Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the film, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiquette. Sony Pictures Experiences acquired the chain in June 2024.
The cinema chain has multiple locations across the United States, including 18 in Texas. There are five locations in Virginia (Winchester; Charlottesville; Woodbridge; Crystal City; and Ashburn); three locations in Colorado (Denver; Westminster; and Littleton); and four in New York (Yonkers, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Lower Manhattan), two locations in Missouri (St. Louis and Springfield) and California (San Francisco and Los Angeles). There are eight additional locations: Chicago, Washington, D.C.; La Vista, Nebraska; Raleigh, North Carolina; Boston; Naples, Florida; Woodbury, Minnesota; and Indianapolis.
Planned future locations include theaters in Glendale, Colorado; Grand Prairie, Texas; Mountain View, California; and Santa Clara, California.
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema was founded by Rice University alums Tim and Karrie League at 409 Colorado St, in an Austin, Texas warehouse district building on Colorado St. (between 4th and 5th) 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 Tejon Theater in Bakersfield, California. The Tejon was unsuccessful, but the Leagues learned important lessons and tried their luck again in Austin.
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 black-clad 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. This includes location-based food options depending on the film setting.
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".
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 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 are set to resume operation in the summer.
On June 12, 2024, Sony Pictures acquired Alamo Drafthouse for a sum which are 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 will continue 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, is ongoing. Both unions have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board citing bad faith bargaining during negotiations.
Italics indicate location has not officially opened yet.
Alamo Drafthouse is famous for enforcing a strict policy on behavior while in the theater. Children under the age of two are not allowed, except for showings on specific days designated "Alamo For All", where parents are encouraged to bring young children, and rules around talking are relaxed. Unaccompanied minors are not allowed in showings, except for members of the Alamo Drafthouse's Victory Vanguard rewards program, which allows 15–17 year-olds to attend showings unattended after their application to the rewards program has been submitted and reviewed. The application involves demonstrating an understanding of the theater's policies around talking, texting, arriving late, and basic tipping etiquette.
The cinema also prohibits talking and texting during the film. Anyone who violates this policy is subject to warning and potential removal from the premises. Alamo made national headlines in 2011 when the rantings of one angry customer who was ejected for texting were included in its "Don't Talk or Text" PSA shown before films. "When we adopted our strict no-talking policy back in 1997, we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons," Tim League posted on the cinema's website. "That was the plan. If you can't change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don't want you at our venue."
Alamo Drafthouse hosts 35mm screenings of famous movies in famous places all over the world with their traveling portable projection system and a blow-up screen. Past events include: Fistful of Dollars at Cortijo el Sotillo, Spain, A Christmas Story in Cleveland, OH, The Lost Boys in Santa Cruz, CA, It Came From Outer Space 3D in Roswell, NM, The Goonies in Astoria, OR, Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil's Tower, WY, The Warriors in Coney Island, NY, Clerks in Red Bank, NJ, Jaws at Martha's Vineyard, MA, Field of Dreams at the Field of Dreams, IA, The Shining at the Stanley Hotel, CO, Poseidon Adventure on the Queen Mary, CA, Escape from Alcatraz on Alcatraz, CA, Bottle Rocket in Hillsboro, TX, just to name a few.
In 2010, after the return of former co-founder Tim League as CEO, the company launched Drafthouse Films, a film distribution company named after, and inspired by, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain.
In 2017, then CEO Tim League founded another film distribution company with Tom Quinn in New York City called Neon, which has earned a total of 12 Academy Award nominations. As of 2019, Tim League was reportedly not involved in the daily operations of Neon.
Birth.Movies.Death. was a film magazine and website formerly published by Alamo Drafthouse. It was previously known as Badass Digest.
The sale of Birth.Movies.Death to Dallas Sonnier's Cinestate film studio was announced in May 2020 concurrently with the stepping down of founder Tim League as CEO of Alamo Drafthouse.
In October 2016, Devin Faraci resigned from Birth.Movies.Death. after allegations of sexual assault surfaced. Less than a year later, Tim League re-hired Faraci to write film blurbs for the 2017 Fantastic Fest. Upon discovery of Faraci's re-hiring, Todd Brown resigned as Fantastic Fest's director of international programming in early September 2017. Faraci resigned from writing for Fantastic Fest, and League made several public apologies regarding the matter.
Later in September 2017, several women accused Harry Knowles of sexual harassment and sexual assault at events sponsored by Alamo Drafthouse or in professional workplace settings. Subsequently, Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest severed business ties with Knowles. League did not attend Fantastic Fest, opting instead to visit Alamo Drafthouse locations around the country to discuss workplace environment issues with employees.
Also in 2017, Alamo Drafthouse exhibited Take It Out in Trade, a previously unreleased pornographic film by Ed Wood, to a "surprise" audience who had not been told about the film or its subject ahead of time.