Supervisor Stephen Sherrill has made it easier to drink at the movies.

San Francisco supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to pass the District 2 supervisor’s ordinance that waives rules that put many San Francisco movie theaters at risk of being out of compliance with city code, should they serve alcohol.

Right now, thanks to a quirk in state law, movie theaters that want to admit kids, serve alcohol, and serve somewhat substantial food — think slices of pizza — have to register as a restaurant. That wouldn’t matter except that a city law requires that eateries classified as “restaurants” bring in more than half of their revenue from food.

The idea behind that restriction was to keep bars from claiming they’re a restaurant when really they’re pouring drinks and serving peanuts, said Lorenzo Rosas, a legislative aide for Sherrill.

But it’s hard for movie theaters to outpace their revenue from, say, ticket sales, with food. “I don’t know how we’d ever get there unless we served $300 truffle popcorn,” said Cody Allen, the executive director of the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project, which owns the shuttered Clay Theater in Pacific Heights and is backing Sherrill’s legislation, in advance of the Clay reopening this year.  

Already, there is precedent for this in 2000 legislation that allowed nonprofit theaters in the Mission District to serve alcohol. 

The more-than-100-year-old, single-screen Clay theater closed its doors in January 2020, months before the pandemic would do a number on many of San Francisco’s already-struggling cinemas. (At least 10 theaters have closed in the city since the pandemic.) 

Last fall, Neil Mehta, the tech investor behind the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project, announced plans to renovate and reopen the Clay in 2026. 

Part of the plan to get the cinema profitable, Allen said, is to make the theater do more than just show movies. It’ll host director talks and serve wine and beer on the ground floor. The idea, to use sociology jargon, is to make it a “third place” — somewhere that locals can come to hang outside of work and home. The loosened rules around booze would help. 

Larger chains, like the nearby AMC Kabuki or Regal Cinemas at the Stonestown Galleria, would benefit too: They serve alcohol and are licensed under state law as restaurants, but would no longer have to make more than half of their revenue through food sales. 

Some of San Francisco’s indie theaters are already selling alcohol. The Roxie, a nonprofit theater in the Mission, has a license for nonprofit movie theaters and has been serving beer for a decade. It just spent almost a year getting the okay to serve wine as well, said Lex Sloan, the theater’s executive director. 

Beer, Sloan said, still outpaces wine in sales. Since Feb. 1, the theater has sold 350 cans of beer and just 85 cans of wine.

The same goes for the Balboa Theater in outer Richmond, which is on a similar license that only allows it to serve beer. 

Still, Sherrill’s legislation could boost those indie theaters, should they one day want to diversify their programming. It waives rules that make it difficult for movie theaters to hold events beyond just screenings — the kinds of events that the Clay’s business plans anticipate it holding, Rosas, the legislative aide, said. 

The Clay isn’t alone there, either. The legendary Castro Theater, which closed in 2024, reopened on Feb. 6 as a hybrid space. It’ll still show movies, but will also host events like concerts.

Sherrill’s legislation includes an additional carve-out just for the Clay. In the spirit of that “third place,” it’ll be allowed to serve beer and wine to all patrons, not just moviegoers who have already bought tickets.

“Let movie theaters be our third spaces,” said Jack Hebb, Sherrill’s communications director, “and let people be able to have beer and wine without movie theaters being subject to silly requirements.”