Sony Pictures Entertainment is entering the market for exhibitions. The studio behind recent movie like” Bad Kids: Ride or Die” and” The Garfield Movie” has acquired the exclusive theatre chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the firms said Wednesday. The music film event Fantastic Fest is included in the deal.
Sony stated that it will continue to welcome information from all producers and distributors at the dine-in cinemas.
Alamo Drafthouse was founded in 1997 as a second panel, family- owned theatre theatre in Austin, Texas, and has grown to 35 areas in North America. With drinks, dine-in meal service, and a great vibe that quickly became a favourite of cinephiles, it made a name for itself in the exhibition landscape.
Alamo Drafthouse chairman Tim League said in a speech,” We are beyond thrilled to join causes with Sony Pictures Entertainment to expand our business perception to be the best damn film that has ever, or will ever arise in ways we could only ever dream of.” They “have a deep respect and understanding of the power of cinema to both promote growth and leave a lasting legacy,” which is exactly what Alamo Drafthouse claims to be all about.
For Sony, the Drafthouse acquisition is also tied into its experiences initiatives, including its Wheel of Fortune Live! Traveling tour and the Wonderverse space in Chicago. Additionally, Rafi Ahuja, the president and chief operating officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, noted that the studio’s Crunchyroll movies are particularly in line with the needs of Drafthouse fans.
Over time, Alamo Drafthouse has experienced its ups and downs. In March 2021, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed some locations and canceled plans to open new ones. At the end of May 2021, Alamo was declared bankrupt under the leadership of League, Altamont Capital Partners, and Fortress Investment Group. Michael Kusterman, a former executive at Caveman Foods, was named Alamo CEO. According to the statement, he will continue to lead the newly established Sony Pictures Experiences division and report to Ahuja.
Employees at the Alamo Drafthouse in Manhattan and Brooklyn voted to unionize last year following the ferocity of Barbenheimer. Similar initiatives were made in Austin and San Francisco, but the leadership opposed them.
Following a landmark antitrust Supreme Court decision in 1948 that outlawed “block booking,” in which studios demanded theaters book a bundle of their films, Hollywood studios were unable to run movie theaters or control what was shown on those screens for a long time. The Paramount Consent Decrees, which were signed by each of the major studios at the time, required the studios that owned theaters at the time to either divest their theaters or their distribution operations, were a consent decree that each of the major studios signed with the Department of Justice.
Concerns about vertical integration and the monopolization of film production and distribution are at the heart of the conflicts between the Hollywood studio business practices and the federal government in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, most first- run movie theaters had only one screen.
Since the Paramount Consent Decrees, distribution and exhibition have undergone significant changes, including the expansion of multiplex theaters that display films from various exhibitors throughout the day and the development of television, home video, and streaming. The Paramount Consent Decrees were replaced in 2020, which formally ended the separation mandate.
Now Netflix, for instance, owns several theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and the Walt Disney Co., which was not part of the original “big eight” in the 1940s, owns and operates the El Capitan in Los Angeles. Recently, movie theater chains have also stepped back and collaborated with AMC Theaters to distribute their concert films.
