Movie News

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema reveals reopening dates for Dallas-area theaters

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

The movies are back: The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema theater chain now has dates on the reopening of its five Dallas-Fort Worth theaters.

In a nutshell, they'll all be open by the end of August.

According to a release, the cinema company will reopen all of the six theaters it recently acquired after their closure as part of the franchisee's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing — including five across Dallas Fort Worth: Cedars, Denton, Lake Highlands, Las Colinas, and Richardson — as well as the Woodbury location in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

The reopenings will be staggered throughout the month of August as follows:

August 9: Alamo Drafthouse Richardson
August 13: Alamo Drafthouse Lake Highlands
August 16: Alamo Drafthouse Cedars
August 20: Alamo Drafthouse Denton
August 23: Alamo Drafthouse Las Colinas
August 27: Alamo Drafthouse Woodbury

Tickets for upcoming shows will go on sale on a theater-by-theater basis shortly before each reopening date.

Beyond simply reopening the theaters, Alamo Drafthouse plans to implement improvements and upgrades to several of the venues.

The Richardson location will get state-of-the-art 4K laser projectors and Dolby Atmos sound in a new The Big Show auditorium – Alamo Drafthouse’s premium large format experience, with a targeted date of Labor Day. Las Colinas will get premium recliner seats and 4K laser projectors by spring 2025.

Each location will host a soft opening for the first two weeks after opening with $5 tickets for all shows and 25 percent off select food and beverage items. Programming for the soft opening includes some of the most anticipated films of the summer, including Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us, Alien: Romulus, and Blink Twice.

Anyone who purchased tickets before the shutdown will receive rainchecks via email once tickets go on sale. Additionally, previously purchased merchandise for Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine will be distributed to guests during the soft opening period.

Season Pass members affected by the closure will also be given the opportunity to reactivate their account and receive two months free for doing so once tickets for their preferred theater go on sale.

Priot to opening, Alamo Drafthouse will host a hiring fair for past employees on July 23 at the Lake Highlands and Woodbury locations, both to make them whole for lost wages that they were owed before the closure and to give them first access to interviews for open positions. (Anyone unable to make the event can apply here.)

Those who are rehired will get a more robust benefits plan with immediate eligibility, including access to daily pay, substantial 401k match, paid medical leave, accrued PTO, and free mental health services.

“Our number one goal throughout this difficult period has been to do right by the former teammates and get back to providing the exceptional cinema experience our guests deserve,” says Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kustermann. “We’re thrilled to say that that goal is in sight and that we’ll have teammates and guests back in those theaters very soon.”

This news comes amidst a surging box office this summer, with titles like Bad Boys: Ride or Die, The Bikeriders, Longlegs, and Inside Out 2 all major successes for Alamo Drafthouse. With highly anticipated titles like It Ends With Us, Alien: Romulus, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice all coming out during or immediately after the reopening period, DFW movie fans have a lot to look forward to at Alamo Drafthouse.

All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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