Austin-based movie theater-and-restaurant chain Alamo Drafthouse has sold to a global entertainment company. Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the national theater chain officially on Wednesday, June 12.
The sale means that Sony now oversees Alamo Drafthouse’s 35 locations across the country, including its five Austin theaters — South Lamar, the Village, Slaughter Lane, Lakeline, and Mueller. Per the press release, the theater chain will operate under a newly created department, Sony Pictures Experiences.
The sale also includes Alamo’s genre movie festival Fantastic Fest. Sony plans to keep Alamo’s headquarters in Austin with co-founder and co-owner Tim League remaining on board as an advisor.
Sony intends to “preserve” the chain’s on-site bars and restaurants at many of its locations, per the release. The would include beer bar Glass Half Full at Lakeline, bar and restaurant Barrel O’ Fun at Mueller, tequila and mezcal bar 400 Rabbits at Slaughter, and cocktail bar and karaoke spot the Highball at South Lamar.
Austin couple Tim League and Karrie League started Alamo Drafthouse in 1997 in the downtown area. They relocated their original first theater from West Fifth and Colorado streets onto East Sixth near Trinity, in 2007. The company expanded with theaters throughout the city, the state, and beyond, becoming known for its food, drinks, and no-talking policies. Tim League also co-started pop culture brand Mondo under Alamo in 2001, and eventually sold it to bobblehead toy company Funko in 2022. The Leagues also opened one of Austin’s earlier speakeasy bars, Midnight Cowboy, in 2012 under the Alamo umbrella; it sold in late 2021 to new owners.
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Tim League also co-founded indie film distributor Neon in 2017, which has produced or distributed award-winning films such as Anatomy of a Fall, Parasite, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. A New York Times article in 2019 noted that Tim League was “no longer involved in the company’s daily operations.”
In 2018, Splinter reported on allegations of sexual assault and harassment throughout Alamo’s history. Those include allegations against the editor-in-chief of its then-in-house publication Birth.Movies.Death, who left the company in 2016, rejoined in early 2017, and then left again later that same year.
A month after the pandemic started in 2020, Tim League left his position as Alamo’s CEO, and became the company’s executive chairman instead. He was replaced by Shelli Taylor, who had been a Starbucks executive and president of Planet Fitness.
During the pandemic, several Alamo locations have worked to organize unions, demanding better treatment, pay, and working conditions from the company. The South Lamar team formed its union, Drafthouse United, in February 2021. Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan organized into NYC Alamo United. And finally, two Colorado locations voted to form the Alamo Collective in June 2024.
Alamo filed for bankruptcy in March 2021, coinciding with the closure of the Ritz (which has since turned into Joe Rogan’s comedy club), citing the impacts of coronavirus pandemic on theaters. That led to its sale to a group of three entities: private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners, investment management firm Fortress Investment Group, and Tim League in June 2021.
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In July 2022, the Austin Alamo union went on a one-day strike demanding $4 to $5 raises. The union alleges that one striker was fired as retaliation. Eater has reached out to the union for comment on the Sony sale.
The South Lamar Alamo also underwent a major renovation in the fall of 2023, followed by the Village in the spring of 2024. At the same time, in March 2024, Alamo’s then-owners League, Altamont, and Fortress put up the theater chain for sale.
And just last weekend in June 2024, the company announced it closed its five theaters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because its franchisee Two Is One, One Is None, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. With Sony as its new owners, the company will be working on reopening in the region eventually.
Sony Pictures acquired Dallas-based anime streaming service Crunchyroll in August 2021 as well as streaming partner Funimation. Sony moved all of Funimation’s titles to Crunchyroll, shuttered Funimation, and then doubled Crunchyroll’s yearly subscription prices this past February.
