ShowBiz Cinemas

ShowBiz Cinemas was a second-generation Texas circuit. Kevin Mitchell learned exhibition working for his father, Cinemark founder Lee Roy Mitchell, and established ShowBiz in 2007. Its Waxahachie theater, ShowBiz Cinemas 12, opened on May 15, 2009. By 2012 the Dallas-based company also ran the eight-screen Driftwood Theater in Marble Falls. On December 22, 2012, it took over the Kingwood 14 near Houston from Starplex Cinemas. Cinema Treasures explains that Starplex had just left an ownership group that had overseen Starplex, ShowBiz, Movie Tavern and iTZ. At Kingwood ShowBiz replaced every seat, added beer, wine and food, and on March 18, 2014, opened its first SDX, or Superior Digital Experience, a 300-seat auditorium with a 70-foot wall-to-wall screen and Dolby Atmos.

ShowBiz then built entertainment centers. The Baytown 10 at Chambers Town Center opened on October 30, 2015, with 1,750 seats, 14 bowling lanes, a café and bar and an SDX house. At that point the chain had six locations and 42 screens, all in Texas. A theater in Humble with a 14-lane bowling alley followed on April 8, 2016, and Liberty Lakes opened on March 1, 2017. Its eighth location, in Edmond, Oklahoma, opened on December 18, 2018, after a ribbon cutting attended by Chuck Norris. Its ninth, in Homestead, Florida, opened on November 1, 2019.

The chain closed all its theaters on March 20, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most reopened that May, but Waxahachie stayed dark to be rebuilt. It reopened on December 18, 2020, as a 66,000-square-foot complex with 13 screens, 14 bowling lanes, a full bar and an arcade. Kevin Mitchell sold his stake in late 2021, and in January 2022 EVO Entertainment, run by Lee Roy Mitchell's grandson Mitch Roberts, acquired ShowBiz. Waxahachie and Homestead were renamed EVO in December 2023, and both passed to Hooky Entertainment in June 2025. Hooky also renamed the Baytown venue in October 2025. In 2023 Kevin Mitchell succeeded his father on Cinemark's board.