Starplex Movies 8

dallasmovietheaters on March 31, 2021 at 12:52 pm

This nondescript 8-plex theatre began as part of one of the nation’s fastest growing chains in the 1980’s, Rand Theatres based in Little Rock. It opened December 16, 1988. The theatre was ensconced from the busy 114 Highway with one’s only hope of visibility being its frontage road attractor. Operator Tony Rand was trying to go from around 60 screens to 300 in Dallas using distinctive practices which ultimately led in the shuttering of the chain in late 1989 and just into 1990.

This Rand Theatre closed with a flourish worthy of the big screen after a police raid was launched in hopes of trying to collect back taxes followed by a lock out on October 7, 1989. The features were not the freshest - Hollywood was onto the circuit - and the newspaper stopped carrying their ads “on account” that weekend so the till was probably a bit sparse. All three Rands closed that night with lockout notices for failing to pay taxes. But the theatre wasn’t done yet.

Hollywood Theatres continued the operation as Grapevine 8 on April 27, 1990 as a first-run theatre. In December of 1995, Cinemark dropped a 17-screen megaplex across the labyrinthian highway forcing Hollywood to drop the theater to sub-run, discount status at that point. The theater closed on May 18, 2000.

The venue officially became part of Wallace Theatres still as a discount house on November 2, 2000 closing quickly as every dollar bill had been wrung from the facility. Starplex Theatres reopened with one final business plan to wrest every quarter it could with super discount, all seats all times 50 cent admission as Starplex Movies 8 on December 21, 2001. It was the best theater in DFW for those on a budget. But less than a year into the plan, Starplex dumped the facility with a nice sign off on its telephone answering machine. That message stayed almost a year after its closure. Though one hoped that another circuit would attempt to revive the facility with 25 cent or even dime pricing, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The theatre was home to the Hope Church for a brief period. A 2006 revision plan was signed allowing the theater / church to be razed in favor of a chain Tex-Mex restaurant that opened in 2007.