Drafthouse-owner Sony attempts peace with cinephiles by reopening the Cinerama Dome
After months of bad P.R. over the institution of the Alamo's divisive phone-based ordering system, Sony promises to restore and reopen two of Hollywood's most iconic movie theaters.
Credit: UpdateNerd
The last few years have done a number on the Alamo Drafthouse’s reputation as a cinephile’s haven. After filing for bankruptcy and closing several locations in 2021, the theater chain opened several new ones later that year. Three years later, Sony Pictures acquired the Drafthouse—and thus ended the long-standing Paramount Decree—and brought a wave of changes, including a widely reviled update to the theater’s phone policy. Many believed the adoption of a phone-based ordering system, which even Hollywood nice guy Elijah Wood hates, was a way of cutting staff that had spent the last few years unionizing, being laid off, and destroying their backs with all that crouching. Several unfair labor practices later, followed by months of bad PR over the mobile ordering system, Alamo Drafthouse is attempting to win back the film fans it spent the last few months betraying. In its defense, it found a good bargaining chip: the long-shuttered Hollywood movie theaters the ArcLight and Cinerama Dome.
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