Cinemark Movies 8

Opened on June 10th, 1988. the first ad in the photo section

Announced in 1987, the North Hills Village Shopping Center would have Little Rock-based Rand Theatres at the outset. The fast-growing movie theatre circuit would compete with the General Cinemas North Hills 7 across the street. The Rand North Hills Village 8 had 1,850 seats in its 8-plex. Before year’s end, the circuit would add theaters in Grapevine and Lewisville. Burleson would get one in 1989 but a lot of bad news was coming related to the Rand Circuit. 1) They weren’t paying taxes. 2) They weren’t playing for newspaper ads. 3) They weren’t paying utilities. 4) Their projects were coming under scrutiny for questionable business practices. 5) They weren’t paying Hollywood studios what they felt was their fair share of the revenue.

Though a first-run theatre charging first-run prices, Rand wasn’t able to fill all of the screens at many theaters that Fall. The North Hills Village 8 had films that had already left dollar houses in addition to a few contemporary films in early October. And October 7, 1989 turned out to be the most unusual day for the DFW Rand Theatres. Tired of being ignored for sales tax revenue, police were instructed to go to the theatres that night and demand that all box office and concession dollars be turned over to them. An unusual request - and employees were said to have been polite and even offered concessions for no cost. The theatres were foreclosed upon and ended that night.

For weeks, the theatre was still listed as “showtimes not available” but lock-out notices at each of the venues told the real tale. News quickly spread to the theaters in Arkansas, downstate in Texas, Tennessee, and projects in Illinois and New Mexico. The Rand Circuit was shuttered and Tony Rand went to prison in the first of two high-profile financial schemes gone awry. Cinemark took on the North Hills Village 8 facility as a discount sub-run location rebranded as Movies 8 on February 23, 1990 running until 2016.