Austin's Mueller Alamo Drafthouse is about to get a very hometown makeover: The theater will soon carry Matthew McConaughey's full name. A plaque unveiling next Monday will turn the venue into the Matthew McConaughey Cinema, and the marquee is about to gain a lot more syllables.
The ceremony will also double as an Austin premiere event. According to CBS Austin, McConaughey will introduce an early screening of The Rivals of Amziah King, join a post-screening Q&A with director Andrew Patterson and co-star Angelina LookingGlass, and appear for a live musical performance by cast members.
The Rename Doubles As A Hometown Film Premiere
The timing is designed to put McConaughey front and center just before his new movie reaches theaters Friday. The film's distributor, Black Bear, describes it as a rural Oklahoma crime drama about a musically gifted beekeeper whose family business faces threats from rivals, with Kurt Russell, Cole Sprouse and Rob Morgan also in the cast.
McConaughey's Austin ties are doing plenty of work here. He is a Uvalde native and University of Texas graduate, and told CBS Austin that having a theater dedicated to him in the city that shaped him “means a great deal” to him; Mayor Kirk Watson called him a beloved local Austin icon. The chain has previously honored filmmakers and performers including Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee and Pam Grier with namesake theaters, so the Mueller tribute fits an increasingly elaborate Alamo tradition.
Mueller Theater Gets A New Identity
For the neighborhood theater itself, the name change comes without a change in its basic moviegoing identity. Official venue information from Alamo Drafthouse lists the Mueller location as a six-screen theater with 609 seats, still serving the chain's familiar combination of films, food and drinks.
The first screenings under the new name will arrive before the film's regular release, giving Austin audiences a plaque ceremony, a movie premiere and a live performance in one unusually star-powered evening. In a city that has long treated McConaughey as one of its own, the new marquee is less a random branding stunt than a very Austin bit of cinema pageantry.
