"I said, 'we can only continue if you're willing to continue to reinvest,'" Corinne Hoffman, vice president of L&B Realty Advisors, recalled in a People Newspapers report on the Inwood Theatre this October. "You've got to do something about these chairs. You've got to clean it up on the inside."
L&B Realty Advisors owns the Inwood Village shopping center, and Hoffman was describing how she negotiated with Landmark Theatres, the company that runs the 1947 theater on Lovers Lane. Landmark came away with a three-year lease, its first multiyear deal since a 2024 default. Hoffman's terms show what kind of lease it is. Each year is tied to new money going into the building, and the landlord says plainly that it is counting on the neighborhood to make that money worthwhile. Bluffview has its theater back on a three-year trial.
A lease with a condition attached
Hoffman told People Newspapers that roughly 15 years had passed since the last interior renovation, and she made investment part of the price of staying. Here is how she described the arrangement:
"They're saying they're committed to making improvements, slowly. Each year is tied to some initial capital investment that they plan on making, which I think will — for the neighborhood, as they see some changes — hopefully bring them back."
Hopefully bring them back assumes the audience needs winning back. Hoffman put the theater's situation bluntly in the same interview: "They've struggled, as all the theaters have post COVID. It's not a very lucrative business today, as you can imagine."
Christine Mullis, who manages the property for L&B Realty Advisors, sounded the same note in a Dallas Morning News story in July: "Our hope is that the community will really rally around Landmark and Inwood Theatre."
How the Inwood got here
The theater has nearly closed before, and each time it came back by becoming a different kind of theater. People Newspapers and the Dallas Morning News pieced the history together this year:
- 1947: The Inwood opens in Inwood Village.
- 1960s and '70s: Attendance falls. A fire in the early 1980s forces a temporary closure, and the old balcony later becomes a third auditorium.
- The lounge years: To draw an adult crowd, the owners add a full bar. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules at the time banned liquor sales inside movie theaters, so the Inwood Lounge was built with its own street entrance and a glass-block wall between it and the theater lobby.
- The Landmark era: Landmark Theatres takes over and renovates. A 2005 refurbishment follows, and in 2008 a "living room" auditorium with couch seating and its own bar is added.
- February 2024: The landlord's notice says the lease was terminated on February 19 "because of a default," and a lockout notice goes up on the front door. D Magazine reported the closure that week.
- 2024 to 2026: Landmark cures the default by moving to a month-to-month lease, Mullis told the Dallas Morning News.
- May 2026: Landmark signs the new three-year lease and promises a guest-experience overhaul.
The theater spent more than two years on a month-to-month lease before signing a longer one. Mullis framed that stretch as a test: "We wanted to give them the opportunity to be able to really turn the ship around." The three-year lease is the result of passing it, and it sets up the next test.
What the first year's money has bought
In July, an Inwood Village representative told Advocate Magazine that leather recliners, refinished entry terrazzo and LED poster cases were all in progress and expected to be done by the end of July, with "additional enhancements planned over the next 24 months." By fall, the scorecard looks like this:
| Promised upgrade | Where it stands this fall |
|---|---|
| Leather recliners replacing the LoveSac couches in the main theater | Done. Landmark's Inwood page advertises "comfortable new recliner seating" and calls the space "newly renovated in 2026" |
| LED poster cases replacing the old cases out front | Unconfirmed. They were announced as in progress in July, and People Newspapers in October still described them as a coming change |
| Refinished entry terrazzo | Unclear. It was reported as underway in July, but People Newspapers in October described "talk of restoring" the floor |
| Further enhancements | Planned over roughly two years, per the July announcement |
The seats were the upgrade the landlord asked for by name, and they are the one change both the operator and the press confirm. The rest is still arriving. That matches what Hoffman described: improvements coming "slowly," with each lease year bringing its own round of spending.
Not everyone close to the Inwood thinks new chairs go far enough. Matt Zoller Seitz, a longtime film and television critic who worked at the Inwood while he attended SMU, told People Newspapers he was "overjoyed to hear that the Inwood has received something other than a stay of execution." He would like Landmark to go further: "My fantasy is that they reintegrate the theater and the old Inwood Lounge and make one of their three auditoriums 35mm capable."
The rest of the scorecard is outside the lobby doors
The landlord's plan reaches beyond the theater. Mullis told the Dallas Morning News that L&B hopes new Inwood Village tenants such as PopUp Bagels and Jungle Studio Fitness will help revive the theater. In other words, every new tenant adds to the foot traffic the theater needs. The leasing pace this fall shows how hard Inwood Village is working on that:
- Ball and Buck opened October 8 at 5370 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 325.
- LAKE Pajamas is scheduled to open Friday, November 6, according to Advocate Magazine's October tenant roundup. LiftHER is expected later in 2026.
- BURU and Charlie's by Vandelay are slated for 2027, with Charlie's moving into the former Adelmo's space at 5450 W. Lovers Lane.
- Acai Brasil at 5601 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 110, and Jungle Studio Fitness at 5560 W. Lovers Lane were both open by late August.
A few blocks away, Yo-Chi opened its first U.S. shop at 5710 Lovers Lane on October 3 and drew an estimated 5,000 guests over opening weekend, People Newspapers reported.
A fitness studio, a pajama shop and a Vandelay restaurant don't sell movie tickets on their own. They do bring people to the center on evenings and weekends, which is when an art house fills or doesn't. The theater's lease and the shopping center's tenant mix are now tied together.
Showing up this season
Two things are already on the calendar, and they show the two audiences the theater depends on.
The Holiday Village Stroll, Saturday, November 7. Inwood Village's free afternoon runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at 5300 W. Lovers Lane. Local artist Jan Riggins will create 3D sidewalk art outside the historic Inwood Theatre, and We Them Grays starts playing at 2:30 p.m. The day also includes Camp Crafty craft activations, a free tumbler-painting workshop and a $1,500 giveaway, according to the Visit Dallas event listing. The listing places the art outside the theater but doesn't mention an event hosted by the theater itself.
Rocky Horror, the last Saturday of every month. Los Bastardos, the shadow cast that performs alongside the film, lists the Inwood as its home theater with shows on the "Last Saturday of EVERY MONTH." On that schedule, the remaining 2026 dates fall on November 28 and December 26. Its Halloween tour listed an October 31 Inwood show as sold out. Landmark's ticket page for the show is the place to confirm a specific night.
The cast cares about the building as much as the show. Its director, who performs as Victor Entropy, joined after attending a performance in 2016. He told the Dallas Morning News he helped repair water damage to the theater's murals after a freeze a couple of years ago, and that the Inwood's Art Moderne design and murals suit the show. "That is the way we should be treating historic buildings," he said. "We should be doing things to drive people there, trying to keep things relevant."
Mullis, the property manager, admitted in the same story that it had been a few years since her own last visit. "Now that they have new seats, we've got to go and check it out," she said she told her husband. The recliners are installed, and the next round of spending depends on how this lease year goes.
At Carol Ann Zelley Real Estate Group, we follow Inwood Village closely because the theater and its neighbors on Lovers Lane are part of everyday life in Bluffview. If you'd like to talk about what the changes around Inwood Village mean for your own plans, schedule a personalized consultation with our team.
