Movie Theater News

All 5 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations in Dallas-Fort Worth close

RIP Alamo in DFW

Alamo Drafthouse Facebook

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.

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Movie Review

The Magic Faraway Tree is a whimsical family lark that fails to take root

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids - Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) - are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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