The popcorn machine will remain cold and the screen will stay dark. ShowBiz Cinema, Orange County’s only movie theater, will not be reopening the Cinema I and II on Bowling Lane.
The theater closed for Tropical Storm Harvey and has never reopened. On Wednesday, an employee with ShowBiz corporate office in Dallas said the company will not bring the twin cinema back into business. The company does not own the building and the landlord has not decided whether to find another company.
ShowBiz Cinema owns movie theaters in seven other Texas cities, Kingwood, Waxahachie, Liberty Lake, Baytown, Marble Falls and Granbury. The company had operated the one in Orange for more than a decade and offered reduced prices for new movies. The theater booked a lot of family-oriented movies along with popular action films.
The twin cinema building opened about 45 years ago, taking the place of The Strand, the last “picture show” in downtown. Downtown once had three different movie theaters, The Strand, The Royal, both on Front Street, and The Gem on Fifth Street.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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