EVO's first venue, in Kyle, Texas, opened on November 21, 2014, combining an 11-screen theater, a 14-lane bowling center, a restaurant and bar and a 3,000-square-foot arcade; it was designed by the Beck Group and cost $22 million.
Austin · Opened 2014 · active company
EVO Entertainment builds movie theaters into larger entertainment centers. Cinema Treasures reports that Mitchell "Mitch" Roberts started the chain in 2013. His father, David Roberts, operated Texas Cinemas, and his grandfather is Cinemark founder Lee Roy Mitchell. Cinemark's own annual report names David Roberts as Mitchell's son-in-law and the owner of Lone Star Theatres, Cinemark's minority partner in a Laredo theater. Cinema Treasures describes EVO as part of the Roberts family's Texas Cinema. The name is short for "evolution."
The first EVO opened in Kyle, Texas, on November 21, 2014. The $22 million building, designed by the Beck Group, combined an 11-screen theater with a 14-lane bowling center, a restaurant and bar and a 3,000-square-foot arcade. The formula repeated as the chain grew. On October 14, 2016, it opened The Spot, a seven-screen venue with eight bowling lanes in a former Target store, which Cinema Treasures now lists as EVO San Marcos. EVO Schertz, the sixth location, opened on March 8, 2019, with 10 screens, 16 lanes, laser tag and a virtual reality attraction. It also had an EVX auditorium, EVO's own premium format with Barco 4K projection and Dolby Atmos sound.
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed theaters in March 2020, EVO turned the Schertz parking lot into a temporary drive-in. It painted an exterior wall to serve as the screen, broadcast the sound over car radios and brought food from the theater kitchen to drivers' windows. IndieWire reported that the free screenings had sold out every night since the March 27 opening. That summer the company, then described as Austin-based, took over the former Sky Cinemas at Belterra Village in Dripping Springs, whose operator had lost its lease, and reopened it on July 1, 2020.
In January 2022 EVO acquired ShowBiz Cinemas, the circuit founded by Lee Roy Mitchell's son Kevin Mitchell. EVO has since expanded outside Texas. It reopened the former Regal Santa Fe Stadium in New Mexico on January 23, 2026. In June 2026 it announced plans to rebuild the former Xscape Theatre near Fulshear into a 70,000-square-foot venue with bowling, laser tag, climbing walls and two EVX screens, due in summer 2027. EVO's site lists six operating venues, with Forney, Texas, set to open in November 2026.
| In March 2020, with theaters shut by the COVID-19 pandemic, EVO turned the parking lot of its Schertz venue into a temporary drive-in, painting an exterior wall to serve as the screen and delivering food from its kitchen to cars. | ↗︎ |
| EVO reopened the former Sky Cinemas multiplex at Belterra Village in Dripping Springs on July 1, 2020, after the previous operator's lease ended during the pandemic. | ↗︎ |
| Owner | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Mitch (Mitchell) Roberts, founder and CEO; Roberts family (Texas Cinema) | 2013– | ↗︎ |
| Mitchell Roberts started the chain in 2013; his father, David Roberts, operated Texas Cinemas, and he is a grandson of Cinemark founder Lee Roy Mitchell. | ↗︎ |
| Cinemark's annual report identifies David Roberts as Lee Roy Mitchell's son-in-law and the owner of Lone Star Theatres, Cinemark's partner in a Laredo theater. | ↗︎ |
| EVO Schertz opened on March 8, 2019, as the chain's sixth location, with 10 screens, 16 bowling lanes, a restaurant and bar, an arcade, laser tag and a virtual reality attraction, plus an EVX premium auditorium with Barco 4K projection and Dolby Atmos. | ↗︎ |
| EVO took over the former Regal Santa Fe Stadium in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in December 2025 and reopened it on January 23, 2026, after a refurbishment. | ↗︎ |
| On June 11, 2026, EVO announced it had bought the former Xscape Theatre at 26616 FM 1093 in the Katy-Fulshear area and would turn it into a roughly 70,000-square-foot venue with bowling, more than 100 arcade games, laser tag and two EVX screens, opening in summer 2027. | ↗︎ |
| EVO acquired ShowBiz Cinemas in January 2022; former ShowBiz venues in Waxahachie and Homestead, Florida, were renamed EVO in December 2023 and passed to Hooky Entertainment in June 2025. | ↗︎ |