Texas film legacy
The companies, theaters and voices that built film in Texas
25 companies that closed, 71 theaters and exhibitors, and 40 Texas film publications and shows, each with its sources.
Companies that closed
25 companies| Company | Years | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Rooster Teeth ProductionsAustin's largest homegrown online studio: Red vs. | 2003–2024 | Austin |
| Star Film Ranch (Méliès Star Film Company, Texas unit)The first movie studio in Texas: Gaston Méliès's New York company set up on a rented ranch outside San Antonio in January 1910 and made… | 1910–1911 | San Antonio |
| FunimationNorth Texas company that brought Dragon Ball Z to American television and moved its English dubbing from Hollywood and Vancouver to Fort… | 1994–2024 | Dallas-Fort Worth |
| A.D. Vision (ADV Films)Houston company that grew from a local anime club into what its own 2007 site called the largest English-language anime library in the… | 1992–2009 | Houston |
| Sack Amusement EnterprisesAlfred N. | 1920–1979 | San Antonio, then Dallas |
| Lyrick StudiosRichard Leach's North Texas family company that made Barney & Friends and Wishbone for PBS, built a six-block backlot in Allen, and sold… | 2001 | Dallas (Richardson / Allen) |
| The Studios at Las ColinasFor three decades the largest soundstage facility in North Texas, where Silkwood, RoboCop, JFK, Walker, Texas Ranger, Prison Break and… | 1981–2013 | Irving (Dallas-Fort Worth) |
| Jamieson Film CompanyFor 56 years the Southwest's main independent film studio. | 1916–1973 | Dallas |
| FanDuel Sports Network SouthwestBegan in 1983 as Home Sports Entertainment, which a University of Houston biography calls Texas's first sports cable channel. | 1983–2026 | Dallas-Fort Worth (statewide) |
| El Rey NetworkRobert Rodriguez's English-language, Latino-focused cable channel, run out of Austin with FactoryMade Ventures. | 2013–2020 | Austin |
| Alamo VillageThe permanent 1836 San Antonio and Alamo replica built near Brackettville for John Wayne's The Alamo. | 1957–2010 | Brackettville (Kinney County) |
| Longhorn NetworkA single-university 24-hour cable network built in Austin under a 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN. | 2011–2024 | Austin |
| CinestateDallas Sonnier's Dallas genre studio. | 2016–2020 | Dallas |
| Belo Corp. (television)The Dallas company that bought WFAA in 1950 and built one of the country's largest publicly traded TV groups: 20 stations reaching more… | 1950–2013 | Dallas |
| Burnt Orange ProductionsPossibly the first public-university film studio. | 2003–2007 | Austin |
| Drafthouse FilmsThe Alamo Drafthouse's Austin-based distribution label. | 2010–2022 | Austin |
| Digital AnvilChris Roberts's downtown Austin studio, founded with Robert Rodriguez's involvement, which did the digital effects for the 1999 feature… | 1996–2006 | Austin |
| Texas Cable News (TXCN)Belo Corp.'s statewide 24-hour cable news channel. | 1999–2015 | Dallas (statewide) |
| Comcast SportsNet Houston (CSN Houston)The Houston Rockets and Astros' own network, launched in 2012 with Comcast/NBC Sports. | 2012–2014 | Houston |
| Hispanic Television Network (HTVN)A Fort Worth attempt to build a third national Spanish-language network aimed at Mexican-American viewers. | 1999–2003 | Fort Worth (with a San Antonio production arm) |
| Azalea Pictures (Larry Buchanan)Larry Buchanan's Dallas label, which made low-budget color features such as Mars Needs Women and Zontar, the Thing from Venus for American… | Dallas | |
| Early Texas Black film companies (Superior Art Productions, Lone Star, Cotton Blossom)The Handbook of Texas credits a Black-owned Houston company, Superior Art Productions, with some of the first Texas-based motion pictures… | 1921–1923 | Houston, San Antonio and Dallas |
| Satex Film CompanyOne of the first Texas-owned film production companies: brothers Paul and Wesley Hope Tilley made one-reel silents in San Antonio, then… | 1910–1913 | San Antonio, then Austin |
| Shamrock Photoplay CorporationA San Antonio silent-era studio. | 1915–1923 | San Antonio |
| Wheelan-Loper Film CompanyThe earliest documentable company formed in Texas to make and distribute motion pictures, according to the Handbook of Texas. | 1908–1950 | Dallas and San Antonio |
Theaters and exhibitors
71 places| Theater or company | Opened | City |
|---|---|---|
| Texas TheatreLee Harvey Oswald was apprehended in the theater's auditorium on November 22, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. | 1931 | Dallas |
| Interstate TheatresInterstate Amusement Company opened its first four theaters in the fall of 1905: Majestic Theatres in Dallas, Fort Worth and Waco and the… | 1905 | Dallas |
| Alamo Drafthouse CinemaThe original Alamo Drafthouse, a single screen at 409 Colorado Street in downtown Austin, opened on May 24, 1997, with tables in place of… | 1997 | Austin |
| CinemarkCinemark's 2025 annual report says the company opened its first U.S. | 1984 | Plano |
| Paramount TheatreOpened October 11, 1915, as the Majestic, a vaudeville house designed by the Chicago firm of John Eberson, John Reed Fugard and George… | 1915 | Austin |
| Majestic TheatreThe 1993 National Historic Landmark nomination calls the Majestic the finest surviving atmospheric theater by John Eberson and his son… | 1929 | San Antonio |
| Sack Amusement EnterprisesSack Amusement Enterprises, a combined theater chain and production company, was a major producer and distributor of features and short… | 1920 | San Antonio |
| Majestic TheatreBuilt as the flagship of Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate chain, it housed Interstate's headquarters in about 20,000 square feet of offices… | 1921 | Dallas |
| Alameda TheaterWith about 2,400 seats it was the largest theater in the United States dedicated to Spanish-language films and performing arts. | 1949 | San Antonio |
| AFS Cinema (Austin Film Society)The Austin Film Society was founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater and began as a film club that drew students, artists and cinema… | 2017 | Austin |
| Alamo Drafthouse South LamarOpened as a six-screen, 695-seat theater; a Cinema Treasures contributor dates the grand opening to March 7, 2005, after a March 4 soft… | 2005 | Austin |
| Royal TheaterIn Larry McMurtry's novel The Last Picture Show (1966), set in a town drawn from Archer City, the closing of the Royal Theater is a major… | Archer City | |
| Plaza TheatreIt opened on September 12, 1930, as a combined movie and stage house and was promoted as the largest theater of its kind between New… | 1930 | El Paso |
| Austin StudiosAustin Studios is a 20-acre production facility established in 2000, with two soundstages, five flex stages, a jail set, a country-western… | 2000 | Austin |
| G. William Jones Film and Video CollectionFounded in 1970 as the Southwest Film/Video Archives, it was renamed in 1995 for its founder, cinema and religious-studies scholar G. | 1970 | Dallas |
| Harry Ransom Center Film CollectionsThe foundation of the Ransom Center's film holdings is the archive of producer David O. | Austin | |
| Guadalupe TheaterThe Handbook of Texas calls Teatro Guadalupe the West Side's most opulent movie theater, operating from 1940 until it closed in 1970. | 1940 | San Antonio |
| River Oaks TheatreBefore it closed in March 2021, the River Oaks was the oldest continuously operating movie theater in Houston. | 1939 | Houston |
| Majestic TheatreThe Majestic was architect John Eberson's first atmospheric theater, an auditorium designed as an outdoor garden under a night sky. | 1923 | Houston |
| Texas Archive of the Moving ImageFounded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas professor Caroline Frick to find, preserve and present overlooked Texas moving… | 2002 | Austin |
| Santikos EntertainmentJohn Santikos recalled that when he started at the Olmos Theater, Interstate owned the city's other theaters and he was the only… | 1921 | San Antonio |
| Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, film programThe museum has shown films since 1939, at first with prints furnished by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and additional films… | 1939 | Houston |
| Forest TheatreInterstate built it for white audiences, then on March 2, 1956, reopened it for Black patrons only; news reports at the time said it was… | 1949 | Dallas |
| Woodlawn TheatreHosted the world premiere of John Wayne's "The Alamo," with Wayne as host. | 1945 | San Antonio |
| The DeLUXE TheaterThe DeLUXE opened in April 1941 as a movie theater for Black audiences in the Fifth Ward and closed in 1969, after the end of segregated… | 1941 | Houston |
| Rice Media Center / Rice CinemaJohn and Dominique de Menil founded the Rice Media Center in 1969, with scholar Gerald O'Grady as consultant, as part of their move of the… | 1970 | Houston |
| Dobie TheatreOpened as a twin-screen theater on the second level of Dobie Mall, off the University of Texas campus, with newspaper ads starting October… | 1973 | Austin |
| Texas TheatreW.J. | 1926 | San Antonio |
| Aztec TheatreThe National Register nomination calls the Aztec arguably the only extant Mayan Revival theater in Texas and one of few examples of the… | 1926 | San Antonio |
| Teatro NacionalSam Lucchese, the bootmaker who already owned the Teatro Zaragoza, opened the Teatro Nacional, which the Handbook of Texas calls an… | 1917 | San Antonio |
| Stateside at the ParamountOpened on Christmas Day 1935 with The Bride Comes Home, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, as the first theater in Austin… | 1935 | Austin |
| Ritz TheatreOpened October 13, 1929, with Bert Lytell in The Lone Wolf's Daughter. | 1929 | Austin |
| Aurora Picture ShowArtist and organizer Andrea Grover founded Aurora in 1998 because Houston lacked showcases for experimental and avant-garde film and… | 1998 | Houston |
| Studio Movie GrillBrian Schultz took over the Granada Theater on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas in 1992, where a previous operator had replaced rows of… | 1993 | Dallas |
| Movie TavernThe first Movie Tavern opened in 2001 in Fort Worth, Texas. | 2001 | Dallas |
| Violet Crown CinemaAnnounced in 2010 as a four-screen 'cafe cinema' for art, foreign and independent films with bar food and craft cocktails, co-developed by… | 2011 | Austin |
| Flix BrewhouseThe Round Rock flagship opened on June 29, 2011, with six screens, as a first-run cinema with a working microbrewery; it was designed by… | 2011 | Round Rock |
| Rave Motion PicturesRave's first theater, the $12 million, 60,000-square-foot Rave Hickory Creek 16 north of Dallas, opened on December 21, 2000; its design… | 2000 | Dallas |
| Charline McCombs Empire TheatreWhen it opened in 1914 the 1,800-seat Empire was San Antonio's largest motion picture theater. | 1914 | San Antonio |
| Inwood TheatreIt opened on May 16, 1947, with Red Skelton in The Show Off, and Cinema Treasures calls it the most modern theater in Dallas at the time. | 1947 | Dallas |
| Gem TheatreIn Hud (1963), Homer Bannon (Melvyn Douglas) and his grandson Lonnie (Brandon De Wilde) go into Claude to the Gem to see a movie; an… | 1915 | Claude |
| Paramount TheatreIt opened in 1930 with a sold-out showing of Safety in Numbers, starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Carole Lombard. | 1930 | Abilene |
| Jefferson TheatreThe National Register nomination ties the theater to the second Spindletop boom: the 1925 discovery of deep oil brought new prosperity and… | 1927 | Beaumont |
| Alamo Drafthouse VillageOpened March 20, 1974, as the Village Cinemas 4, a purpose-built four-screen theater designed by architect Robert B. | 1974 | Austin |
| EVO EntertainmentEVO's first venue, in Kyle, Texas, opened on November 21, 2014, combining an 11-screen theater, a 14-lane bowling center, a restaurant and… | 2014 | Austin |
| ShowBiz CinemasKevin Mitchell, who learned the business working for his father, Cinemark founder Lee Roy Mitchell, established ShowBiz Cinemas in 2007. | 2007 | Dallas |
| Palace TheatreIt opened June 11, 1921, with Gareth Hughes in Sentimental Tommy, the third theater named the Palace on Elm Street. | 1921 | Dallas |
| Loew's State TheatreJesse H. | 1927 | Houston |
| Metropolitan TheatreHouston film historian David Welling groups the Metropolitan with the 1923 Majestic and Loew's State as the peak of opulent movie theater… | 1926 | Houston |
| Tower TheatreThe Tower was one of Interstate's first Houston neighborhood theaters, following the North Main Theatre, which opened on Christmas Day 1935. | 1936 | Houston |
| Alabama TheatreWhen it opened in 1939 the Alabama was Interstate's tenth Houston theater and the first and largest of four Houston theaters that opened… | 1939 | Houston |
| Lakewood TheaterThe Dallas landmark nomination calls it one of the most fully intact Interstate theaters remaining in Texas. | 1938 | Dallas |
| Ridglea TheaterWith about 1,500 seats it was Fort Worth's largest suburban movie theater, and the National Register listing calls it the city's largest… | 1950 | Fort Worth |
| Granada TheaterPhil Isley Enterprises opened the Granada, its first theater in the Dallas market, on January 16, 1946, with Mildred Pierce. | 1946 | Dallas |
| Angelika Film Center & Cafe DallasReading International acquired the leasehold for the 8-screen Angelika Dallas from Reading Entertainment on September 22, 2000, and the… | 2001 | Dallas |
| Waco Hippodrome TheatreIt opened on February 7, 1914, with a live seal act, a magic show and a five-piece orchestra, at ten cents a ticket. | 1914 | Waco |
| Ritz TheatreThe National Register nomination calls the Ritz one of the first talking-picture houses in South Texas. | 1929 | Corpus Christi |
| The Grand 1894 Opera HouseThe Grand showed its first film, of a bullfight, in 1896, alongside a production of Carmen, and stock companies there used early motion… | 1895 | Galveston |
| Varsity TheatreOpened November 20, 1936, at the corner of Guadalupe and West 24th streets with Fred MacMurray in The Texas Rangers. | 1936 | Austin |
| Mission Drive-InIt opened on March 27, 1948, with Maria Montez in Pirates of Monterey, and held 760 cars plus a 120-seat seating area. | 1948 | San Antonio |
| Brazos Drive-InIt opened on June 5, 1952, with Robert Cummings in The First Time, and held 250 cars. | 1952 | Granbury |
| Galaxy Drive-In TheatreConstruction began in 2003, and the drive-in opened on December 17, 2004, with three screens. | 2004 | Ennis |
| Stars & Stripes Drive-In TheatreFounder Ryan Smith opened the first Stars & Stripes in Lubbock after leaving law school, inspired by his grandparents' Sky-Vue Drive-In in… | 2003 | Lubbock |
| Sky-Vue Drive-InThe Norets opened it in 1948 with room for 583 cars and seating for 320 walk-in patrons. | 1948 | Lamesa |
| Showboat Drive-InThe Showboat (2006) and the Starlite near Kingwood (2005) brought drive-in moviegoing back to the Houston area after the I-45 Drive-in,… | 2006 | Hockley |
| Coyote Drive-InIt opened in May 2013 with three screens and parking ramps for 1,000 cars, showing a double feature on every screen seven nights a week. | 2013 | Fort Worth |
| New Isis TheaterThe Isis was the first theater on the north side of Fort Worth; it opened on May 21, 1914, with silent films on a hand-cranked projector. | 1914 | Fort Worth |
| Cactus TheaterIt was Lubbock's first theater built outside the central business district, billed as "the family theater" and run as a bargain-priced… | 1938 | Lubbock |
| Palace TheatreOn March 24, 1946, an explosion badly damaged the front of the building and set off a fire inside; the theater was rebuilt to plans by… | 1938 | Seguin |
| Rialto TheaterOpened in 1922 as the flagship of the Hall family's South Texas theater chain, it cost $25,000 and had a typhoon cooling system the… | 1922 | Beeville |
| Yucca TheatreIt opened on December 5, 1929, with the Hollywood musical Rio Rita on screen and a live musical comedy revue from New York on stage. | 1929 | Midland |
Texas film media
40 outlets| Outlet | Years | City |
|---|---|---|
| Ain't It Cool NewsBuilt a network of anonymous industry 'spies' and test-screening reporters, and ignored press embargoes to publish scoops on films such as… | 1996– | Austin |
| The Austin Chronicle (Screens section)The paper grew out of CinemaTexas, the graduate-student film society in UT Austin's Radio-Television-Film department, where Baumgarten,… | 1981– | Austin |
| Birth.Movies.Death.Devin Faraci left the fan site CHUD in 2010 to launch the site that became Birth.Movies.Death., with Alamo Drafthouse backing. | 2010–2020 | Austin |
| Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-InJoe Bob Briggs first appeared in the Dallas Times Herald's living section in 1982 as the paper's drive-in movie critic. | 1982–1985 | Dallas |
| FangoriaCinestate bought the Fangoria, Starlog and Gorezone assets and trademarks in February 2018 and set up the magazine's staff in its Dallas… | 2018–2020 | Dallas |
| CinemaTexas program notesThe graduate-student film society screened films four nights a week alongside RTF classes, each with researched program notes. | by 1 | Austin |
| Film School RejectsMoved from Cleveland to Austin around late 2008, and by 2010 claimed about 2 million unique visitors a month and 18 contributing writers,… | 2006– | Austin |
| Spill.comIt moved the cast of The Reel Deal, a 10-year weekly Austin cable-access movie show, online as animated review shorts drawn by Korey… | 2013 | Austin |
| Double ToastedIt descends from The Reel Deal, a weekly Austin cable-access movie show Coleman ran for 10 years, and from Spill.com, the animated review… | 2014– | Austin |
| Dallas Observer (film coverage)Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1994, and the paper also ran Joe Bob Briggs's drive-in coverage. | 1980– | Dallas |
| On StoryLaunched in 2011 as a 30-minute series on Austin PBS (KLRU-TV) built from Austin Film Festival panel recordings; by 2022 it reached 86… | 2011– | Austin |
| SlackerwoodCovered the Austin film scene from production to exhibition and community, with news, interviews, reviews and a local venue guide. | 2006–2015 | Austin |
| Houston Press (film coverage)In 1998, under New Times, the Press listed national critics Peter Rainer, Michael Sragow and Andy Klein among its contributors, with a… | 1989– | Houston |
| Austin Film Critics AssociationGives a Best Austin Film award each year; the 2025 prize went to Richard Linklater's Blue Moon, screened with the Austin Film Society. | 2005– | Austin |
| The TerritoryThe Houston Press called it in 1999 the longest-running public television program of independent film and video. | 1975– | Houston |
| Frame of MindA KERA TV showcase of Texas-made independent film and video, on the air since 1992. | 1991– | Dallas |
| Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics AssociationRuns an annual critics' poll; its 2013 poll was its 20th and its 2025 poll its 32nd. | – | Dallas |
| Houston Film Critics SocietyA volunteer group of print, broadcast and online critics in the Houston and Gulf Coast region, founded in 2007, that counts San Antonio as… | 2007– | Houston |
| The Houston Post (film coverage)Joe Leydon was the Post's film critic from 1982 until the paper closed in 1995, and has also reviewed for Variety since 1990. | 1880–1995 | Houston |
| Movies with MikeyNeumann, a Plano resident, made the show at home while working at Frisco-based Gearbox, where he spent 16 years before leaving in 2017. | 2014– | Plano |
| CinapsePositioned itself around criticism and analysis rather than news, saying breaking news was for other sites. | 2013– | Austin |
| FilmTexasThe Texas Film Commission's newsletter on the state's developing film industry; a December 1972 issue laid out the case for a… | by 1–1986 | Austin |
| Junkfood CinemaBegan as Brian Salisbury's weekly Film School Rejects column, which by June 2010 billed itself as highlighting films 'no one in their… | – | Austin |
| One of UsGrew out of The Reel Deal, an Austin public-access film review show hosted by Christopher Cox and Martin Thomas, who then cofounded… | 2013– | Austin |
| Fort Worth Weekly (film coverage)Kristian Lin has reviewed films for the paper since about 1998, through three owners. | 1996– | Fort Worth |
| Hyperreal Film JournalHyperreal Film Club began in 2016 as pop-up screenings of cult, genre, arthouse and independent films around Austin, each paired with… | 2019– | Austin |
| RebellerCinestate launched Rebeller in December 2019 as a website and film label for genre movies outside horror, which it called "outlaw cinema,"… | 2019– | Dallas |
| TPR Cinema TuesdaysA summer series of classic films on the big screen run by Texas Public Radio, started around 2000-2001 when San Antonio had no Alamo… | c. 2– | San Antonio |
| CinemalogueOnline by September 2005, when Rubin Safaya was posting commentaries on new releases such as Proof and Corpse Bride and Todd VanDerWerff… | 2005– | Dallas |
| Lights Camera AustinA weekly KOOP show with a hyperlocal focus on Austin filmmakers, local film societies, festivals and screenings, plus reviews, soundtrack… | by 2– | Austin |
| CineSnobA San Antonio review and interview site online by May 2008, when its homepage featured interviews with Richard Jenkins, Will Ferrell and… | by 2– | San Antonio |
| Dallas Film NowFounded in 2010 to cover current cinema, mainly new releases in theaters and on streaming. | 2010– | Dallas |
| Music From The Movies (KUHF)A weekly Friday-night show on KUHF built around film scores, with themes tied to new releases and anniversaries. | – | Houston |
| BigFanBoy.comOnline by December 2004, billing itself as the coolest site you've never heard of, with celebrity and comics-creator interviews (Kevin… | 2004– | Dallas |
| The Velvet Light TrapA peer-reviewed journal of film, television and new media collectively edited by graduate students at UT Austin and UW-Madison. | – | Austin |
| Central TrackIts TV + Film section ran from March 2012 to December 2022 and filled 87 listing pages. | 2012– | Dallas |
| San Antonio Current (film coverage)San Antonio's alternative weekly, launched April 3, 1986, at a time when the city had two dailies and no alt-weekly. | 1986– | San Antonio |
| Mad About MoviesDescribes itself as guiding listeners through the world of film since 2013, with reviews, news and a Weekly Recommends segment. | 2013– | Dallas |
| Texas Art & FilmFounded in 2009 by Evan Zimmerman to promote art and film in Texas. | 2009– | |
| There Are Too Many MoviesA weekly comedy-and-criticism movie podcast created and hosted by Chris Collins, Josh Rodriguez and Alex Wilshin. | by 2– | Dallas |
Image credits (8)
Rooster Teeth Productions: Sean Savage, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; Star Film Ranch (Méliès Star Film Company, Texas unit): Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Alamo Village: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Cinemark: Photo: Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Paramount Theatre: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Majestic Theatre: Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Majestic Theatre: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Alameda Theater: Brentsalter, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.