Campus Theatre

214 W. Hickory Street,
Denton, TX 76201

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The Campus Theatre was constructed in 1949 as the Southwest’s premiere movie theater for Denton, Texas.

Over 30 tons of steel was used to construct the movie theater and it cost over half a million dollars to build.

Numerous movie stars have visited the Campus Theatre from John Wayne to Warren Beatty who appeared at the Campus when Bonnie and Clyde premiered here in 1967.

Today, it is a performing arts facility. Over 32,000 visitors come each year to see live performaces at the Campus.

Contributed by Scot S. Wilkinson

Recent comments (view all 31 comments)

lostmemory on May 15, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Don….Don’t quote me on this, but I think both of those towns are in Texas. ;) I was just curious about the Rietta Drive-In. I had never heard of it before I saw the photo. I haven’t found a location for the Rietta other than it was west of Henrietta. And Henrietta did have hardtop theaters. I found two of them. And now, back to Denton….

kenraney on May 15, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Hi Guys,
Gotta put in my two cents.
Yes, Henrietta is a very small town in North Central
Texas.
Population in 2000 was just over 3,000. It’s not
considered a neighbor of Denton and nowhere near it's
size. Denton has two universities and is the county
seat. Heck, when I went to North Texas ( now UNT ) our
university alone had 12,000. I think back then with
TWU we made half the population of 40,000. I think
Denton is closer to 130,000 now.
The Campus (off square note your photo you can see the
courthouse over neighboring building) is still there
they are live performance theater, the Fine Arts ( on
the square ) still stands, hosts a church I believe,
the XXX Theater ( on square )long ago closed but is
now occupied by a business. There was at least one
other movie theater away from the square on University
Drive I think. I got a ticket for a red light there
after we’d seen some movie on rodeos done in the
fashion of “On Any Given Sunday”. I seem to remember 2
drive-in theaters but can’t recall names. Do remember
seeing “Death Race 2000” (starring David Carradine) at
the drive-in north of town. We had a car full, it
rained buckets, and we were more interested in downing
the case of beer we brought! Still it was a funny
movie then and now.
As for theaters there now? Well, there’s a large mall
south of town on I-35 called Golden Triangle Mall.
There’s bound to be a plex there and more around town.
Town’s changed alot since my college days in 1970's
Ken