Cinemark Out-Poured Alamo Drafthouse in Texas for Three Months This Summer

On pace for the best year since 2019

Domestic box office reached $8.07 billion through Oct. 11, up 20% from the same stretch of 2025, according to Deadline. Summer set a record at $4.76 billion. Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three both open Dec. 18.

Plano-based Cinemark reported $1.09 billion in second-quarter revenue, its first $1 billion quarter, and U.S. concession revenue per patron of $8.70, a record. In its quarterly filing, the company credited "strategic pricing actions and favorable product mix." Its filings don't break out alcohol, but Texas beverage revenue does, theater by theater.

Who's pouring

Every Texas movie theater licensed to pour liquor reports its beverage revenue each month. We grouped the theaters by chain.

| Chain | Texas theaters | Last 12 months | Comparable theaters | Jan to Aug change | Theaters up | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Alamo Drafthouse | 14 | $11.70M | 14 | -15.0% | 2 of 14 | | Cinemark | 56 | $10.40M | 56 | +13.8% | 52 of 56 | | Star Cinema Grill | 8 | $6.51M | 8 | +8.4% | 8 of 8 | | AMC | 40 | $6.39M | 40 | +27.7% | 40 of 40 | | Flix Brewhouse | 8 | $4.69M | 3 | +5.0% | 3 of 3 | | Cinergy | 6 | $4.45M | 5 | -4.8% | 2 of 5 | | Studio Movie Grill | 8 | $4.37M | 8 | -1.0% | 3 of 8 | | Moviehouse & Eatery | 6 | $4.24M | 6 | +16.4% | 4 of 6 | | Santikos | 11 | $4.08M | 11 | +1.9% | 6 of 11 | | Regal | 15 | $2.63M | 15 | +24.0% | 13 of 15 | | EVO Entertainment | 3 | $1.95M | 3 | +0.5% | 1 of 3 | | Showbiz | 5 | $1.26M | 5 | +16.3% | 2 of 5 | | Look Dine-In | 2 | $0.48M | 1 | -20.8% | 0 of 1 |

Flix Brewhouse's total includes the four former Alamos it took over in late February, counted from March. The 111 comparable Cinemark, AMC and Regal theaters are up 19.5% together, and 105 of them grew. The other 50 comparable theaters outside Alamo are up 4.5%, and 29 grew. With Alamo included, that group is down 1.7%. The 15,508 Texas venues that reported every month of both periods are down 0.75%.

The monthly race

The comparison below uses only the 14 Alamo theaters still open in Texas, so the four that left the chain this year don't skew it.

Those 14 out-earned all of Cinemark's Texas theaters combined at the bar every month from September 2021 through April 2026. In 2023 they reported $17.6 million to Cinemark's $11.1 million. In July 2023, the month of Barbie and Oppenheimer, they took in $2.63 million, their best month in our data.

| Month (2026) | Cinemark, 56 theaters | Alamo, 14 theaters | |---|---|---| | May | $1,240,890 | $1,083,661 | | June | $1,133,687 | $1,029,748 | | July | $998,105 | $1,244,775 | | August | $1,050,824 | $862,840 |

Alamo still leads for the year. From January through August its 14 theaters reported $7.81 million and Cinemark's 56 reported $7.36 million. Over the same months last year, Alamo's lead was 42%. In 2023, for the full year, it was 58%.

Alamo's 14

Alamo's Texas footprint shrank in February, when franchisee Triple Tap Ventures sold its four Texas Alamos, in Katy, Lubbock and two in El Paso, to Flix Brewhouse. The remaining 14 are five in Austin, five in Dallas-Fort Worth, two in San Antonio, and one each in Corpus Christi and Laredo.

From January through August they reported $7.81 million, down 15.0% from $9.18 million a year earlier. It's the second straight down year. The 14 fell 22% in 2025, from $16.7 million to $13.1 million, before phone ordering arrived. Cinemark's gain this year comes off its weakest full year since 2021, and its last 12 months are still below 2023.

| Theater | Jan to Aug 2025 | Jan to Aug 2026 | Change | |---|---|---|---| | Austin, South Lamar | $1,911,066 | $1,509,064 | -21.0% | | Austin, Lakeline | $935,751 | $764,886 | -18.3% | | Austin, Slaughter Lane | $934,773 | $794,208 | -15.0% | | Austin, Mueller | $826,708 | $712,838 | -13.8% | | San Antonio, Park North | $766,091 | $614,580 | -19.8% | | Richardson | $523,460 | $375,632 | -28.2% | | Dallas, Cedars | $519,649 | $470,258 | -9.5% | | Austin, Anderson Lane | $486,442 | $364,994 | -25.0% | | San Antonio, Stone Oak | $477,280 | $442,105 | -7.4% | | Dallas, Lake Highlands | $442,022 | $434,876 | -1.6% | | Corpus Christi | $389,530 | $408,507 | +4.9% | | Laredo | $352,543 | $369,123 | +4.7% | | Denton | $323,212 | $281,257 | -13.0% | | Irving, Las Colinas | $293,111 | $264,542 | -9.7% | | 14 theaters | $9,181,638 | $7,806,870 | -15.0% |

Austin, where Alamo started in 1997, is where it's falling fastest. All five Austin theaters are among the eight steepest declines, and together they're down 18.6%, against 10.4% for the other nine.

The year brought other changes at Alamo, which Sony Pictures bought in 2024. It began replacing paper order slips with phone ordering at every theater in February. The Mueller theater in Austin was renamed for Matthew McConaughey in August. Alamo doesn't disclose its Texas results, and beverage revenue alone can't say what's behind the decline.

Still a different business

An Alamo theater is a restaurant with screens. Over the last 12 months, Alamo's 14 Texas theaters averaged about $835,000 each in beverage revenue. A Cinemark averaged about $186,000. Star Cinema Grill, a Houston dine-in chain, averaged about $813,000, and its eight comparable theaters are up 8.4%.

So the multiplexes aren't out-drinking Alamo theater for theater. They're winning on reach. Cinemark has four times as many Texas theaters reporting bar revenue, and in three of the last four months they brought in more at it.

Alamo's next test is on the calendar. Avengers: Doomsday, which opens Dec. 18, is its top presale title, according to Deadline.

Sources: Texas beverage tax receipts, monthly reported beverage revenue for every Texas movie-theater permit we could match to a chain, January 2019 through August 2026. Theaters are matched by address so permit changes don't break a theater's history. Comparable-theater figures count a theater only if it reported positive revenue in every month of January to August 2025 and 2026. Texas benchmark: 15,508 venues. Alamo monthly and annual comparisons cover the 14 theaters operating as Alamo in August 2026. Box office from Deadline; summer total from Los Angeles Magazine; Cinemark results from its second-quarter 2026 release and 10-Q; Flix Brewhouse acquisition from Variety and Boxoffice Pro; Alamo ordering change from CBS Austin; Mueller renaming from Spectrum News; presales from Deadline.