

"Every small market theater is in the same boat." "We've had to play a lot of R-rated stuff because it was the only thing available," Thomas says. The worst part was the lack of family-friendly movies for a venue that typically caters to younger viewers. The pandemic changed everything-with the 2022 season finally crawling back to higher numbers with 70 major movie releases.

Thomas explains that it was normal to see about 140 major movies released every year between 20. The concession stand sells popcorn and drinks.
#Itheater movie houston driver
"That's always the driver of the cinema experience." "As much as people may enjoy the experience of watching a movie outside, a core component of that is there is a movie they want to see," Thomas says. But soon, the theater began to experience what all those in the cinema industry were facing: A lack of new movies to show. Showboat Theater did see a bump in popularity at the beginning of the pandemic, Thomas says, as people focused on outdoor entertainment options with their groups. "It's not sustainable with the market dynamics that currently exist." "When you look at all of those things, we've just been in a situation where there are more months in which we are not making hardly anything or sometimes having a bit of a deficit," Thomas explains. The Showboat Theater opened 18 years ago. But the movie business is not all bright lights and ticket sales-the pandemic was not kind to theaters and the current economy is not helping with the increasing costs of renting films from movie studios, food vendors, labor wages and even electricity. Thomas and his wife, Juanita, don't want to sell the Showboat Theater in Hockley, the small town that's only about 30 miles northwest of downtown Houston.
