04:09 PM EDT, 06/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Sony Group ( SONY ) , through a subsidiary, disclosed plans to acquire the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Wednesday, becoming the first movie studio in decades to own an exhibition facility.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. In a statement, the companies said Michael Kustermann will remain CEO of the 35-theater chain and will also head a new division, Sony Pictures Experiences, within the parent company's Sony Pictures Entertainment unit.

Alamo, which mixes food and drink and second-run movies, has been owned by a pair of private equity firms, Altamont Capital Partners and Fortress Investment Group, together with company founder Tim League, after it ran into financial trouble during the COVID-19 pandemic and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2021. Altamont had been a prior investor in the company.

Film distributors were barred from owning movie theaters from 1948 to 2020 after the US Department of Justice and the US Supreme Court moved to break up the Hollywood studio system through what became known as the Paramount consent decrees. The Justice Department's antitrust division moved to end the ban, saying in court documents the movie business has changed dramatically, noting that many of the original defendants had gone out of business years ago.

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