Q: Why is it unusual for movie studios to own movie theaters?
Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the eclectic dine-in theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, an unusual example of a studio owner buying a theater chain. But why isn’t it more common? We asked reporter Robbie Whelan.
A: “For starters, from the late 1940s until 2020, most big movie studios were prohibited under federal law from owning theater chains. A law from Hollywood’s Golden Age was meant to reduce the control that the original major studios like Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures maintained over the industry by owning both the means of production and distribution of movies. That law didn’t apply to Sony, a relatively new entrant in the world of film distribution.
These days, however, there’s a simpler explanation for why studios haven’t shown much interest in owning theaters: Theatrical exhibition is a business in decline. Most theaters were shut down during the pandemic, when the anti-consolidation law was overturned, and most big media companies pivoted hard over the last five years to the direct-to-consumer model, investing billions in building their own streaming services, which have since majorly eaten into the profits of theaters.
Sony, which is sometimes referred to as an ‘arms dealer’ of content that is then distributed by other companies, has mostly resisted the trend of investing in streaming, preferring instead to license its content to established streaming services like Netflix. Buying Alamo makes a bit more sense for Sony compared to others, because Sony doesn’t own one of the major streaming platforms that might cannibalize the sales of tickets to its movies at the box office.”
Brand Steward | Spirits Education | Sales Enablement
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