Movie News
Plano loses arthouse movie theater Angelika after 20 years
A sad loss for Plano and for the movie industry.
An acclaimed independent movie theater in Plano has closed: Angelika Film Center & Cafe - Plano, which had been open at The Shops at Legacy shopping center since 2004, closed its doors on June 3.
A lockout notice was posted on the theater's door on June 4. Employees who arrived at the theater that day were told to go home.
The theater was one of the nicest in DFW, arriving at the Plano shopping center three years after it opened, and three years after Angelika made its DFW debut when it opened at Mockingbird Station in Dallas.
The arrival of Angelika lent Dallas a cosmopolitan luster, and the Plano opening gave the Shops at Legacy a valuable nudge that helped attract other tenants, as well.
Located at 7205 Bishop Rd. #E6, the Plano theater had five screens, with projection by Barco and sound by Dolby, and a cafe and bar on the second floor that was open to the public, including wine, beer and cocktails that moviegoers could bring into auditoriums while watching a film — a cutting-edge option in its time.
The theater boasted an industrial-modern design, with a glass facade that showcased elements such as Angelika’s signature crystal chandelier in the lobby, a glass elevator trimmed in brushed stainless steel, and walls fabricated from Israeli-imported granite. Natural materials included bamboo flooring on the ground level, and exotic woods imported from Australia on the second floor.
Unfortunately, movie theaters are one part of an entire film industry that remains irrevocably scarred in the aftermath of the pandemic, a situation not helped by ensuing labor strikes during much of 2023.
Angelika is owned by Los Angeles-based Reading International, whose recently-released financial results for the first quarter of 2024 stated that "the disrupted movie release schedule caused by the 2023 Hollywood Strikes had a negative impact" on their earnings. They closed three theaters in 2023: two Consolidated Theatres in Hawaii and a Reading Cinema in California.
The Plano closure leaves eight theaters in the Angelika chain: Three in New York including the original location which opened in 1989, plus theaters in Dallas, Virginia, Washington State, San Diego, and Sacramento.
Employees at the Angelika in Plano were originally told the theater would stay open until June 13, and they would remain on staff until June 30 to help with cleaning out after the closure. But then the locks were changed on June 4, and they were told the location was closed permanently, effective immediately.
The theater posted a notice on its website, stating that, "after decades of serving filmgoers in the Plano community, it is with much regret that we must advise you that the Angelika Film Center in Plano has closed."
"For the last 20 years it has been a great honor to present area audiences with not ony the best in independent and speciality film, but also the best in global cinema," the notice said.
