Rumors of the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown’s impending demise can finally be put to rest. The movie house that Karrie and Tim League built will indeed survive, but reworked as a nonprofit entity. “We’re refusing to let the Downtown theatre die,” Tim League says. “It means a lot to us and our group of friends. We’re willing to do anything we can to keep it alive.”
The change comes with the fast-approaching expiration of the Alamo’s 10-year lease and follows a few years during which the theatre struggled financially, despite being named best movie house in America by Entertainment Weekly. The growth of an upper-scale nightclub district around the theatre points to increased rent and an overall threat that the Alamo would be only a memory to add to the usual Austin cool suspects struck down in the name of progress. Instead, the Leagues will turn over operations to a board of directors charged with keeping the theatre alive and interesting for years to come. League looks at the original Alamo as an “incubator for ideas” that the other two Alamos (South and Village) they directly own can’t be as primarily first-run theatres.
The nonprofit board will seek sponsors for film series and set up memberships for ardent fans to make up financial shortfalls. An immediate change will be renovations of the lobby and bar area during a brief closure around July 4, Tim League says. “Karrie and I built it ourselves 10 years ago,” he says. “I have a long-term emotional attachment to it, and I think the community does, too.”
This article appears in June 2 • 2006.