Considering that Cinemark’s headquarters are in Plano, you’ll find many luxury Cinemark theaters in addition to your local multiplexes. Several local AMC Theaters have IMAX screens that we expect to be particularly popular this holiday season with the release of James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, and if you’re going to be underwater in Pandora with blue people for three hours, you might as well do it in the best possible format.
Dallas also happens to have the Angelika Theater chain, which does a great job of debuting independent, international and documentary films for niche audiences. The Alamo Drafthouse theaters are also guaranteed to give you a good time with their eclectic dining menu and event “movie parties.” If you haven’t seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show at a Drafthouse, you haven’t really experienced the movie.
For years, however, the crown jewel of Dallas’ cinemas was the Magnolia Theater in Dallas’ West Village. As the theater approached its 20th anniversary in 2022, it was permanently shuttered because of declining attendance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But this week, founder Bill Banowsky is set to reopen the location as the Violet Crown Cinema, complete with an opening night event to celebrate the return of one of Dallas’ film landmarks.
This is the chain's fourth theater, with other locations in Santa Fe, Austin and Charlottesville, Virginia. In a November 2021 interview, Banowsky said he was excited to redo the Magnolia Theater in great part because of its location.
"It was a dynamic location when we built the theater 20 years ago and for the last 20 years, the area has grown up," Banowsky told the Observer. "It's super full of activity and great density and a great demographic. It's the best location in this market for what we would want to bring to Dallas."
While it’s no secret that theatrical attendance had been declining since even before the pandemic, Banowsky hopes that “mainstream Hollywood movies will play alongside popular art films and a repertory program of family favorites, classics and critically acclaimed indies,” according to a press release.
So basically, you can see Avatar: The Way of Water on one screen, then head over to check out Noah Baumbach’s idiosyncratic social satire White Noise. Violet Crown’s opening weekend titles also include the critically acclaimed superhero sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the Die Hard-inspired Christmas action movie Violent Night, which stars Stranger Things’ David Harbour as Kris Kringle. It’s safe to say that there’s something for everyone.
Of course, Violet Crown couldn’t have picked a better film with which to launch than this year’s breakout hit Everything Everywhere All At Once, which played on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at a free screening event. The heartwarming multiverse action comedy is hard to describe, because you’ve likely never seen anything like it. The film has Texas to thank in part for its continued success, as it launched with a world debut in March at the South by Southwest Film Festival, where it received rapturous praise from audiences (including Dallas film fans who made the trek down to Austin).
You'll recognize the new Violet Crown's location, but the food is better now.
Courtesy of Violet Crown
Since then, Everything Everywhere All At Once has become the surprise sensation of the year. While its distributor, A24, is known for producing independent features that appeal to niche arthouse crowds, the film somehow appealed to mainstream audiences and grossed $100 million at the box office. It managed to stay around the top of the charts for several months, a feat that only Top Gun: Maverick also accomplished this year.
While a “multiversal martial arts science fiction R-rated dark family comedy” isn’t what you would think of as “Oscar bait,” Everything Everywhere All At Once is positioned very well to succeed in the coming award season. Considering that many acclaimed titles like The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Tar, Armageddon Time, She Said and Bones and All have underperformed financially, Everything Everywhere All At Once is the rare film that seems to have a foothold with both audiences and critics alike.
Banowsky clearly has his finger on what audiences are looking for right now, as Everything Everywhere All At Once will also play during Violet Crown’s opening weekend, starting on Friday, Dec. 9. While the film has been available on video-on-demand services and Blu-Ray for several months now, audiences truly owe it to themselves to see it in its intended format in a theater as pristine as Violet Crown.
Other titles that will play by the end of the year are the ensemble horror comedy The Menu; The Whale, with Brendan Fraser in a transformative performance; and the wild 1930s Hollywood satire Babylon.
The January release calendar has not yet been unveiled, but you can expect Banowsky to bring back some older favorites during what’s generally a more low-key period for new releases. Violet Crown hopes to offer a luxury experience that encourages movie buffs to get out to the theater, something many chains have struggled to do over the past few years. When you can stream anything online, what’s your motivation to get off your couch? Well, most likely you’re not going to have digital cinema projection, state-of-the-art sound and luxury reclining seating at home.
Violet Crown aims to serve moviegoers by becoming a cultural destination that helps Dallas’ artists and storytellers. The theater will host public entertainment gatherings and hopes to promote local business by partnering with local vendors.
The theater also looks to raise the quality of movie concessions. Anyone can sell popcorn and Twizzlers, but Violet Crown has a full-scale kitchen and a bar with craft beer, wine and cocktails. Look, Avatar: The Way of Water is three hours long; you might really need some pizza or nachos between action sequences.
