The last Alamo Drafthouse in Houston (technically Cinco Ranch area) has closed…and this sucks…

Have a lot of fond memories between the locations that bounced around West Oaks Mall, Mason, and Cinco Ranch…and I know it's just one theater but this really shouldn't have happened.

If you know this theater you know the location of this was perfect. It was walking distance from a massive higher end apartment complex and surrounded by various bars, restaurants, and shops and located right off 99 inbetween I10 and Westpark…also surrounded by nothing but neighborhoods everywhere.

And about 10 minutes south of this on Westpark there used to be another theater called The Paladium…which once upon a time on a Friday or Saturday night would have a FULL parking lot….its been closed for years.

Are these unique unfortunate closures and that's it? Or are these symptoms of the bigger issues we've seen theaters having with a continuing domestic box office that has not improved for 3 years despite ticket prices going up?

Had some great memories at these various Alamos and The Paladium…especially with my dad…

Will be curious to see if another theater takes over where the last Houston Alamo Drafthouse was or if it'll stay vacant…

Sad stuff man…

EDIT: the wife looked it up…apparently it's going to become a theater called Flix Brewhouse…anyone ever heard of it?

At least it'll stay a theater. Still gonna miss my Alamo…

This is sad news. Definitely a sign of the times. I think another problem for theaters is the mass ownership of large screen hd tvs, and the knowledge that most movies will be streaming within a few weeks of theatrical release.

There's also a lot of competition from high quality streaming tv that doesn't require three hours of the day.

Katy has seen massive growth since Cinemark went in about 27 years ago, but it's also gained every new bar concept, brewery, restaurant and beer garden for adults, and multiple kid focused concepts including trampoline parks, Main Event, cart racing, mini golf, etc. Thats a lot of competition for a disposable dollar.

I go to a few movies every year, but there's fewer movies aimed at my demographic these days, and I dislike 30 minutes of previews and commercials.

In case anyone missed my edit at the bottom, supposedly another theater is taking Alamos place called Flix Brewhouse which after some quick reading sounds like a place very similar to Alamo.

So was it just poor management on Alamos part? Could there be other reasons why a theater in such a prime location would shut down but another thrive? Heck if I know I ain't going to pretend to understand the micro-economics/business model of a single theater like that….

So we'll see what happens with this one….hopefully they open before the Mario sequel if they want the chance to get in on that big pile of $$$$$$

I'm no expert either but my hunch based on my own preferences is theater model really needs to pair back down again. I went to a matinee recently at a normal theater with my family of 4. Got a fairly standard run of snacks and drinks for everyone. It was like $100 total. That's not breaking the bank for me but isn't cheap.

I rarely go to the drafthouse theaters because they are more expensive than that. It isn't necessarily because I'm penny pinching but I'd just as soon eat a full meal and drink beer elsewhere for probably the same price but better food and conversation with my family and then go to a movie than drop more money at a movie theater.

And I think the Palladium just didn't really work. I used to live out that way when it first opened. We love going to the movies and were super excited about finally getting a theater 10 minutes from the house. Within a couple months, we stopped going to it because it just always seemed not very well cleaned. I think the facility was just too big for the management to maintain properly. We started just going back to the theaters in Sugar Land instead.

Some of the special programming the drafthouse would do has gone to the river oaks theater. Please support them. Flix Brewhouse will only show main stream offerings

This was my home theater. I absolutely loved it. The good news is that Flix Brewhouse seems to be the same model.

batchuser said:

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Some of the special programming the drafthouse would do has gone to the river oaks theater. Please support them. Flix Brewhouse will only show main stream offerings

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yeah….people that live out in fort bend county like me ain't driving all the way to river oaks for a movie theater

Another thing to add to this….

I read Flix's website and they automatically add an 18% gratuity to your bill if you order food/drinks….so essentially a forced tip.

Now, the first time I experienced this was at an Alamo in Austin when we went to see the third antman movie while on a quick trip….so that was annoying but considered it a one-off and more of a symptom of being in Austin…

Now it seems like this is becoming more of a norm, and if so…going to be spending even less when going to these theaters or going less frequently….

Yeah, Star Cinema did the auto-grat last time we went. I am not an anti-tipper but that is a turn off and haven't been inclined to return. I did tip them in the past, but the service experience is them taking your order and some random food runner delivering it. Its not like they check up on you.

Never been there

Remember the Alamo.

Didn't go often to the Cinco location, but I had a ton of respect for management when they hosted a showing of Blazing Saddles for the 50th anniversary with Burton Gilliam (Lyle) taking questions before and after.

That was a fun night, especially since it looked like about half the audience had never seen it before.

Back when the Palladium was owned by Santikos, they would partner with the Katy A&M Club and host Aggie games (for free), with food and drink specials, etc. Someone would get up and lead yells and they'd have giveaways and such.

It was a great concept -- filling up a theater that would otherwise be empty and selling a lot of concessions.

When it changed hands, that all ended.

It was a huge facility ... as others have said, must have been a monster to maintain.

I just don't know if that "entertainment complex" model works in today's world. Security alone is a challenge.

See that's awesome!

I remember the Alamo in west oaks mall did some stuff like that at times. They gave free admission for Monday night football and you just bought whatever concessions you wanted. I remember going there for the Aggie/sip game (for free) when we won 12 - 7 with McGee with my dad and a good friend. Spent good money on consessions.

Probably the funniest memory was when we went to go see Mr Sinus Theater 3000 (no that's not a typo/mispelling) and these 3 dudes just ripped to shreds the first Terminator movie…..so funny!

Parking sucked at the Palladium as well. Probably 1/3 of the lot was roped off for valet parking for major film showings and no way I am going to pay for valet after buying a ticket and paying exorbitant prices at the snack bar. I always had to park in the garage and walk a good distance.

Thanks for sharing! Didn't realize that was franchise owned.

From the drafthouse website.

Quote:

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HOUSTON IS NOW CLOSED
Our franchise partner Triple Tap Ventures, which operates four locations in Texas (Houston, El Paso, East El Paso, and Lubbock), will no longer operate these theaters under the Alamo Drafthouse brand. We're grateful to the teammates and guests in El Paso, Katy, and Lubbock for their support over the years and wish them all the best. We hope to return to these communities in the future.

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https://drafthouse.com/houston/content/closure-notice-houston

I still miss the nachos they used to serve 15 years ago.

A trip to the movies is just so crazy expensive now. I have to really want to see a movie to go. When I was younger (and movies were cheaper), I was much more likely to go on a whim.

This is disappointing. When I moved to Katy in the late 90s, there were only a couple of theater options - the original Alamo that was in the strip center off Mason near Provincial, and the new Cinemark at 99/10. Then came the AMC at the mall. The Cinemark ticked my wife off by charging our infant a seat price (spare me the babysitter criticisms, she slept in a shawl my wife carried her in) so we switched to the AMC.

But when the Alamo moved to LaCenterra, I started going there much more frequently. I didn't always like how I had to pull myself out of those seats, but what I did really enjoy was the opportunity to see older movies there - movies like Jaws, The Lord of the Rings, The Thing, Escape From New York (and the LA sequel), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Gonna miss seeing old favorites on the big screen again.