Brian Schultz took over the Granada Theater on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas in 1992, where a previous operator had replaced rows of seats with dining tables and served beer with second-run movies, and formed Granada Entertainment.
Dallas · Opened 1993 · active company; emerged from Chapter 11 in April 2021
Studio Movie Grill grew out of a neighborhood theater on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas. The Granada Theater opened in 1946 and passed through several operators. One of them, Great Concepts, turned it into the Granada Cinema 'n' Drafthouse, replacing rows of seats with dining tables and serving beer with second-run films. According to Cinema Treasures, Brian Schultz took on the Granada in 1992 and formed Granada Entertainment; press reports on the company give its founding year as 1993. By 1997 the Granada was taking in $2 million a year.
Schultz used that success to buy and redesign the closed UA Prestonwood Creek on Belt Line Road. Granada Movie Grill Prestonwood, with a full kitchen and first-run films, had its soft opening on August 29, 1998, after a $5 million facelift. Its auditoriums were named for the old downtown Dallas palaces, including the Majestic, Rialto, Capitol and Palace. A second suburban site followed in the former UA Berkeley Square in Plano, and the circuit took the Studio Movie Grill name. The original Granada switched to first-run films in 1999 and closed at the end of March 2001. Prestonwood closed in August 2010 and was torn down in 2012. That October the company reopened the former Loews Keystone Park 16 on North Central Expressway as Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley.
The chain grew into a multistate circuit with a full-service bar and menu, luxury recliners, laser projection and buttons at each seat to call a server. In April 2019 it received a $75 million investment from TowerBrook Capital Partners. The COVID-19 pandemic closed every theater for three months, and in October 2020 the Dallas company, then 33 theaters, filed for Chapter 11 in the Northern District of Texas. It was one of the first major exhibitors to do so. It listed $50 million to $100 million in assets against $100 million to $500 million in liabilities.
On April 21, 2021, Studio Movie Grill said it had emerged from bankruptcy through an equity deal with secured lenders led by Goldman Sachs and Crestline Investors. The deal cut $100 million in debt and added $25 million in liquidity. Ted Croft, its longtime chief financial and operating officer, became CEO, and the company planned 19 theaters in seven states by Memorial Day. Cinema Treasures reports that Schultz was removed from the management team and later started a new Look Cinema operation. In October 2026 Cinema Treasures listed 18 Studio Movie Grill theaters as open.
| Granada Movie Grill Prestonwood, a second location with a full kitchen and first-run films in the former UA Prestonwood Creek, had a soft opening on August 29, 1998, after a $5 million facelift. | ↗︎ |
| Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley opened on October 12, 2012, in the former Loews Keystone Park 16, a 1997 David Rockwell-designed megaplex at 13933 N. Central Expressway in Dallas. | ↗︎ |
| Its theaters pair a full-service bar and menu with luxury recliners, laser projection and seat buttons to call servers. | ↗︎ |
| Studio Movie Grill filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in October 2020, reporting estimated assets of $50 million to $100 million and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. | ↗︎ |
| It closed all its theaters for three months in 2020 and had more than $100 million in secured debt when it filed. | ↗︎ |
| On April 21, 2021, it announced it had emerged from bankruptcy through an equity deal with lenders that cut $100 million in debt and added $25 million in liquidity; longtime CFO and COO Ted Croft became CEO. | ↗︎ |
| In 1997 the original Granada reported $2 million in revenue; it switched to first-run films in 1999 and closed at the end of March 2001. | ↗︎ |