Movie Theater News

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

RIP Alamo in DFW

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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

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

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The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

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