Alamo Drafthouse Closing in DFW and "Hit Man"

Greetings all,

Last Thursday was a bleak day for the cinematic community in the Dallas area. All five Alamo Drafthouses closed abruptly, and the Angelika Theater in Plano closed the same day. This is sad for us as viewers of good films, but also for everyone who has worked there to make our experience a good one.

Both the Angelika and Alamo Theaters were great places to see good films. The projection and sound in both were impeccable. Each week, there were great films to be seen in all of these theaters.

While better ticket sales would have helped both, the specific reasons for both closures were different. When the Angelika in Plano opened, the area around it was growing; now, it is overgrown and overdeveloped. When this happens, the rents go up and up, and that is what killed the Plano Angelika.

The situation for the Alamo Drafthouses is a complex one. Bill DiGaetano, who franchised the five theaters from the Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse, faced a challenge with high franchise fees imposed by the Austin home office. These fees made it financially unviable to keep the theaters open. The Alamo Drafthouse, founded by Tim League, was known for its unique film fan-centric experience and food service. However, with League's departure, the new bean counter management focused on money more than cinema. A more sympathetic home office would have found a way to keep the theaters open.

We worked with Bill when they first opened here, and The Dallas VideoFest was the first festival to be held at one of these new theaters. Working with him and his staff has been great. In the spring, we had the North Texas Universities Film Fest there. 

Indeed, many festivals in town have screened at these theaters, including the Denton Black Film Festival. While there are still other great options, losing these theaters is painful.

But if more people went to these theaters, they would still be open. While we had “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” last year, we have not had films that filled the theaters this year. The Mad Max film had high expectations but did not deliver big enough ticket sales.

Of course, streamers are partially to blame. Rick Linklater, who makes good films and loves the theatrical experience, has his new film, “Hit Man” (which I really like), on Netflix.  

As theaters are having their issues, streamers are having their own. Pricing is going up, especially if you don’t want ads, and they all seem to be bundling or trying to buy each other.

This is to say that the cinematic universe is struggling to find a way to remain economically viable. The one thing that is useful is that seeing a film in a theater will make a difference.

On Friday night, I did a Q&A at the Angelika in Dallas for a wonderful indie film called “The Big Bend.” I saw it at a festival last year and enjoyed it even more the second time. The film has a great script, great action, and magnificent scenery in Big Bend. Here is the trailer. So please do yourself a favor and go out to the Angelika Theater and see it. All of you reading this can help theaters by going to them, including Spacy, our micro cinema.

The Oak Cliff Film Fest is coming up later this month; more on that as we get closer, but here is their website.

If you remember “Run Lola Run,” it is being re-released in 4K. I saw it again last year, and it holds up really well. The film has a minimal plot but maximum visual pleasure, and it plays well on a big screen.

The Angelika will be showing “Metropolis” on June 17th. Also, worth seeing are “The Fall Guy” and “Ezra.”  The Texas Theatre has a tribute to Roger Corman with two of his films.

They are also showing “The Celluloid Closet” on Saturday evening.  

I have been catching up on some classics on the Criterion Channel this week, including, William Friedkin's “Sorcerer,” John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds,” Peter Bogdanovic’s “Targets,” and Curtis Hanson’s “Hollywood Confidential.”

There is a good, but problematic documentary about Movie Pass called “Movie Pass, Movie Crash.”  It does a great job of talking about the corruption that led to the collapse of the red card that got you in to see movies cheaply. But what it does not tell you is that Movie Pass could not make money. Back in those days, there was this idea that if you had enough subscribers, the VC bros would shower money on you. But you can’t make money if you are paying more for tickets than you were taking in from subscriptions.

Have a great week, and go out and see “The Big Bend.”

-Bart

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Howdy,

In light of the closing of all the Alamos this week, I have really not been doing my part to get to the movies. These new releases just haven’t compelled me to venture out in the heat/storms/humidity enough. My media diet this week has entirely consisted of streaming shows and movies at home. My top rec is the show “Hacks” streaming on Max. If you haven’t seen the show, it stars Jean Smart as a successful but static older comedian and Hannah Einbinder as her new millennial writer. There are three seasons out right now, and while the second Covid road trip season flounders a bit, the latest season sticks the landing in an absolutely incredible way. It queues up what is sure to be a great fourth season, and sets up both the leads to their road to Emmy wins this year.

On Netflix, Richard Linklater’s new movie “Hit Man” starring Glen Powell premiered last Friday. This film was hyped by every online pundit (including Bart above) as some incredible romantic drama with lots of laughs, but it was really not for me. It makes a lot of sense that Netflix bought this rather than a studio giving it a wide theatrical release. If I saw a movie called “Hit Man” in theaters, I’d be really disappointed. Just like most of Linklater’s films, it’s a bit shaggy and rather dialogue heavy. Nothing that’s inherently bad, but I did want some more thrills. Hints of something really fun would come through with Powell dressing up in various disguises, taking on the persona of characters from Patrick Bateman to Tilda Swinton. There just wasn’t enough in it for me to really enjoy. The film was based on a true life story from a Texas Monthly article, which you can read here.

Also out this week on Sunday is the new season of “House of the Dragon.” If you enjoyed the original “Game of Thrones” series, this offer more of the same. Also, I’m boosting it every week, but the slasher-horror “Pretty Little Liars Original Sin” is really great. Every other Max original drama, including the critically successful “Tokyo Vice” which was just cancelled this week, has ended after two season. I think this bodes really badly for PLL, but maybe just a few extra streams will push it over the edge.

The new releases this week aren’t looking too great either. “Inside Out 2” is the only thing coming to the multiplexes, which I talked a bit about last week. It looks like they are releasing the entire thing online before it premieres in theaters. Probably in the hope that one clip or another will compel a kid to beg their parent to take them to the movies instead of just streaming the first one on Disney+. Personally, I won’t be going to this. The entire point of “Inside Out” is that the five original emotions make up the entirety of human existence by working together to create memories. Now suddenly there are a bunch of new emotions just to make a sequel work. Not into it. I’d still love to get out to see Mad Max Furiosa, but at two and a half hours? I could be lounging on the sofa, air conditioning on full blast.

-Elijah