TL

Tim League

Things Tim Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Tim League has been a guest on How I Built This (Guy Raz) (2 times) .

Recently: “Alamo Drafthouse Cinema: Tim and Karrie League (2023)” on How I Built This (Guy Raz) (October 2026); “Alamo Drafthouse Cinema: Tim and Karrie League” on How I Built This (Guy Raz) (May 2023).

What They Said

“I got some business books at the library. This is not going to be that hard at all. We can totally do this. And it was, I don't know, I say often my two greatest strengths at the time were arrogance and ignorance that just drove me forward because I should have thought it through maybe a little bit more.” — Tim League, How I Built This (Guy Raz)

League on signing the lease for his first movie theater about eight days after spotting the for-lease sign. Guy Raz points out he was around 23 at the time.

How I Built This (Guy Raz) · 2026-10-12 Permalink → Listen →
How I Built This (Guy Raz) Around 06:22 into the episode
Tim League

…of your language. It seems to imply some sort of thoughtful approach to decision making. It was a methodical, strategic plan. Yeah, I think the amount of time we're talking about from turning left on Baker Street and seeing that for lease sign to signing the lease, I think was about eight days.

Guy Raz

Eight days.

Tim League

Yeah. So I mean, I know I talked to Carrie immediately and was super excited about the idea. And then probably the next conversation was that we're going to do this. We're going to make this happen. I got some business books at the library. This is not going to be that hard at all. We can totally do this. And it was, I don't know, I say often like my two greatest strengths at the time were arrogance and ignorance that just drove me forward because I should have thought it through maybe a little bit more.

Guy Raz

And I mean, I'm not criticizing you at all, but I think you were like 23 at the time. And I mean, there's a romantic idea of running a movie theater, but there's a difference between the idea and actually doing it and knowing how to do it.

Tim League

Yeah.

Guy Raz

And it had everything you needed inside. It had a screen. It had projectors. It had seats. You just had to do some dusting and it was ready to go.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“It's really just about cost of goods. You're paying a majority of the ticket on first-run movies to the studio. And on food, you're paying what rounds to 25% of just food costs, right? So you have a much better profit margin.” — Tim League, How I Built This (Guy Raz)

Guy Raz noted that by 2003 Alamo Drafthouse made more from food than from tickets, and League explains the economics. He puts the split at roughly one-third box office and two-thirds concessions, with drinks the most profitable part.

How I Built This (Guy Raz) · 2026-10-12 Permalink → Listen →
How I Built This (Guy Raz) Around 53:26 into the episode
Karrie League

And it was a very similar situation where the landlord called us and said that there was a competitor potentially moving in. I feel like most of the expansion that we've done or that we did early on was entirely based in fear.

Guy Raz

Yeah. I read that by 2003, Alamo was making much more money from food than ticket sales. And that might have happened even before, which makes sense, right? I mean, because that's really where you, especially drinks, right? When people are buying multiple drinks.

Tim League

I mean, it's all, it's really just about cost of goods. You know, you're paying a majority of the ticket on first-run movies to the studio, you know. And on food, you're paying what rounds to 25% of just food costs, right? So you have a much better profit margin. So there's still profit to be made in the movie tickets, but the beer and alcohol costs are less than food costs. So that's where the real profit was. But it was, you know, it's a balance of probably one-third box office, two-thirds concessions.

Guy Raz

All right. So you've got these three locations, I guess, and you're thinking about a fourth location. And I think around this period, people sort of approach you about maybe franchising, and you did it. You opened a new franchise, a few franchises, I think, around Texas, like in Houston and maybe…

Tim League

Well, at that point, I think we had become really ingrained in the Austin community and were enjoying the aspects of community building at a real scale. And there was more headache on the franchising. And I didn't, it wasn't where my passion was.

Guy Raz

Yeah, there was probably a lot of lawyers and meetings. And you want to mount cool movies and have chit chats with directors in front of audiences, probably.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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Startups & Venture