SMG Royal Lane

When Albertson’s grocery chain closed the majority of its locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area including all of its subsidiary Super Saver locations by Extreme, Inc. in 2006/7, it was theater-goers who benefited as two closed Albertson’s were transformed into cinemas. The Studio Movie Grill: Royal Lane in Dallas was the first and the Venetian Movie Bar & Grill in Carrollton, was the second. Announced in September of 2007, the SMG Royal Lane took over the Super Saver grocery store and, after a series special event courses, opened February 4, 2008 and was still operating into the 2020’s.

Brian Schultz of Granada Entertainment had started with a single-screen location in revamping the lower Greenville Theatre into the Granada Movie Grill about five miles away. The Granada Movie Grill Prestonwood launched in a former United Artists theatre after a $5 million facelift with a soft launch on August 29, 1998. The fledgling circuit would pick up UA’s closed Berkeley Square in Plano for another location under its Studio Movie Grill Plano moniker with the Prestonwood becoming the Studio Movie Grill – Prestonwood. The Prestonwood shuttered in August 2010.

Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley then took on a former Loews and UA/Regal location called the Keystone which opened as an SMG on October 12, 2012. Some thought it odd that SMG would open so close to its very successful SMG Royal Lane just four exits to the South that once adjoined its headquarters. But SMG Spring Valley was opened to blunt the announced openings of the nearby Look Cinema (turned EVO Entertainment Prestonwood in 2022) and the even closer Alamo Movie Drafthouse in Addison just one exit to the North on Central Expressway.

The Royal Lane location remodeled in late-2015 with a very modern and better lit lobby. The theatre made a digital conversion though kept a film projector that was used infrequently. It did screen 70mm films including “Dunkirk", “Interstellar", and “Ready Player One". The SMG Royal Lane closed on March 16, 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. It was reopened June 26, 2020. Declaring bankruptcy in October 2020, a number of SMG’s were shuttered but the Royal Lane and Spring Valley kept on going.

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