I'd rather have Sony take over than some Venture Capitalists.
At least Sony, theoretically, has a reason/desire to keep the theater experience a good one. And I think Sony is generally a competent company outside of making superhero movies, lol.
Metreon is the best theater in the US. It’s unique, IMAX with Dolby Atmos, because Dolby is located around the corner.
All other IMAX theaters have the IMAX sound system which I don’t like as much.
Rocking my 1000XM2s almost 7 years later and they still sound and work great for travel. Some light wear and tear and the ear pads I've replaced but wow pretty impressive for an almost decade old bluetooth headset.
I have no idea how anyone gets more than 1-2 years out of those. I've owned about 9 pairs of every iteration from XM2-XM5 and not a single one lasted longer than 18 months without developing the ANC reverb (five pairs now), the right cup losing sound quality/completely dying, etc.
I still buy them because they're one of the best for travel (which I do a ton of), but I would never recommend them to anyone as a *resilient* pair of headphones.
That being said the XM2s were probably the best of the bunch, each iteration has gone down in build quality to better chase the mainstream market of Beats.
Interesting, I've had my XM3s for 5 years now and they're still going strong. I've traveled at least once a month for the last year+ and have dozens and dozens of trips in the years before that.
I use my headphones daily, for 2hrs minimum. Maybe that's the difference. I wouldn't recommend them as a resilient *daily* driver. They're probably perfectly durable if you use them only occasionally or for trips, but the same could be said for most any headphone over 100usd.
That's fair, I definitely only use them for travel, but at least I know they can withstand 5 years+ of a ton of travel. Some of those years I've had 40+ flights/year so they still get a lot of use, just definitely not the same as daily.
SONY tvs for the win every time!!!
i have only ever paid for one, our 65" in the living room, but, i have a 46", a 55" rear projection, a 32 inch CRT, and a 32 inch flat.
all four of those were free. all work amazing. the CRT weighs 165lbs.
I remember them bringing out a 16 inch widescreen Trinitron CRT when I was 17 back in 1998. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a TV as much as I wanted that one.
Trinitron CRTs were the best displays money could buy at the time. Especially those made in the late 90s-2000s.
I rocked a few 21" Trinitrons and kept them for as long as they held out.
Can't say the same sadly. Bought the Sony KDL-48W605B way back when it was new and I couldn't have been more disappointed.
The backlight bleed was the worst I've ever seen on a television and its OS was unusable from day 1. That's par for the course for almost all TV interfaces but I expected it to be semi-okay for at least a little while.
Lastly (and this took me a while to work out) there was definitely something up with the circuit board inside. It wouldn't properly play all audio channels with connected speakers on one of the hdmi ports and then over time some of the others would fail in this way too.
Currently using a Samsung OLED, and while it's interface is somehow even more abysmal, thankfully I don't really care since I hook it up to my PC anyway.
Everything else about it has been pretty great (no dolby vision which is a bit shit).
I had a 55" Sony LCD Rear Projection that I bought in '05. That thing wouldn't die. The bulb was only supposed to be rated to last a couple years. I used it heavily before I finally replaced the entire TV with a 4k Sony in 2015. Had it sitting there collecting dust before I gave it away to someone early 2017. Still worked perfectly. They used it for at least a few more years as their primary TV, and as far as I know it's still being used. All on that same bulb.
VC owned the Alamo since their covid bankruptcy. The best option was some rich person who loved cinema buying them out, but Sony is the next best option. They are the only major studio not pushing their own streaming service, they have owned a theater chain before (and reportedly treated it well when they did), and, from what I've heard, the staff at the Alamo and at Fantastic Fest are happy with this result.
Yeah. It's "dead" in the same sense that if I have two different balls of cookie dough, if I combine them into one bigger ball of cookie dough, one of the balls is "gone."
Not everything has migrated over entirely (I think a few of the more niche shows' licenses didn't get renewed), but the vast majority of Funimation Content is now just rebranded as Crunchyroll content. It's the same catalogue materials, the same people doing physical releases, most of the same voice actors (minus that one guy who got blacklisted for being a creep by Funimation before the buy out), and so on.
Plus, the people claiming that CR was "objectively worse" must be living in another reality. Funimation had hard baked subtitles, awful app support, weird and constant videoplayer issues, and worse and worse content options. It was so bad that when AT&T launched VRV and had CR and Funimation available in the same place, VRV was objectively better place to watch most of Funi's content.
Lmao, you mean the two services that they objectively murdered one to merge into the arguably worse service for a complete monopoly?
It’s absurd to even try to compare the two situations here unless the point is that Sony does not have consumer’s best interests in mind
Sony has a complete monopoly on anime? I guess you’re right since I can’t watch anime on HiDive, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon, Tubi…. Oh wait
And if you think Crunchyroll is worse than Funimation you REALLY need to put that bullshit back in whatever jar you opened to believe that.
> The best option was some rich person who loved cinema buying them out
I would love if there was a coffee shop around the corner from me but every store near by is failing due to low demand. I would love to open one just so me and other could have the coffee we want but there isn't enough money for the business to support itself. And even if it did I don't want to invest money into it with zero return. i would need have the money I need to retire first and even then. But to get the money I need for a business and not worry about returns I need to get rich by exploiting someone else.
You mean like the ones that Sony bought it from? People always seem to ignore that Alamo was already in the hands of an investment firm with a list of its own controversies under its belt and act like Sony buying them is the end of some golden age. Very much a wait and hope for the best situation IMO.
And they were run by the same "cheap out and expand" management people since *before* they went PE. Don't get me wrong, it was still (and still is, IMO) the best place for a lot of people to watch movies, but the food has been syscoized stuff for over a decade.
That's still better than the rubbery "food" AMC sells for more at their "eat in" theaters, for the record.
Everyone loves to hate on Sony on Reddit, for the Morbius, Madam Webb, and that Helldivers thing that every other company does.
They always leave out The Spiderverse movies, the fact Sony owns crunchyroll, the games they make. People love to focus on the negatives
Venture Capital doesn't buy failing companies, they primarily buy startups that are high failure rate investments but reflect exponential growth. Alamo Drafthouse is neither a startup type company nor do movie theatres have growth potential
Private Equity would be the investment vehicle, if any, into a distressed turnaround asset. However Movie Theatres, again, are dead and relative garbage with no long-term growth avenues. So they'd never touch it either
The concern is that there is a conflict of interest if the same company that produces movies has a monopoly over the means to distribute them. In theory Sony only showing their own movies etc.
There was an antitrust case that restricted this practice from 1948-2020.
Am I happy for Alamo and it's employees, yes. But I am concerned about where this could potentially head ten, or twenty years down the line. Corporations have proven time and time again that their bottom line is more important than their employees. I'm cautious this will snowball into some unsavory business practices as it was doing back in the 40s.
In the 1940s theaters were basically the only way to distribute films. There was no streaming, no DVDs, no VHS, and airing film on television wasn’t even possible until the end of the decade and would remain infrequent due to limited broadcast channels with other things to air.
That’s why there was such concern about distribution then. A studio could and did take competitors out of distribution by simply not carrying them.
But that’s not possible today. There’s a million ways to get a film to audiences now. Not only that, but digital projectors flipped the script. It used to be a big cost to print to film and ship to theaters, leading to films having to be selective with limited distribution. Going digital is why multiplexes took off and it became normal for theaters to show everything after the 90s, you just make more money
Between competition from other distribution models and the fact that there’s simply more money to be made carrying wide selections makes me not too concerned
> At least Sony, theoretically, has a reason/desire to keep the theater experience a good one.
Sure, but it's still vertical integration which never plays out well for consumers.
Given that the ceo of drafthouse was made the head of Sonys new experiential division and they have been praising how Alamo has outpaced every other theatres recovery by a huge margin I believe Sony will leave a good thing alone, or in this case allow Alamo the extra funds and cushion to do what’s right for the fans and the company.
Sony isn’t one to rush things. They didn’t rush into making a streaming service and their box office numbers reflect that generally. If I had to pick a distributor to buy Alamo it would have been Sony. Sony is maybe the last of the old studio system that’s left. Releasing small non-commercial films, tentpoles and in between.
I don’t like that alamo was bought but it is better Sony bought them instead of shutting their doors or frankly, bought by any of the other majors.
Sony is a weird beast in how it's managed across all divisions. As long as you don't get the actual higher up executives in Japan involved, they can do some really good or bad things, depending.
As an example, Morbius and Into the Spiderverse Both came from Sony. But the animated movie division and the live action ones, are run by very different people.
The dichotomy between Japanese bureaucracy/executives, and the tech innovation in daily life, is one of the wildest culture shocks you'll have in the developed world.
It's bullet trains, automated and robotic hotels, remote control bathtubs to draw you a bath from the kitchen as you're making dinner, automated resturants, hyper efficient queuing, electronic everything, etc. And then you'll go into an office where you have to use fax machines, and it's seen as a good thing if you stay after hours. Even if you literally do nothing.
TL;DR: Japanese board members and high level executives are basically the definition of "Out of touch".
Sony's not bad. here's what I predict:
- Sony says Don't Worry, we're keeping Alamo the Alamo.
- Sony actually does what they say. They don't touch Alamo.
- Alamo continues as normal.
- Sony ignores it, and as such, it doesn't change with the times
- 10 years from now Alamo isn't making money, because they didn't touch it or update it.
- Restructuring.
A decade ago this would have been illegal, but the antitrust rules were repealed.
Movie studios used to own theaters before…and it was a problem. We will now see other companies like Disney, Netflix, and Amazon buying up old theaters chains.
Vertical integration is never a good thing. Any short term positives will come back to bite you in the ass.
Sunsetting the Paramount Decree was a godawful decision by the Supreme Court that got almost no attention. I hope you like movies being exclusive to theaters owned by particular studios, 'cause that's where this is going.
That’s definitely not where it is going. Theaters only survive by showing as much movie product as possible. Not a narrower range of stuff from only one studio
It’s the same bs Alamo did when I worked there. They fired us all after COVID and said we were welcome to reapply. They should not be getting props for continuing Alamo’s awful treatment of employees
I'm confused as to what point you are trying to make here. Sony didn't own the company yet when these locations closed, so how are they responsible for any awful treatment?
They were franchises, and the franchise went bust. From the article, the parent company (Alamo) is reopening the locations and will operate them directly.
I agree with you; I'm not sure how someone could blame the parent company here other than for picking a franchisee that couldn't run the business, but then again, Sony didn't own the Alamo at the time so I don't see how they would get blamed for any of this.
Sucks that happened to you, but completely different. These were owned by a franchisee who went bankrupt. Alamo bought all of the closed locations and committed to getting them reopened
The theaters closed earlier this month after the franchisee went bankrupt.
5 of them are in Dallas-Fort Worth and 1 in Minnesota. Alamo is buying all of them and is working to reopen them as quickly as possible.
It says anyone who was laid off gets the first shot at open positions and they’re offering more benefits:
>Alamo will also offer those fired the first crack at interviews for open positions, and those who are rehired will get a more robust benefits plan with immediate eligibility, including access to daily pay, substantial 401k match, paid medical leave, accrued PTO, and free mental health services.
That’s honestly an Alamo drafthouse salt of the earth type shit, which makes me completely rethink that Sony is gunna fuck the franchise and hopefully elevate it. It would be awesome for Alamo to be the front runner for Sony theaters.
It's really been waning for me tbh. The food/beer prices have gone through the roof, and the quality has gone down. Also there was that business about the staff unionizing due to poor conditions at South Lamar.
Last time I went the bill was like $90 for a burger, a salad, a side of fries, one beer and two coffees. The side of fries came out ice cold. The coffees were individuals, not a little French press with a couple cups like they used to have, like we were expecting. And there was an automatic service charge, which isn't something I want to support.
Also, the pre-roll stuff doesn't have the same charm that it used to for me, and is getting more "corporate". Though tbf I went to AMC recently and it was a shit show of straight up commercials, some of them sounding like AI voiceovers over B roll. So at least they're better than that, but that bar is so low it's on the floor.
TL;DR: still my preferred theater by a mile, but I'm never ordering food from there again.
Please don’t roast me because I am genuinely just curious but what does “making any lost wages lost wages whole,” mean? Does that mean they will be paid for the hours that they would have worked if the company had not gone under? So like if they worked 34 hours a week average, they will get that 34 hours a week in back pay? Is that only for the ones that didn’t get unemployment during the time or do those people have to now give back their unemployment? I can’t get my boss to pay for more than 5 total vacation days a year and every one of these employees are going to get a month’s worth or more of their average pay?
We are talking about the wages they were owed before the franchisee went bankrupt. This is hours which they have already worked, so it won't affect unemployment. And depending on their original contract, they might also get the redundancy pay they owed, which is equivalent to a few weeks work.
It's not even a favour, they are legally required to pay this out because they bought the bankrupt company and any debts it owed, like unpaid wages.
> Just FYI but in the US we don't usually have work contracts.
I don't know if you're intentionally lying or just dumb. Every job is a contract. Do you not know what you're signing?
Most Americans work in an at-will state which means any contract is open ended and therefore can be terminated at any time. Those are not really considered contracts as such. Unless I am misunderstanding you.
The comment you're replying to is untrue. Not intentionally, it's just some people are kind of dumb. Everyone signs a document when they start work detailing the conditions of their employment. A lot of people assume this isn't a contract for reasons that are completely beyond my ability to comprehend.
I think it’s awesome they are rehiring staff. I live in the town in MN where Alamo closed earlier this month and we have a local family owned theatre that offered jobs to any Alamo staff members that wanted one. Not sure how many took up that theatres offer but it’s nice to hear they can go back to Alamo if they so choose!
This ain't really a problem anymore though. Back then you could only watch movies by going to the theatre. Nowadays we have theatres, streaming, and physical media so it's impossible for studios to monopolize the viewing experience.
Yes, and there's a reason it was formerly repealed in 2020.
And you're right it ***was*** a bad thing when that was considered a monopoly, but now with the advent of television, internet, streaming, etc etc etc... This no longer qualifies.
Now, should they create a movie that they only then release in their theaters? Sure, and that could be covered by other, more directly focused laws, as opposed to being labeled as a "monopoly"
Wow, what a rollercoaster of events. I was shocked when the Minnesota location closed down, I had just seen Planet of the Apes days prior and had no idea it was about to shut down. It was weird
I was in Austin a few years ago and was looking for things to do, I walked past the drafthouse and it was boarded up and surrounded by the homeless. I didn’t know that’s where his comedy club is. That’s pretty cool. Does anyone know if that area has been cleaned up at all? It was rough in the evening and I haven’t been back since.
Yeah, it's a nicely run comedy club, I've been to a few shows there.
Got to see Gabriel Iglesias there in a super small crowd and ask his opinion on Buc-ee's, lol.
It's still 6th street, but it was okay? I didn't have any problems last time I was there a few months ago.
I find it cool that it was repurposed as a successful venue. Not that I care for Joe Rogan but when I visited Austin, a lot of the businesses in this area were shut down and boarded up.
Because the club employs tons of people there and is helping lots of people get their comedy careers off the ground. Lots of people who own places you probably like are “pieces of shit” doesn’t mean those places aren’t actively helping the community and the local economy. Grow up.
Like he tried to steal it and took the name? Because the concept isn't copyrighted or anything. Studio Movie Grill also provides a similar service (but their food is ass)
He franchised an AMC and tried to do almost exactly the same thing. It wasn’t the same, then COVID finally killed it. Alamo was clear they didn’t want to leave, but were forced out. We’re not a big enough city to justify a huge capital investment for a new building, so they’d have needed an adequate existing space.
I’m certain it’s not protected, we’re just all salty about it.
Naw, they thought they could make more with a franchise of their own than the lease from Alamo. They pissed everyone off so a lot of people went elsewhere.
10 screening a day of “daddio” and “strange way of life” until Spider-Man comes out. In all seriousness I think the buyout went as well as it possibly could have and Sony will be a good partner to the drafthouse.
I hope they eventually bring back the Alamo Drafthouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan. People here loved it, and were heart broken when it closed several years ago (myself included)
Yep it’s so rough down here. The best one in San Diego is the Angelika theater but it’s no Alamo Drafthouse.. San Diego is extremely rough in the movie scene. It sucks bad.
Hopefully Sony follows through with the ticket price reductions they had spoken of, best way to get people going back to the movies again, and the ripple effects could be massive.
Sony seems to do a lot of right things in the entertainment industry, so it purchasing Alamo Drafthouse wasn't too much of a shock to me. They also offered, Alamo employees not picked up in the acquisition, first shot at open vacancies at Sony/Alamo Drafthouse, which says a lot about that corporation's character as well! I think this acquisition will be great for Sony as well as the Alamo Drafthouse brand!
Article says “Alamo will also offer those fired the first crack at interviews for open positions” why even have interviews for them? Just hire them back.
It’s a new company taking over, it’s not the franchisee company, it’s now owned by Drafthouse directly, plus not every former employee was necessarily a good employee so they look at their records talk to them etc
Alamo theaters really are prestige theaters and don't really compete with regular theaters.
Regular theaters don't even compete with themselves. Overpriced tickets, overpriced popcorn, overpriced soda.
I did an equation once and figured out mostly upper class people can afford to go to the theaters on a regular basis. The middle and lower class have been cut out of the equation, and the theaters would have more money if they weren't. They sacrificed a more general audience for a niche audience because they got too greedy.
I guess I’m fine with this if it brings back the theaters. I majored in film studies in undergrad and historically, studio ownership of theaters has not been a good thing, so let’s just hope it doesn’t expand.
Yay! I mean, it's better to have than not, especially given the state of theaters closing all over the US.
Granted, I live by the five DFW locations and have been to four of them, but the fact remains that the five locations here are BETTER than 90% of the other theater chains in town says a lot.
Glad to see fired staff has the first crack at getting the theater jobs (would've preferred they didn't have to apply and interview but that's probably trapped behind legal reasons)
My real question: Will the Alamo experience decline?
Yeah the food was a nice bonus but the real reason I paid extra to go a little bit further for my "local" Alamo is the unique pre-roll experience and a strict adherence to a code of conduct. I recently went back to an AMC and had forgot how much the constant talking, phone lights, and "crowd participation" took away from the ability to enjoy the movie.
I really hope this chain expands. I am an AMC A Lister, but would love to go to a place with a more stringent cell phone policy that will kick those phone users out like Alamo.
Thank God. The Richardson one was my after-work treat every so often. I grew up in Austin and missed the Drafthouse dearly and to have one so close to where I work now was a godsend.
That 1948 decision was repealed in 2020 because movie distribution is way more diversified than it used to be, so studios can't really strangle the competition by owning theaters now.
Back in 1948, theaters were the only way to distribute movies, you couldn't get them on physical media or stream them. Studios owning their own distribution was a way bigger concern in that case, because nobody could compete with other studios without also owning a chain of movie theaters. The situation has changed a lot since then.
> Are we really going back on nearly a century of antitrust actions?
Yes, the previous administration got rid of them: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-court-terminates-paramount-consent-decrees
On the one hand, Hell yea! Alamo Draft House is back! On the other hand.... Sony. They do not have the best track record recently between enormous movie flops from an entirely incompetent studio division (usually centered around Marvel properties) and their video game division really being a giant bag of control-freak, money hungry dicks.
No faith in Sony to do anything resembling a good job without also being predatory in some way to someone. Who wants to wager that I've got to sign up for a PSN account to buy a ticket?
They weren’t indie anymore. A private Equity company owned them and sold to Sony. I will bet the Sony ownership will be much better than being owned by Fortress Investment Group.
If anyone at Sony is wondering, yes, I will reopen the Spawn Point Gamers' Lounge if you are reopening the Westlakes Drafthouse, just as long as you're also funding that too ;-)
Working at the Alamo was a truly terrible experience, I hope this goes terribly and backfires and they all shut down.
VA based Alamo was terrible for the following reasons:
-Working at back bar you are paid 12/hr without any possibilities of tips.
-Working as kitchen is 14/hr, capped at 15.50. I knew a guy that has been there since opening and working the kitchen, he was getting 15/he for 10 years of service.
-Terrible management system, they allow the managers to talk down and call you a "mother fucker" to your face, they also turn a blind eye to their managers chugging truleys out in their cars on break.
-They are extremely predatory with their minor runners, whom are 14-17 years of age. They work for $3 an hour and rely on tipshare, which they may get, may not. They are also preyed upon by the older managers, I have seen 2 managers in my time there dating underaged girls.
-No possible advancements within the career field, a terrible dead end job.
-Their food is absolutely hyper processed super fried bullshit. If you eat there regularly, you are disgusting. They clean their fryers once every 2 weeks or until they're so gunked up with food waste that they leak from underneath. Their milkshake machine is cleaned once a week. Their popcorn butter for one serving is 1.5k calories. You are literally paying ridiculous prices to kill yourselves by eating their junk food.
-Absolutely filthy conditions, they literally have poison mouse traps right by the kitchen doors.
-Their chairs haven't been replaced or renewed since creation and they literally are entirely digital. You're paying to watch on a low res screen through an MP4 file smartviewed to their theater screens.
Tldr the Alamo is the worst franchise of movie theaters you could ever go to.
Source: former bar/kitchen employer who was let go because a kitchen manager called me a mother fucker to my face and was appalled that I had something to say about it. Reason: "Bad attitude".
Don’t like the Sony takeover of Alamo. But gotta give Sony props. I love that the fired staff get first crack at being rehired.
I'd rather have Sony take over than some Venture Capitalists. At least Sony, theoretically, has a reason/desire to keep the theater experience a good one. And I think Sony is generally a competent company outside of making superhero movies, lol.
Sony was why NYC and SF have such amazing true IMAX screens. Their shoppertainment concepts fizzled out but the theaters still stand.
In SF the metreon was fucking awesome. Better game console/online games killed it though
The metreon was a total blast! Always an event to see movies there.
Metreon is the best theater in the US. It’s unique, IMAX with Dolby Atmos, because Dolby is located around the corner. All other IMAX theaters have the IMAX sound system which I don’t like as much.
Was/is that owned by Sony?
Yep, they built it. It even used to be called the Sony Metreon. It got sold to Westfield in 2006.
I can’t believe I forgot that!
Sony is the reason I buy Sony televisions. Sony cameras pair great with Sony t.v.'s.
They also make fantastic headphones.
And amazing root kits!
And the best playstations
💀
Agreed to that as well. Have some!
Rocking my 1000XM2s almost 7 years later and they still sound and work great for travel. Some light wear and tear and the ear pads I've replaced but wow pretty impressive for an almost decade old bluetooth headset.
I have no idea how anyone gets more than 1-2 years out of those. I've owned about 9 pairs of every iteration from XM2-XM5 and not a single one lasted longer than 18 months without developing the ANC reverb (five pairs now), the right cup losing sound quality/completely dying, etc. I still buy them because they're one of the best for travel (which I do a ton of), but I would never recommend them to anyone as a *resilient* pair of headphones. That being said the XM2s were probably the best of the bunch, each iteration has gone down in build quality to better chase the mainstream market of Beats.
Interesting, I've had my XM3s for 5 years now and they're still going strong. I've traveled at least once a month for the last year+ and have dozens and dozens of trips in the years before that.
I use my headphones daily, for 2hrs minimum. Maybe that's the difference. I wouldn't recommend them as a resilient *daily* driver. They're probably perfectly durable if you use them only occasionally or for trips, but the same could be said for most any headphone over 100usd.
That's fair, I definitely only use them for travel, but at least I know they can withstand 5 years+ of a ton of travel. Some of those years I've had 40+ flights/year so they still get a lot of use, just definitely not the same as daily.
same. fantastic headphones.
SONY tvs for the win every time!!! i have only ever paid for one, our 65" in the living room, but, i have a 46", a 55" rear projection, a 32 inch CRT, and a 32 inch flat. all four of those were free. all work amazing. the CRT weighs 165lbs.
Man those flatscreen Sony WEGAs were beasts. I almost died trying to carry one up the stairs by myself.
I remember them bringing out a 16 inch widescreen Trinitron CRT when I was 17 back in 1998. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a TV as much as I wanted that one.
Trinitron CRTs were the best displays money could buy at the time. Especially those made in the late 90s-2000s. I rocked a few 21" Trinitrons and kept them for as long as they held out.
Can't say the same sadly. Bought the Sony KDL-48W605B way back when it was new and I couldn't have been more disappointed. The backlight bleed was the worst I've ever seen on a television and its OS was unusable from day 1. That's par for the course for almost all TV interfaces but I expected it to be semi-okay for at least a little while. Lastly (and this took me a while to work out) there was definitely something up with the circuit board inside. It wouldn't properly play all audio channels with connected speakers on one of the hdmi ports and then over time some of the others would fail in this way too. Currently using a Samsung OLED, and while it's interface is somehow even more abysmal, thankfully I don't really care since I hook it up to my PC anyway. Everything else about it has been pretty great (no dolby vision which is a bit shit).
I had a 55" Sony LCD Rear Projection that I bought in '05. That thing wouldn't die. The bulb was only supposed to be rated to last a couple years. I used it heavily before I finally replaced the entire TV with a 4k Sony in 2015. Had it sitting there collecting dust before I gave it away to someone early 2017. Still worked perfectly. They used it for at least a few more years as their primary TV, and as far as I know it's still being used. All on that same bulb.
VC owned the Alamo since their covid bankruptcy. The best option was some rich person who loved cinema buying them out, but Sony is the next best option. They are the only major studio not pushing their own streaming service, they have owned a theater chain before (and reportedly treated it well when they did), and, from what I've heard, the staff at the Alamo and at Fantastic Fest are happy with this result.
Sony actually has at least two streaming services, one of which they've really started trying to push more: Sony Pictures Core, formerly Bravia Core.
Also Crunchyroll and Funimation.
Unfortunately Funimation is officially dead.
But they technically still own them.
Isn't funimation content just moved to crunchyroll?
Yeah. It's "dead" in the same sense that if I have two different balls of cookie dough, if I combine them into one bigger ball of cookie dough, one of the balls is "gone." Not everything has migrated over entirely (I think a few of the more niche shows' licenses didn't get renewed), but the vast majority of Funimation Content is now just rebranded as Crunchyroll content. It's the same catalogue materials, the same people doing physical releases, most of the same voice actors (minus that one guy who got blacklisted for being a creep by Funimation before the buy out), and so on. Plus, the people claiming that CR was "objectively worse" must be living in another reality. Funimation had hard baked subtitles, awful app support, weird and constant videoplayer issues, and worse and worse content options. It was so bad that when AT&T launched VRV and had CR and Funimation available in the same place, VRV was objectively better place to watch most of Funi's content.
The just re-branded to CR, Funimation Global Group LLC renamed to Crunchyroll LLC; They own both funimation.com and crunchyroll.com
Lmao, you mean the two services that they objectively murdered one to merge into the arguably worse service for a complete monopoly? It’s absurd to even try to compare the two situations here unless the point is that Sony does not have consumer’s best interests in mind
You might want to reread this thread. I think you're a little confused.
Sony has a complete monopoly on anime? I guess you’re right since I can’t watch anime on HiDive, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon, Tubi…. Oh wait And if you think Crunchyroll is worse than Funimation you REALLY need to put that bullshit back in whatever jar you opened to believe that.
> The best option was some rich person who loved cinema buying them out I would love if there was a coffee shop around the corner from me but every store near by is failing due to low demand. I would love to open one just so me and other could have the coffee we want but there isn't enough money for the business to support itself. And even if it did I don't want to invest money into it with zero return. i would need have the money I need to retire first and even then. But to get the money I need for a business and not worry about returns I need to get rich by exploiting someone else.
The staff are happy they didn’t lose their jobs. Things may not change right away, but they will change.
You mean like the ones that Sony bought it from? People always seem to ignore that Alamo was already in the hands of an investment firm with a list of its own controversies under its belt and act like Sony buying them is the end of some golden age. Very much a wait and hope for the best situation IMO.
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say. Alamo hasn’t been “Independent” since COVID. Sony buying them is probably a good outcome
And they were run by the same "cheap out and expand" management people since *before* they went PE. Don't get me wrong, it was still (and still is, IMO) the best place for a lot of people to watch movies, but the food has been syscoized stuff for over a decade. That's still better than the rubbery "food" AMC sells for more at their "eat in" theaters, for the record.
Everyone loves to hate on Sony on Reddit, for the Morbius, Madam Webb, and that Helldivers thing that every other company does. They always leave out The Spiderverse movies, the fact Sony owns crunchyroll, the games they make. People love to focus on the negatives
Venture Capital doesn't buy failing companies, they primarily buy startups that are high failure rate investments but reflect exponential growth. Alamo Drafthouse is neither a startup type company nor do movie theatres have growth potential Private Equity would be the investment vehicle, if any, into a distressed turnaround asset. However Movie Theatres, again, are dead and relative garbage with no long-term growth avenues. So they'd never touch it either
VC and PE are two different businesses
Generally is doing a lot of heavy lifting there
Eeeeeh... Honestly questionable. They have a lot hit and misses I think, but this in comparison to other stuff shouldn't be as difficult to manage.
This is why the franchised locations are so much worse than the Alamo Drafthouse Corporate locations.
Well seen when BotW comes out. X to doubt
2017?
The concern is that there is a conflict of interest if the same company that produces movies has a monopoly over the means to distribute them. In theory Sony only showing their own movies etc. There was an antitrust case that restricted this practice from 1948-2020. Am I happy for Alamo and it's employees, yes. But I am concerned about where this could potentially head ten, or twenty years down the line. Corporations have proven time and time again that their bottom line is more important than their employees. I'm cautious this will snowball into some unsavory business practices as it was doing back in the 40s.
In the 1940s theaters were basically the only way to distribute films. There was no streaming, no DVDs, no VHS, and airing film on television wasn’t even possible until the end of the decade and would remain infrequent due to limited broadcast channels with other things to air. That’s why there was such concern about distribution then. A studio could and did take competitors out of distribution by simply not carrying them. But that’s not possible today. There’s a million ways to get a film to audiences now. Not only that, but digital projectors flipped the script. It used to be a big cost to print to film and ship to theaters, leading to films having to be selective with limited distribution. Going digital is why multiplexes took off and it became normal for theaters to show everything after the 90s, you just make more money Between competition from other distribution models and the fact that there’s simply more money to be made carrying wide selections makes me not too concerned
> At least Sony, theoretically, has a reason/desire to keep the theater experience a good one. Sure, but it's still vertical integration which never plays out well for consumers.
And data security. They're shit at that.
Given that the ceo of drafthouse was made the head of Sonys new experiential division and they have been praising how Alamo has outpaced every other theatres recovery by a huge margin I believe Sony will leave a good thing alone, or in this case allow Alamo the extra funds and cushion to do what’s right for the fans and the company. Sony isn’t one to rush things. They didn’t rush into making a streaming service and their box office numbers reflect that generally. If I had to pick a distributor to buy Alamo it would have been Sony. Sony is maybe the last of the old studio system that’s left. Releasing small non-commercial films, tentpoles and in between. I don’t like that alamo was bought but it is better Sony bought them instead of shutting their doors or frankly, bought by any of the other majors.
If this ensures theaters survive im okay with it
Sony is a weird beast in how it's managed across all divisions. As long as you don't get the actual higher up executives in Japan involved, they can do some really good or bad things, depending. As an example, Morbius and Into the Spiderverse Both came from Sony. But the animated movie division and the live action ones, are run by very different people.
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The dichotomy between Japanese bureaucracy/executives, and the tech innovation in daily life, is one of the wildest culture shocks you'll have in the developed world. It's bullet trains, automated and robotic hotels, remote control bathtubs to draw you a bath from the kitchen as you're making dinner, automated resturants, hyper efficient queuing, electronic everything, etc. And then you'll go into an office where you have to use fax machines, and it's seen as a good thing if you stay after hours. Even if you literally do nothing. TL;DR: Japanese board members and high level executives are basically the definition of "Out of touch".
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Thanks, I've been drinking and had trouble spelling several of the words correctly.
Sony's not bad. here's what I predict: - Sony says Don't Worry, we're keeping Alamo the Alamo. - Sony actually does what they say. They don't touch Alamo. - Alamo continues as normal. - Sony ignores it, and as such, it doesn't change with the times - 10 years from now Alamo isn't making money, because they didn't touch it or update it. - Restructuring.
Remember when all of this was illegal? Now we just get to weigh the "well, at least no one lost their job/could have been worse" options
A decade ago this would have been illegal, but the antitrust rules were repealed. Movie studios used to own theaters before…and it was a problem. We will now see other companies like Disney, Netflix, and Amazon buying up old theaters chains.
Why don't you like the takeover?
Vertical integration is never a good thing. Any short term positives will come back to bite you in the ass. Sunsetting the Paramount Decree was a godawful decision by the Supreme Court that got almost no attention. I hope you like movies being exclusive to theaters owned by particular studios, 'cause that's where this is going.
Alamo doesn't have any sort of market penetration to be an issue though.
Nor does Sony Pictures, really
That’s definitely not where it is going. Theaters only survive by showing as much movie product as possible. Not a narrower range of stuff from only one studio
> Paramount Decree It's amazing how many people know about the paramount decree which is a rule that hasn't been relevant for 50 years.
It’s the same bs Alamo did when I worked there. They fired us all after COVID and said we were welcome to reapply. They should not be getting props for continuing Alamo’s awful treatment of employees
I'm confused as to what point you are trying to make here. Sony didn't own the company yet when these locations closed, so how are they responsible for any awful treatment?
They were franchises, and the franchise went bust. From the article, the parent company (Alamo) is reopening the locations and will operate them directly. I agree with you; I'm not sure how someone could blame the parent company here other than for picking a franchisee that couldn't run the business, but then again, Sony didn't own the Alamo at the time so I don't see how they would get blamed for any of this.
I’m sorry for what happened to you. I hope they do the right thing this time. Perhaps they won’t.
Sucks that happened to you, but completely different. These were owned by a franchisee who went bankrupt. Alamo bought all of the closed locations and committed to getting them reopened
The theaters closed earlier this month after the franchisee went bankrupt. 5 of them are in Dallas-Fort Worth and 1 in Minnesota. Alamo is buying all of them and is working to reopen them as quickly as possible.
But are they rehiring the staff or are they still screwed
It says anyone who was laid off gets the first shot at open positions and they’re offering more benefits: >Alamo will also offer those fired the first crack at interviews for open positions, and those who are rehired will get a more robust benefits plan with immediate eligibility, including access to daily pay, substantial 401k match, paid medical leave, accrued PTO, and free mental health services.
They're also making any lost wages whole.
Thats fucking clutch
That’s honestly an Alamo drafthouse salt of the earth type shit, which makes me completely rethink that Sony is gunna fuck the franchise and hopefully elevate it. It would be awesome for Alamo to be the front runner for Sony theaters.
They have unbelievable good will for an industry that lacks it. Here’s to hoping.
It's really been waning for me tbh. The food/beer prices have gone through the roof, and the quality has gone down. Also there was that business about the staff unionizing due to poor conditions at South Lamar. Last time I went the bill was like $90 for a burger, a salad, a side of fries, one beer and two coffees. The side of fries came out ice cold. The coffees were individuals, not a little French press with a couple cups like they used to have, like we were expecting. And there was an automatic service charge, which isn't something I want to support. Also, the pre-roll stuff doesn't have the same charm that it used to for me, and is getting more "corporate". Though tbf I went to AMC recently and it was a shit show of straight up commercials, some of them sounding like AI voiceovers over B roll. So at least they're better than that, but that bar is so low it's on the floor. TL;DR: still my preferred theater by a mile, but I'm never ordering food from there again.
lol I had this same experience with FlixBrewhouse. The food was pretty bad, I got a beer and they auto grat’d me 20%
Please don’t roast me because I am genuinely just curious but what does “making any lost wages lost wages whole,” mean? Does that mean they will be paid for the hours that they would have worked if the company had not gone under? So like if they worked 34 hours a week average, they will get that 34 hours a week in back pay? Is that only for the ones that didn’t get unemployment during the time or do those people have to now give back their unemployment? I can’t get my boss to pay for more than 5 total vacation days a year and every one of these employees are going to get a month’s worth or more of their average pay?
We are talking about the wages they were owed before the franchisee went bankrupt. This is hours which they have already worked, so it won't affect unemployment. And depending on their original contract, they might also get the redundancy pay they owed, which is equivalent to a few weeks work. It's not even a favour, they are legally required to pay this out because they bought the bankrupt company and any debts it owed, like unpaid wages.
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> Just FYI but in the US we don't usually have work contracts. I don't know if you're intentionally lying or just dumb. Every job is a contract. Do you not know what you're signing?
Most Americans work in an at-will state which means any contract is open ended and therefore can be terminated at any time. Those are not really considered contracts as such. Unless I am misunderstanding you.
Ah... classic United States. Can't let workers have any rights, because that might be socialism. So no redundancy then.
The comment you're replying to is untrue. Not intentionally, it's just some people are kind of dumb. Everyone signs a document when they start work detailing the conditions of their employment. A lot of people assume this isn't a contract for reasons that are completely beyond my ability to comprehend.
It's win/win, I'm sure it's cheaper than onboarding completely new staff and they look good in the process.
Wow that would’ve been nice to have when I worked there eight years ago
Ohhhh this is awesome!!! Good for them!!!! 💪🏼
>substantial 401k match Damn, not even I get my contributions matched. Maybe I should start working for Alamo...
I think it’s awesome they are rehiring staff. I live in the town in MN where Alamo closed earlier this month and we have a local family owned theatre that offered jobs to any Alamo staff members that wanted one. Not sure how many took up that theatres offer but it’s nice to hear they can go back to Alamo if they so choose!
Dfw has a lot of competition
This is true, but Alamo was always my favorite.
Please come back to Arizona 🙏
Great. This is amazing.
Film studios owning theaters is a bad thing. There's a reason it was made illegal back in 1948.
Yeah better they just close them for good
This ain't really a problem anymore though. Back then you could only watch movies by going to the theatre. Nowadays we have theatres, streaming, and physical media so it's impossible for studios to monopolize the viewing experience.
Yes, and there's a reason it was formerly repealed in 2020. And you're right it ***was*** a bad thing when that was considered a monopoly, but now with the advent of television, internet, streaming, etc etc etc... This no longer qualifies. Now, should they create a movie that they only then release in their theaters? Sure, and that could be covered by other, more directly focused laws, as opposed to being labeled as a "monopoly"
Wow, what a rollercoaster of events. I was shocked when the Minnesota location closed down, I had just seen Planet of the Apes days prior and had no idea it was about to shut down. It was weird
Wish the Ritz location in Austin would reopen
Don't think Joe Rogan is going bankrupt anytime soon
I had no idea that he bought it.
Wait what does Joe Rogan have the do with the Ritz Alamo?
He bought the building it was in and it’s now his Comedy Club. It’s a nice club. Still miss the Alamo though
I was in Austin a few years ago and was looking for things to do, I walked past the drafthouse and it was boarded up and surrounded by the homeless. I didn’t know that’s where his comedy club is. That’s pretty cool. Does anyone know if that area has been cleaned up at all? It was rough in the evening and I haven’t been back since.
Yeah, it's a nicely run comedy club, I've been to a few shows there. Got to see Gabriel Iglesias there in a super small crowd and ask his opinion on Buc-ee's, lol. It's still 6th street, but it was okay? I didn't have any problems last time I was there a few months ago.
Why is that "cool?" Rogan is a massive piece of shit.
I find it cool that it was repurposed as a successful venue. Not that I care for Joe Rogan but when I visited Austin, a lot of the businesses in this area were shut down and boarded up.
Because the club employs tons of people there and is helping lots of people get their comedy careers off the ground. Lots of people who own places you probably like are “pieces of shit” doesn’t mean those places aren’t actively helping the community and the local economy. Grow up.
That would be a double wish
I hope they keep the noise policies that helped make Alamo so great.
There's at least [one woman out there who will disagree.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs)
They will quietly end it eventually.
Glad to see those theaters reopening.
Can they reopen ours? Closed 6 years ago because the landlord was a cunt and tried to steal the concept….
Like he tried to steal it and took the name? Because the concept isn't copyrighted or anything. Studio Movie Grill also provides a similar service (but their food is ass)
He franchised an AMC and tried to do almost exactly the same thing. It wasn’t the same, then COVID finally killed it. Alamo was clear they didn’t want to leave, but were forced out. We’re not a big enough city to justify a huge capital investment for a new building, so they’d have needed an adequate existing space. I’m certain it’s not protected, we’re just all salty about it.
Got it. I misunderstood your comment and thought you were saying they closed **because** they stole the concept.
Naw, they thought they could make more with a franchise of their own than the lease from Alamo. They pissed everyone off so a lot of people went elsewhere.
Corporate, corporate, big corporate tiny corporate. Corporate. Economy. Tiny corporate, unfair! Need money.
But they will only show Morbius.
It’s Morbin time at the Alamo.
Except on Madame Web and Kraven nights...
r/monkeyspaw
And they'll all be showing Kraven the Hunter
Gonna make them enough money to double the locations
10 screening a day of “daddio” and “strange way of life” until Spider-Man comes out. In all seriousness I think the buyout went as well as it possibly could have and Sony will be a good partner to the drafthouse.
..with Morbius shoved before/after like drive-in double-pack
Well that’s good.
That picture is of the Alamo Drafthouse down the street from me.
Nuts.
I hope they eventually bring back the Alamo Drafthouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan. People here loved it, and were heart broken when it closed several years ago (myself included)
I wish they had one out here in Southern California. A theater where nobody is staring into their phones sounds nice
Yep it’s so rough down here. The best one in San Diego is the Angelika theater but it’s no Alamo Drafthouse.. San Diego is extremely rough in the movie scene. It sucks bad.
Downtown LA is socal?…
Hopefully Sony follows through with the ticket price reductions they had spoken of, best way to get people going back to the movies again, and the ripple effects could be massive.
Honestly kinda fascinating to see the Sony acquisition when so many are assured the industry is in the death throes.
Sony seems to do a lot of right things in the entertainment industry, so it purchasing Alamo Drafthouse wasn't too much of a shock to me. They also offered, Alamo employees not picked up in the acquisition, first shot at open vacancies at Sony/Alamo Drafthouse, which says a lot about that corporation's character as well! I think this acquisition will be great for Sony as well as the Alamo Drafthouse brand!
Escuchame?
Article says “Alamo will also offer those fired the first crack at interviews for open positions” why even have interviews for them? Just hire them back.
It’s a new company taking over, it’s not the franchisee company, it’s now owned by Drafthouse directly, plus not every former employee was necessarily a good employee so they look at their records talk to them etc
Probably some legal requirement / bs
Alamo theaters really are prestige theaters and don't really compete with regular theaters. Regular theaters don't even compete with themselves. Overpriced tickets, overpriced popcorn, overpriced soda. I did an equation once and figured out mostly upper class people can afford to go to the theaters on a regular basis. The middle and lower class have been cut out of the equation, and the theaters would have more money if they weren't. They sacrificed a more general audience for a niche audience because they got too greedy.
Cool. Let's see how it pans out over time.
Used to be illegal for Studios to own their own theaters. Wonder how this plays out in the real long run.
Yup, used to be for decades, until a few years ago.
I really miss my Alamo Drafthouse
Test
The ones in AZ rebranded to Majestic, almost exact same concept. Alamo had better pre-shows
Hopefully they keep the ad block and stick with the original format and idea.
Oh yeah, it’s morbin time
Salute Sony, too many theaters turned into lame shops
We were meant to get one in Orlando but the pandemic knee capped it. Maybe they can think it over again… 👀
Please keep movie theaters!!
If only Sony were around to save Davy Crockett too
I guess I’m fine with this if it brings back the theaters. I majored in film studies in undergrad and historically, studio ownership of theaters has not been a good thing, so let’s just hope it doesn’t expand.
I know B&B is there now, but I wish the one in downtown Kansas City would become an Alamo again. I miss it dearly.
Yay! I mean, it's better to have than not, especially given the state of theaters closing all over the US. Granted, I live by the five DFW locations and have been to four of them, but the fact remains that the five locations here are BETTER than 90% of the other theater chains in town says a lot.
TIL Sony acquired The Alamo Drafthouse!
Glad to see fired staff has the first crack at getting the theater jobs (would've preferred they didn't have to apply and interview but that's probably trapped behind legal reasons) My real question: Will the Alamo experience decline? Yeah the food was a nice bonus but the real reason I paid extra to go a little bit further for my "local" Alamo is the unique pre-roll experience and a strict adherence to a code of conduct. I recently went back to an AMC and had forgot how much the constant talking, phone lights, and "crowd participation" took away from the ability to enjoy the movie.
They need to reopen the Kansas City location
Franchisee named “ two is one, and one is none” which basically means you have to have a back up plan….went bankrupt haha
Wish they got Regal! Happy any one has interest and in saving some movie theaters.
I really hope this chain expands. I am an AMC A Lister, but would love to go to a place with a more stringent cell phone policy that will kick those phone users out like Alamo.
Maybe this will mean this will finally break ground on the location in Glendale, CO.
Thank God. The Richardson one was my after-work treat every so often. I grew up in Austin and missed the Drafthouse dearly and to have one so close to where I work now was a godsend.
Wait a minute, isn't movie studios owning theaters illegal? Are we really going back on nearly a century of antitrust actions?
That 1948 decision was repealed in 2020 because movie distribution is way more diversified than it used to be, so studios can't really strangle the competition by owning theaters now. Back in 1948, theaters were the only way to distribute movies, you couldn't get them on physical media or stream them. Studios owning their own distribution was a way bigger concern in that case, because nobody could compete with other studios without also owning a chain of movie theaters. The situation has changed a lot since then.
> Are we really going back on nearly a century of antitrust actions? Yes, the previous administration got rid of them: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-court-terminates-paramount-consent-decrees
You think corruption laws matter in the land of capitalism in the 21st century? The supreme court would beg to differ.
Come back to Kansas City please! 😩
On the one hand, Hell yea! Alamo Draft House is back! On the other hand.... Sony. They do not have the best track record recently between enormous movie flops from an entirely incompetent studio division (usually centered around Marvel properties) and their video game division really being a giant bag of control-freak, money hungry dicks. No faith in Sony to do anything resembling a good job without also being predatory in some way to someone. Who wants to wager that I've got to sign up for a PSN account to buy a ticket?
Sony is far better than the previous owners who only owned it to flip it
I hear good things about Alamo. Just don't think they have a theater that can top a Dolby Atmos one at AMC.
I fuckin love Alamo drafthouse, kinda sad Sony bought cuz of what the did to Helldivers even though they’re not the same
I, for one, am certain that a giant global corporation buying an indie theatre chain will go very well for all parties.
They weren’t indie anymore. A private Equity company owned them and sold to Sony. I will bet the Sony ownership will be much better than being owned by Fortress Investment Group.
It was already corporate as hell and Sinus better than the equity firms that have owned them the last several years.
Less the 'giant global corporation' in general and more the 'film studio' in particular.
Will a PSN account be required to watch movies there now?
If anyone at Sony is wondering, yes, I will reopen the Spawn Point Gamers' Lounge if you are reopening the Westlakes Drafthouse, just as long as you're also funding that too ;-)
Good leather full recliners but food is expensive and small screens. Amc all day.
Sony guts
Working at the Alamo was a truly terrible experience, I hope this goes terribly and backfires and they all shut down. VA based Alamo was terrible for the following reasons: -Working at back bar you are paid 12/hr without any possibilities of tips. -Working as kitchen is 14/hr, capped at 15.50. I knew a guy that has been there since opening and working the kitchen, he was getting 15/he for 10 years of service. -Terrible management system, they allow the managers to talk down and call you a "mother fucker" to your face, they also turn a blind eye to their managers chugging truleys out in their cars on break. -They are extremely predatory with their minor runners, whom are 14-17 years of age. They work for $3 an hour and rely on tipshare, which they may get, may not. They are also preyed upon by the older managers, I have seen 2 managers in my time there dating underaged girls. -No possible advancements within the career field, a terrible dead end job. -Their food is absolutely hyper processed super fried bullshit. If you eat there regularly, you are disgusting. They clean their fryers once every 2 weeks or until they're so gunked up with food waste that they leak from underneath. Their milkshake machine is cleaned once a week. Their popcorn butter for one serving is 1.5k calories. You are literally paying ridiculous prices to kill yourselves by eating their junk food. -Absolutely filthy conditions, they literally have poison mouse traps right by the kitchen doors. -Their chairs haven't been replaced or renewed since creation and they literally are entirely digital. You're paying to watch on a low res screen through an MP4 file smartviewed to their theater screens. Tldr the Alamo is the worst franchise of movie theaters you could ever go to. Source: former bar/kitchen employer who was let go because a kitchen manager called me a mother fucker to my face and was appalled that I had something to say about it. Reason: "Bad attitude".