Santa Clara and Mountain View will both be getting new Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters this summer, as the hip theater chain is taking over two abandoned shopping mall movie theaters with plans to revitalize them.
Since the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater on Mission Street opened nine years ago this month with a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it has been considered an "indie" theater, thanks to its crowd-pleasing movie marathons and special dress-up costume nights. But it’s not really "indie" — it’s a national chain with 42 locations, and it was bought up by Sony this past summer after the chain had previously filed for bankruptcy during the COVID closures of 2021. Still, Sony has stuck with the formula of inspired programming alongside the big Hollywood releases, plus cocktail table service and artisan concessions.
That formula has apparently worked well enough that Alamo Drafthouse is expanding in the Bay Area. The Bay Area News Group reports that Alamo Drafthouse is opening two new theaters in Mountain View and Santa Clara. Both new locations will be on the sites of currently shuttered shopping mall movie theaters that had previously been run by the chain ShowPlace ICON — at Mountain View’s San Antonio Center, and Santa Clara’s Westfield Valley Fair mall.
“By 2025 we'll have been in San Francisco for 10 years, and this feels like the perfect way to celebrate the decade of support and enthusiasm we've received from Bay Area film fans,” Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kusterman says in a Tuesday morning press release. “It's an area we love that has shown us a lot of love back, and we're thrilled to be able to expand and provide our unique experience to more people.”
The theater chain is planning to revamp the seating of both theaters to install “premium, reclining leather seats” at both locations, as well as 4K digital projection and upgraded Dolby Atmos sound systems. Both new theaters will have ten screens.
And both will offer the same extravagant-for-a-theater concessions menu, craft cocktails, local draft beers, and the ability to order from your seat. Alamo Drafthouse’s press release says "the cinema chain's famed No Talking / No Texting policy ensures guests can watch films free from annoying distractions," though as someone who watched the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie twice at the Mission Street location, I can assure you there was plenty of singing for that one.
Alamo Drafthouse says that they expect to open the new South Bay theaters “by Summer 2025.”
Related: Sony Just Bought the Alamo Drafthouse Theater Chain, Including the SF Location [SFist]
Image: Bear Vs. Bull via Yelp
