Special report: A movie studio bought a theater chain. Then layoffs happened.

Sony Pictures bought Alamo Drafthouse last year. Now some employees blame the studio for layoffs.

“Heart Eyes” (Sony Pictures)

The Gist

• Alamo Drafthouse was recently hit with layoffs, prompting an unfair labor complaint this week in New York — half a year after Sony Pictures bought the cinema chain.

• Alamo has blamed an expected slow Q1 at the box office for the layoffs. An attorney wrote in an email to NY union representatives: “Unless our employees are going to go out and make some movies that are going to be blockbusters in the next 4-8 weeks, we do not have the need for our current level of staffing.”

• According to a source, employees are partly blaming Sony; it’s a reminder that the health of the theater industry is largely connected to the practices of movie studios.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the specialty dine-in theater chain, was hit with layoffs last month on both the corporate and venue side of the business. And this week 70 employees were laid off from New York City locations.

Financial strain for movie theaters these days isn’t especially uncommon. The domestic box office has yet to swing back to pre-pandemic levels and that’s starting to look like the new normal.

But the layoffs at Alamo raised an eyebrow because they come just half a year after Sony Pictures Entertainment bought the company — the first such acquisition after the “Paramount Decree” sunset in 2020, allowing a movie studio to more easily buy a theater chain.

Another wrinkle to this: The NYC layoffs occurred amid bargaining of a new contract between Alamo and NYC Alamo union, which was established in 2023. The union filed an unfair labor complaint against Alamo this week.

An Alamo representative did not immediately return a request for comment for this story.

I covered Alamo when I was reporting at Business Insider, and also broke the story here that Alamo was buying closed franchise locations in Texas and Minnesota, which have since re-opened. I’m also just a fan; I’m a Season Pass subscriber and go pretty much every week.

So I wanted to learn more about what’s happening with the company since Sony bought it. A source on the NY bargaining committee told me that employees “are convinced that Sony played a part in the decision.”

They say that layoffs aren’t typical at the company, even in slow periods, because there is usually enough seasonal turnover. The scale of the layoffs seemed to alarm people at other locations during the January wave too.

It’s not a great look for Sony, especially considering the Alamo CEO is also now head of Sony Pictures Experiences, a new division established after the Alamo purchase. At least, that’s how Alamo employees feel. They’re slighted that a major movie studio bought the cinema chain and now this is happening; the Alamo brand is associated with a love of cinema, and Sony has been an outspoken champion for the theatrical experience post-pandemic. And yet…

In an email correspondence provided to me between the union and an Alamo legal representative, an attorney cites an expected slow Q1 at the box office for the layoffs.

“Unless our employees are going to go out and make some movies that are going to be blockbusters in the next 4-8 weeks, we do not have the need for our current level of staffing,” the attorney wrote.

Yikes! Not exactly a supportive message for laid off workers while the union negotiates a contract.

Yes, a slow start to the year is expected — but also an overall better total box office than 2024, mainly thanks to a steadier release slate of movies. My source said that Alamo told laid off workers that they can re-apply for their jobs during the busier seasons, as opposed to Alamo offering their jobs back.

2025 is supposed to be a “recovery year.” Removed from the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and pandemic-related production delays, the theater industry expects 2025 to be an upswing.

And yet, there’s trepidation about the first few months, even with a Marvel movie and a Disney remake on deck in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Universal is releasing a new Bridget Jones movie directly on Peacock in the US next week. What? The studio has mostly been committed to theaters, even with its early PVOD strategy.

Not to mention, in my own box office predictions for the year, none of the top movies on my list were released by Sony. Where are the Sony blockbusters? It’s not up to Alamo employees.

The studio’s highest-grossing movie last year in the US was “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” with under $200 million. This year, its biggest tentpoles are the R-rated horror movie “28 Years Later” and “Karate Kid: Legends.” Both could perform well, but likely not at the level of other hits this year.

To me, this isn’t so much a story about Alamo Drafthouse as it is a reminder that the health of the theater industry is directly tied to the practices of movie studios — whether it be putting movies on streaming platforms or buying a theater chain.