West End Cinema 10
603 Munger Avenue,
Dallas,
TX
75202
603 Munger Avenue,
Dallas,
TX
75202
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The West End Cinema 10 opened November 19, 1993, and was built within the West End Marketplace, a retail mall built within the former Brown Cracker & Candy Company factory built in 1902. The West End Marketplace opened in 1986 and the theatre was added using the top four floors (407) of the building with the ticket booth at the north end of the mall’s food court. It was the first theatre built in downtown Dallas since 1969’s Loews Downtown Theatre which had closed in February of 1985. The $5.5 million project contained 10 auditoriums with seating capacities ranging from 100 to 250. Architectural firm Hodges and Associates of Dallas designed the theatres which might be referred to as Neo-Vintage in style, as attempts to bring about former movie palaces was apparent. The West End Cinema 10 was operated by O'Neil Theatres of Slidell, LA. The opening features were “Adams Family Values”, “Malice”, “Remains of the Day”, “Beverley Hillbillies”, “Carlito’s Way”, “Demolition Man”, “Rudy”, “Age of Innocence” and “My Life”.
The lease was said to have been $500,000 annually which was a major hurdle especially when Loews built its Cityplace Theatre with abundant free parking about 2,5 miles away, opening December 22, 1995. With competition from the Cityplace, weekday attendance was almost non-existent when schools were in session and the West End Cinema 10 closed less than 7 years into its operation on August 17, 2000, as schools got back into session. A lock-out for non-payment was posted on the door which remained until the entire West End Marketplace shopping center closed in 2006.
Still vacant in 2015, an effort was made to try to revive the West End Marketplace which included plans for a revamped cinema with a separate entrance. It was unclear whether that would be a viable plan, as the Alamo Drafthouse chain announced an 8-screen theatre adjoining downtown in the Cedars area to open in 2015.
Contributed by
Ken Roe, Dallas Movie
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
I was working for Peterson Theaters when this theater opened in 1993. It was opened under the guise of Peterson-O'Neil Theaters in a partnership between the two companies of some kind. It’s first GM was Jim Miller, whom I replaced at his previous job as GM at the Casa Linda. Before West End opened he gave me a tour of it. It was basically two five-screens stacked on top of each other. And it was really pretty inside. Unfortunately Jim got canned about the same time that I was. And I’m just as sure for made-up reasons like I was.
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