LANDMARK FOR SALE 
Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban, whose company 2929 Entertainment has owned Landmark Theatres since 2003, is putting the arthouse cinema chain up for sale by auction — along with its sister independent-film distribution company, Magnolia Pictures. Landmark operates 55 cinemas with 245 screens in 21 cities. In Houston, Landmark leases the art deco 1939-vintage River Oaks Theatre at 2009 West Gray — from Weingarten Realty. Offers are expected to come in as early as next week, but Cuban tells Bloomberg News he is only “testing the waters . . . We won’t sell unless the offer is very, very compelling.†[Art Attack] Photo: Flickr user Loren-zo
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wonder what is ‘compelling…’
.
Surely that theater could be more of a money-maker.
Surely that theater is a mold-fest.
But is that theater a Houston icon?
.
I kinda hope so.
Oh No!!! We can’t have both the Angelika and River Oaks gone!!! I have really enjoyed the River Oaks theater and that they show different pictures. They also have student prices! As a student I am so greatful for that! Spending $10 on a movie makes me just wait for it to come out on DVD so I can get it for a buck at a Red Box. But River Oaks is fun because is very reasonably priced and its also about the experience of going to Houston’s first theater and seeing the old fashioned decorations.
Mallory, while your heart is in the right place, the River Oaks Theater was hardly the first in Houston. You should have seen the picture palaces on Main street before they were torn down in the 60s.
In fact, if the internet can be trusted the RO and the Alabama were built the same year. 1939. They may have been considered the first suburban theaters.
It is a suburban theater in a suburban strip mall. Except for age and the need to watch obscure cinema, most on here would want to tear it down to build something truly urban without horrific parking in front.