In 1939, the first curtain rose at Houston?s Art Deco jewel, the River Oaks Theatre on West Gray Street. For the next 82 years, movie lovers laughed, screamed, cried, and gasped together ? and ate the best popcorn alongside each other ? within what is considered the soul of a community.

On March 25, 2021, however, the doors closed on a theatre that until that moment, had been the last operating movie palace in the nation?s fourth largest city. The historic building?s owner, Weingarten Realty, and the tenant, Landmark Theatres, operator of 45 years, could not come to an agreement to renew the lease. An era ended.

Concerned devotees of the theatre are acutely aware of what has been the destiny of other vacated movie palaces in town over the years. Some have become restaurants, some bookstores, grocery stores, or tragically, have been demolished ? their irreplaceable architectural elements gone forever.  

Hoping to prevent this from happening to their beloved River Oaks, a group was formed to lead a rally to save it - the Friends of River Oaks Theatre.

Please join our cause.

Friends of River Oaks Theatre is a community-based 501(c)(3) non?profit organization dedicated to enriching the hearts and minds of a diverse community through the facilitation of art, the moving image, and support of the River Oaks Theatre as a historic art deco theatre.