Posted: Jun 13, 2022 6:26 pm
Two of the biggest names in the collectibles world are becoming one, as Funko Inc. has acquired Mondo from the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain.
Funko, well-known for its ubiquitous Funko POP! figurines and various other toy lines, will serve as Mondo's new parent company. Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League revealed that, while Mondo has been a financial lifeline for the company during the COVID-19 pandemic, Alamo Drafthouse is now focused on expanding its chain of movie theaters as the Hollywood box office begins to bounce back. The time has come for the two companies to part ways.
"Now, with the dark days behind us and each weekend bringing box office successes, Alamo is seizing opportunities to grow our cinema footprint with seven new locations across the country that have been announced recently and more to come. As the company resources are focused on this growth, we realized that perhaps a bold and exciting new chapter is about to begin for Mondo," League said in a statement. "Over the past few months, we searched exhaustively to find a perfect partner who saw what was unique and special about Mondo and was in a position to meaningfully invest in Mondo, nurture the team, and further its reach and vision. Funko is exactly that unicorn."
Mondo released its own statement, reassuring collectors that the company remains very much intact as it makes the transition to Funko.
"From the outside, Mondo might seem like it is changing... but on the inside much is staying the same. We remain the same team, and our goals remain unchanged. We are still the same bunch of weirdos who share an undying obsession with popular (and maybe less popular) culture, and a craving to make cool stuff with the best artists in the world."
It remains to be seen how much this shake-up will affect Mondo's output going forward. The company focuses largely on custom movie posters and vinyl film soundtracks, with the occasional collectible like tiki mugs and 12-inch action figures for good measure. Will Mondo's toy output increase? Will their notoriously hard-to-find posters be released in larger numbers? Fingers crossed on both counts.
For more on Mondo's eclectic lineup of collectibles, read up on their hilariously meme-worthy Wolverine figure and see how one artist reimagined an iconic scene from the original Star Wars.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
