Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for an undisclosed quantity, with Alamo becoming a member of the corporate underneath the newly-created Sony Pictures Experiences division.
As part of the deal, present Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kustermann will stay in his position and report back to SPE president and COO Ravi Ahuja. For now, current Alamo Drafthouse theaters will proceed to function as regular. Film competition Fantastic Fest was additionally included within the deal.
In a press release, Ahuja reassured that Sony would “proceed to welcome content material from all studios and distributors.”
Sony’s buy was made doable by a 2020 court ruling that repealed the Paramount Consent Decrees, permitting film studios to personal movie show chains for the primary time since 1948. While the unique determination was supposed to cease anticonsumer practices that resulted from huge entities proudly owning each the means of manufacturing movies in addition to distributing them, a federal choose dominated that the legal guidelines had been out of contact with the present state of the movie trade and studio programs. Sony is the primary firm to benefit from this modification by buying a theater chain. However, in 2022, Amazon purchased the closed Arclight Theaters location in Culver City, California, with plans to revive it as Amazon Theaters.
Alamo Drafthouse was based in 1997 and at the moment spans 35 theaters throughout 25 cities in North America. It rose to prominence attributable to its pioneering providing of seat-side foods and drinks service, together with alcoholic drinks, and touting stringent theater etiquette insurance policies.
However, simply final week, six Alamo Drafthouse locations in Texas closed their doors as their franchisee declared chapter. It’s unclear what this acquisition will imply for these areas.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
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