The Regent Highland Park Theater, the locally-owned moviehouse that often featured gay-themed films distributed through its parent company, Regent Releasing, officially shuts its doors today. Recent films have included “Little Ashes” and the Oscar-winning “Departures.” “Sordid Lives” enjoyed a notoriously successful months-long run back in 2001.
The Regent, which was previously an AMC theater, opened under current ownership in 2001. The future of the theater is not known.
With this closing, this decreases even further the number of movie theaters in the central Dallas corridor. The Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station, the Magnolia Theater at the West Village, the Landmark’s Inwood and the AMC NorthPark Center are the only theaters south of Royal Lane and north of Downtown. Just a few years ago, the UA Cine, UA Plaza, Medallion, Lowe’s Cityplace and West End Theater all showed movies.
Sad to see this great theater close. The building is historic, so I am hoping it will not fall prey to the Dallas “tear it down if it’s over 30 years old” mentality.
And believe it or not, there was a theater on Oak Lawn Avenue, between Lemmon and Cedar Springs. I think it was called the Esquire. I believe it closed down isometime in the 1980s. I spent many a happy afternoon and evening there in the 70s and 80s. I’ve been trying to remember all of the buildings and business that have come and gone in the central Oak Lawn area for a project. It’s a real challenge. There have been multiple changes since the 1960s in several locations.
I am old. I remember seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show there many times in high school.
The Casa Linda multi-plex owners are still looking for a tenant. They almost had a movie-pub company sign a lease a couple of years back until that company backed out at the last minute.