it was a town that wanted brand new kids movies every week (which is impossible,brand new kids movies aren’t released every week) and they wanted fancy and shiny and new and didn’t mind paying twice the price for it at the box theaters
bottom line – if you have other incomes or a big savings account, or are in a town that cares about history, a single screen theater is a great business to own but if you aren’t personally wealthy or live in a town that doesn’t care about history no amount of begging or hard work will make it succeed – unfortunately we only learned this lesson after losing our life savings
single screen old style theaters certainly can succeed depending on what town you are in,if there are big theater chains near you (we had 2 first run multi plexes within 20 minutes of us and a 4 screen discount theater 5 minutes away and 2 more single screen theatres within 30 minutes of us,one of which is owned by a historical society that GAVE them over a million dollars to fix the place up,we didn’t have that blessing)
also if you are in a town with a population that cares about history you are fine…but we were in a town with a lots of young kids that didn’t care about history or affordable prices
we also put out flyers and tried to make deals with local businesses,but everyone wanted money,and if you aren’t making any money you can’t give it away,we were showing new films at the lowest prices we could,we had our concessions as cheap as we could and we gave people a great experience from the curb to the the seats,but people still wanted to go to the multi plex because they had a)a parking lot b)more movie choices we had one screen only c)fancy rocking chairs we couldn’t afford new seats with our low attendance
Hi,
I’m Bill,the current owner of the Dallas Theatre…I appreciate the kind words that people have posted,
we truly tried the best we could,we reached out to the community in every way humanly possible,we gave to every charity we could afford to give to,concerts were not a possibility because when showing new films you MUST have show times every sat and sun afternoon and every friday and saturday evening (and every other evening)it’s in your contract,when else could we have scheduled concerts (we tried and were told we couldn’t legally do it)
I also wanted to thank everyone here for their kind comments,a brand new movie costs between 50 and 60 percent of ticket sales,which isn’t too expensive as long as you’re doing well on concession sales,the problem we ran into was this:kids movies that we showed on opening night did great,but kids movies don’t always get released every week,so sometimes we had to show either a kids movie that was 3 or 4 weeks old or a non-kids movie,on those nights attendance was bad,had I had a 2nd job we’d still be open for business,but the theater was my family’s only income,and I worked 6 days a week and didn’t have time for a 2nd job,this place is great for a family with more than one income
Hi Everyone,
I’m Bill,the current owner of the Dallas Theater…sadly the theater is going up for auction Wednesday April 28th at 5pm,we’re having an open house Sunday April 18th from 2pm to 4pm…I would LOVE to see someone buy this who loves old theaters but rumor is that it’s about to become a gym or a church or a parking lot…
so whoever wants to save old theaters this is your chance
we tried to keep it going as long as we could,we’re not rich people and we just ran out of money
Hi everyone,
my wife and I are the new owners of the Dallas Theatre,we bought it about 3 months ago
we added some vintage movie posters in the lobby as well as in the auditorium
we’re now open 6 days a week (closed Thursdays) and show 1st run movies and we also show classic movies at midnight on weekends
we’re trying to make this a fun and nostalgic theatre to bring family and friends to
we’re hoping to buy a few more theatres in the future as well as build or buy a drive-in theatre or two as well
we’ll be adding pictures of the Dallas here very soon
thanks for the interest in our little theatre
and God bless,
Bill and Tina Hunt
it was a town that wanted brand new kids movies every week (which is impossible,brand new kids movies aren’t released every week) and they wanted fancy and shiny and new and didn’t mind paying twice the price for it at the box theaters
bottom line – if you have other incomes or a big savings account, or are in a town that cares about history, a single screen theater is a great business to own but if you aren’t personally wealthy or live in a town that doesn’t care about history no amount of begging or hard work will make it succeed – unfortunately we only learned this lesson after losing our life savings
single screen old style theaters certainly can succeed depending on what town you are in,if there are big theater chains near you (we had 2 first run multi plexes within 20 minutes of us and a 4 screen discount theater 5 minutes away and 2 more single screen theatres within 30 minutes of us,one of which is owned by a historical society that GAVE them over a million dollars to fix the place up,we didn’t have that blessing)
also if you are in a town with a population that cares about history you are fine…but we were in a town with a lots of young kids that didn’t care about history or affordable prices
we also put out flyers and tried to make deals with local businesses,but everyone wanted money,and if you aren’t making any money you can’t give it away,we were showing new films at the lowest prices we could,we had our concessions as cheap as we could and we gave people a great experience from the curb to the the seats,but people still wanted to go to the multi plex because they had a)a parking lot b)more movie choices we had one screen only c)fancy rocking chairs we couldn’t afford new seats with our low attendance
Hi,
I’m Bill,the current owner of the Dallas Theatre…I appreciate the kind words that people have posted,
we truly tried the best we could,we reached out to the community in every way humanly possible,we gave to every charity we could afford to give to,concerts were not a possibility because when showing new films you MUST have show times every sat and sun afternoon and every friday and saturday evening (and every other evening)it’s in your contract,when else could we have scheduled concerts (we tried and were told we couldn’t legally do it)
anyone interested in attending the auction or open house contact us through our myspace
www.myspace.com/dallastheatre
I also wanted to thank everyone here for their kind comments,a brand new movie costs between 50 and 60 percent of ticket sales,which isn’t too expensive as long as you’re doing well on concession sales,the problem we ran into was this:kids movies that we showed on opening night did great,but kids movies don’t always get released every week,so sometimes we had to show either a kids movie that was 3 or 4 weeks old or a non-kids movie,on those nights attendance was bad,had I had a 2nd job we’d still be open for business,but the theater was my family’s only income,and I worked 6 days a week and didn’t have time for a 2nd job,this place is great for a family with more than one income
Hi Everyone,
I’m Bill,the current owner of the Dallas Theater…sadly the theater is going up for auction Wednesday April 28th at 5pm,we’re having an open house Sunday April 18th from 2pm to 4pm…I would LOVE to see someone buy this who loves old theaters but rumor is that it’s about to become a gym or a church or a parking lot…
so whoever wants to save old theaters this is your chance
we tried to keep it going as long as we could,we’re not rich people and we just ran out of money
Hi everyone,
my wife and I are the new owners of the Dallas Theatre,we bought it about 3 months ago
we added some vintage movie posters in the lobby as well as in the auditorium
we’re now open 6 days a week (closed Thursdays) and show 1st run movies and we also show classic movies at midnight on weekends
we’re trying to make this a fun and nostalgic theatre to bring family and friends to
we’re hoping to buy a few more theatres in the future as well as build or buy a drive-in theatre or two as well
we’ll be adding pictures of the Dallas here very soon
thanks for the interest in our little theatre
and God bless,
Bill and Tina Hunt