diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 75dc2d1..0c8c9d8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 if "sdist" in sys.argv:
     target_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(this_dir, "imageio_ffmpeg", "binaries"))
     for fname in os.listdir(target_dir):
-        if fname != "README.md":
+        if fname not in ["README.md", "__init__.py"]:
             os.remove(os.path.join(target_dir, fname))