League is known best for bringing the world Alamo Drafthouse Cinema — but first, it was Austin's. He and Karrie opened the first Alamo Drafthouse in 1997 in a converted single-screen space on Colorado Street that served up full meals, beers, movies, and a sort of scrappy, punk rock sensibility that became the brand's identity. Over the years Alamo would grow into a national franchise and file for bankruptcy in 2021. Sony Pictures acquired the brand in 2024.
Metro, which League and fellow Austinite Brian Sharples opened in October of 2025, is a very different animal. Where Alamo built its reputation as a scrappy, come-as-you-are alternative to the multiplex, Metro is closer to Alamo's bougie older sister: private, polished, and pricey. Guests should expect to spend at least $200 per person for an evening at the movies.
An eight-seat suite in New York City's Metro. metrocinema.com
That price tag buys an entirely different way of watching a movie. Instead of selling individual seats to a single film, Metro rents out small private rooms in blocks of time, and each room comes with a menu of dozens of films to choose from. League says it's "basically a three-and-a-half-hour booking." Every room is fully private, so even parties that don't fill up the whole space will get it to themselves.
League says the idea originally came to Sharples, founder of HomeAway (now part of VRBO), who had his own movie theater that friends loved coming over to hang out in. That showed the entrepreneur "what sort of demand there was for that sort of thing." The two workshopped the idea together and Sharples became an early investor.
"Since the beginning of cinema, the way it works is you book a movie, and that movie is playing on that screen for a given number of weeks. That's how it works with every other theater in the world, except for Metro. For Metro, you book the room, you book the time of day, and then you choose from 40 or 50 options," League says.
The options span it all: big name, newly released blockbusters, indie films, and cult classics.
The dinner part is also wholly different than what's available at Alamo. Rather than sitting down to a movie and ordering from the theater chair, guests at Metro have a dinner party first, and then watch the movie.
Metro offers finer fare than Alamo, but will still play with themed feasts, like this one for Wicked. Photo courtesy of Metro Private Cinema
"It's generally [that] you eat before the movie, so when you come into the room, it doesn't even look like a movie theater; it looks like a private dining room ... with a turntable in every room," League says.
Guests settle in with cheese and charcuterie, then family-style entrees arrive. Dessert cues the film to start.
"Just about 20 minutes into the movie, you're thinking, 'I could really go for some popcorn.' And then, popcorn just sort of magically materializes," League says.
Josh Guarneri currently runs Metro's New York kitchen and will hire the chef in Austin. Guarneri spent time as the second in command for Austin-based MML executive chef April Bloomfield, so there are even local connections at Metro that go beyond League.
Metro offers small, private theaters for groups of 4 to 20 people.metrocinema.com
Tim and Karrie own the Baker School, but Metro won't take over the entire building. Instead, the old cafeteria will serve as the main space for the theater and a couple of additional rooms will become private suites. The Austin Classical Guitar Society, a coffee shop, a wine bar, and a letterpress print shop will stay put as tenants. In fact, the print shop will even double as Metro's bar and will offer guests unique print souvenir postcards from League's collection of vintage newspaper movie ads.
For now, Metro Private Cinema's only existing theater is located at 131 8th Ave. in New York City. The Baker School is located at 3908 Avenue B in Austin.
