Alamo Drafthouse Cinema franchisee shutters all DFW locations

It’s curtains for Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Dallas-Fort Worth.

All five Alamo Drafthouse locations in the region have closed due to industry-wide declines in guest counts post-pandemic, the prolonged writers’ and actors’ strikes and unsustainable franchise fees, CultureMap Dallas reported. The shuttered locations are in Richardson, Irving, Lake Highlands, Dallas and Denton. 

The closures come after Two is One One is None LLC, the franchisee operator of these locations, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The LLC also operated an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Woodbury, Minnesota, that is closing.

The company is “working as quickly as possible to get Alamo Drafthouse Cinema back up and running in these cities,” a spokesperson told the outlet.

The Richardson location’s closure is particularly poignant, as it had recently undergone significant renovations in partnership with the city, enhancing its audiovisual equipment and seating arrangements. Despite those efforts, the financial strain proved insurmountable.

The LLC hit the combination of reduced revenues and high operational costs, including nearly $3.7 million in franchise fees last year alone. Attempts to negotiate fee reductions or close unprofitable locations were unsuccessful, leading the owners to inject over $3.5 million in capital to sustain operations, a measure that ultimately proved insufficient.

The closures show that the movie theater industry still has a long way to go on the path to recovery from the pandemic, despite the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon last summer. The first quarter of this year was the worst ever in movie-going history, the outlet said. 

The Angelika Film Center in Plano also shut down earlier this week.

—Quinn Donoghue

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