Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Lays Off Some Staff

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Wed, 01/15/2025 - 09:22 -- Nick Dager

Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas has been hit with layoffs as 15 employees, or nine percent of its workforce, at the corporate level were let go.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas has been hit with layoffs as 15 employees, or nine percent of its workforce, at the corporate level were let go.The exhibitor had 165 workers prior to the cutbacks. The roles were apparently eliminated as part of a business reorganization to prioritize efficiency and added that no further layoffs are anticipated on the cooperate side.

Like all cinema circuits, Alamo Drafthouse has spent the past four years grappling with the residual effects of COVID, only to face additional setbacks from 2023’s twin labor strikes. Domestic box office revenues in 2024 fell to $8.75 billion, down 3.3 percent from last year and 23.5 percent from 2019, marking first time post-pandemic that yearly revenues didn’t improve upon the last. Hollywood is hoping that admissions will finally rebound to pre-COVID levels in 2025.

After a slow start, moviegoing is expected to pick up with Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World followed by blockbuster-hopefuls including Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth, Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Fantastic Four: First Steps and Wicked: For Good over the next 12 months.

Alamo Drafthouse also let go of an unspecified number of venue staff at its theatre chains, though sources say those cuts were part of the yearly post-holiday slowdown. Most of those people were part-time employees who were hired around the busy Christmas season and will be eligible for rehire in the spring when the box office is expected to regain steam.

Alamo Drafthouse currently operates 44 locations nationwide after opening two new venues in San Francisco in December. The chain was acquired last year by Sony Pictures Entertainment.