsel and Houlihan Lokey as investment banker. With $100 million to $500 million in both assets and liabilities, Alamo entered into a restructuring support agreement to help guide them through their bankruptcy. In June 2021, the company announced that they had emerged from bankruptcy.
In October 2023, Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee volunteers helped organize dine-in cinema workers at the Alamo Drafthouse in Lower Manhattan. Workers voted to unionize with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2179.
In June 2024, all Alamo Drafthouse locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were permanently shuttered, as well as the company's only Minnesota location in Woodbury, as the operator that franchised these locations filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The franchisor, Two is One, One is None, LLC, blamed high leasing rents as part of the decision. On June 27, 2024, it was announced these locations would be acquired by Alamo Drafthouse and resumed operation in the summer.
On June 12, 2024, Sony Pictures acquired Alamo Drafthouse for a sum which is yet to be disclosed. Sony Pictures had previously owned the Loews Theatres chain after the U.S. Department of Justice relaxed enforcement of the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. federal ruling orders in 1985. Alamo Drafthouse continues to operate their film festival, Fantastic Fest, which is included in the acquisition. Not long after the purchase by Sony, Alamo Drafthouse was revealed as the replacement tenant for two shuttered Showplace Icon locations in Santa Clara and Mountain View, California, expanding the company's Northern California presence to three locations.
On January 14, 2025, Alamo Drafthouse carried out mass layoffs at all levels of the company, with corporate as well as hourly staff at venues being particularly affected. The layoffs came despite reports of strong performance in 2024 and plans to open additional venues. Though the layoffs came only seven months after Sony's acquisition of Alamo Drafthouse, the decision has been described as "an Alamo decision, not a mandate from Sony". On February 3, 2025, more than one hundred Alamo Drafthouse employees were laid off at Manhattan, Brooklyn and Colorado locations.
On February 14, 2025, employees at the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Colorado locations walked out in the middle of their shifts and went on strike in response to the layoffs. The Colorado locations, represented by the Communications Workers of America Local 7777 union, went back to work after four days. The strike at the Manhattan and Brooklyn locations, represented by the UAW Local 2179 union, ended after 58 days, resulting in the reinstatement of laid off workers, their accrued paid time-off, and seniority. Both unions have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board citing bad faith bargaining during negotiations.
In July of 2026, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced the acquisition of the former ArcLight Hollywood and Cinerama Dome locations in Los Angeles and plans to reopen the complex by early 2028. The former ArcLight will reopen as the Alamo Drafthouse Hollywood, while the Cinerama Dome will retain its name.
From Wikipedia’s article on Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4