Movie Theater News
All 5 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations in Dallas-Fort Worth close
RIP Alamo in DFW
It's a sad sad day for Dallas moviegoers: All five Dallas-area locations of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain have closed.
According to a release, Two is One, One is None, LLC has closed the six franchised Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas that it (and its affiliates) operated, and have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The five Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in North Texas closing include Richardson, Las Colinas, Lake Highlands, Dallas, and Denton. They are also closing a location in Woodbury, Minnesota.
UPDATE 6-6-2024: A spokesman for Alamo Drafthouse issued a statement, saying, “We are very disappointed to learn today that our franchisee, which operates five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and one in Woodbury, MN has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is closing their business effective immediately. We are heartbroken for the franchisee’s teammates and the local film communities, however, we are working as quickly as possible to get Alamo Drafthouse Cinema back up and running in these cities. All other Alamo Drafthouse locations are operating as normal, with continued expansion plans across the country.”
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UPDATE 6-27-2024: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will re-open all five locations in Dallas-Fort Worth. All six locations that recently closed as part of the franchisee's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing — including DFW’s Cedars, Denton, Lake Highlands, Las Colinas, and Richardson locations and the Woodbury location in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota — will now be owned and operated by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and are set to reopen in summer 2024.
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The Alamo provided a truly unique moviegoing experience with restaurant in-theater servers and themed parties, menu items, and merchandise corresponding with movies, as well as offering holiday and other special movies.
The closure of the Richardson location is especially poignant, since the theater only just received a round of improvements, in partnership with the city of Richardon, to its audiovisual equipment, seating arrangements, and theater ambiance.
Two is One, One is None and its affiliates attributed the decision to seek bankruptcy protection and close the cinemas to the following factors:
- Industry-wide guest counts have not rebounded even to pre-COVID levels and coupled with the 100-plus days of the Writers’ and Actors’ strikes, industry-wide economic performance was severely down in the fourth quarter of 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024. The first quarter of 2024 has been the worst performing quarter in movie-going history.
- As a franchisee, they paid franchise fees not required of other competitors; payment of these fees to our franchisor in a prolonged environment of significantly decreased revenues were not sustainable. Franchise Fees alone were nearly 10 percent of their sales ($3.7 million) in 2023.
- Due to contractual obligations, they were forced to keep even the most unprofitable locations open to the detriment of our overall businesses.
- To offset operating losses and try to survive, the owners infused more than $3.5 million dollars in new capital, into payroll and operations in 2023 and year-to-date 2024, while attempting to reduce costs, including repeatedly seeking relief from the franchisor to reduce the non-competitive fee structure and to permit closure of the most non-profitable locations, neither of which were obtained.
The company said it was "deeply saddened" to take this step, and expressed gratitude to its employees "who put in the work, day in and day out to produce a special movie-going experience," as well as to their many loyal customers for whom it was a pleasure to provide such a special experience. The release says that an attempt was made to contact all 600-plus employees prior to the closing of all theaters.
The closures come the same week as the closing of the Angelika Film Center in Plano, which shut down on June 3.
The Elf Town Depot, with mayor Elfus standing guard.Photo courtesy of David and Melissa Loder
The Loders have been presenting Elf Town since 2011.Photo courtesy of David and Melissa Loder