HOUSTON – It took years, but when the historic River Oaks Theatre said it would be re-opening its doors to the public, tickets for the first few screenings sold out within minutes.
RELATED: Tickets to historic River Oaks Theatre’s first screening ahead of grand reopening going fast!
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Most Houstonians have a strong connection or fond memory of the city’s oldest theater, and after news surfaced it would be shutting its doors for good, residents were dejected.
Its revival and restoration showed that the theater would be spared the same fate as many beloved Houston venues like the Astrodome. Instead, it would get rebooted (pun intended) into an elevated, one-of-a-kind entertainment experience for even new residents to create memories while maintaining its nostalgic integrity.
CLOSER LOOK: Inside the newly renovated River Oaks Theatre, Houston’s oldest and only art-house cinema
For the new owner, Omar Khan, CEO of Star Cinema Grill and Culinary Khancepts, there were so many reasons to get involved. One motivating factor was saving the theater where he and his wife shared one of their first dates in the late 90s to watch “Fight Club.” (Don’t worry, we didn’t talk about Fight Club.)
“We are a couple that went to a lot of movies, but there was something really special about this venue. I think the art deco eclectic vibe just had this certain atmosphere that really sucked you in,” he explained. “And you could see that everybody that worked in the venue really appreciated the art of film, and I think that that really showed that the passion was really behind the counter. And that’s what really set this theater apart from everybody else.”
Khan now describes his wife as his business partner and muse, because it wasn’t an easy task to keep the theater from closing its curtains for good.
“The landlord was approached by many people who wanted to save the theater,” Khan admitted.
So what stood Khan apart from these folks? It could be a mix of entrepreneurial passion combined with a genuine love for movie theaters. In fact, Khan’s father owned a movie theater in Houston that was one of the first cinemas (if not the absolute first) to play Indian films. It was there Khan told me he got his first start in the cinema industry.
“My father wanted to bring Bollywood-style movies to the U.S., and so I grew up in that theater running around the concession in the lobby and all those types of things as a young adult,” he said. “And then at some point in my career, I got the privilege to work alongside my father in the cinema industry.”
“I also had the privilege to work for some large organizations in the cinema work,” he continued. “And so my kind of passion came from all of that... worked in theaters as a young adult, when I was a teenager. I worked in theaters during my college career as well. And so, not only was it in my family, I did it outside of the family, but it just kind of was running through my veins and so I always had the desire to be in the business myself.”
Combined with Khan and his wife’s shared love of films and entrepreneurial spirits, they were able to share that vision of an elevated experience and put seats back in the theater.
“There was almost this obligation that felt like, we were the right ones to do that,” Khan said. “That obligation eventually turned into the desire to want to save it. And we were fortunate enough to work out a deal with the landlord that made economic sense for both sides and here we are today.”
For the last few years, there’s been a contentious debate on whether or not the movie theater industry is dying. An article by CNBC suggested they’re not dying, they’re becoming more innovative.
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Khan certainly shares that sentiment saying everyone wants to go out and enjoy themselves, so give them a reason to be glad they left the home.
“You want to take your families out and you want to entertain them and you want to enjoy those emotions and feelings and all the things that we talked about that bring their highs and lows and make you feel alive within an immersive experience you can’t really get at home,” he explained. “The philosophy of how we program this theater has changed. And so, I think that now, we have a lot more diversity when it comes to programming—I think that we’ve always been pretty good at that. My wife and I collaborate on a lot of those things like bringing food and beverages to this venue, bringing live performances and comedy shows and events, and those types of things.”
The theater celebrated its grand opening on the first week of October, but even after just three weeks of it being open to the public—when this interview was conducted—Khan admitted it was all still a surreal experience.
It was at that moment, that I could feel how genuinely he cared about bringing back this theater and really believing in the vision he and his wife shared coming to life.
“I won’t forget that we were probably 75% to 80% done with construction, I was here alone with my wife and we walked down the aisle way past the seats, we walked up to the stage and looking down from that stage into the auditorium and just seeing how beautiful this venue is, what it meant to this city and the fact that we were, as a couple able to save it,” he said. “That was a very proud moment for me.”
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“Sometimes I have to step out of my busy life of ‘What’s next?’ and ‘What are we doing?’ and ‘What are we working on?’ and ‘How do we get better?’ to appreciate that I think this venue definitely brought that to life for me,” Khan continued. “It almost makes me a bit emotional that I remember that feeling standing on the stage with my wife, holding her hand, just looking at what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve built and been really proud of that and that like I said, that has a lot to do with us as a couple, but it has a lot more to do with us as an organization and the team that we’re able to develop around us.”
I’ve always been a movie buff, and it’s hard to say what movies mean to me.
But when my colleague and photojournalist Wladimir Moquete asked, Khan said it’s more than just moving pictures, it means everything.
“It means my childhood, it means my family. It means my marriage,” he said. “Because like I said before, not only did I grow up in the environment, my wife and I had this connection as we were dating and as we got married and we were young couples, it was probably the thing that we did every single weekend: we went to a movie. So to me, it means all of that. It means who I am today; I’ve got three beautiful kids and all these other venues that we have, they are part of that right there. They are part of my family.”