Inwood Theatre Got Three More Years. Inwood Village Filled In Around It.

"I said, 'we can only continue if you're willing to continue to reinvest,'" Corinne Hoffman, vice president of L&B Realty Advisors, told People Newspapers about her lease talks with Landmark Theatres. "You've got to do something about these chairs."

The chairs are new now. The bigger change is in what surrounds them. L&B owns Inwood Village, the shopping center at Inwood Road and West Lovers Lane. In 2026 it gave the center's oldest tenant a three-year lease that came with conditions. Over the same months it signed a run of new tenants on the blocks around the theater. Those two moves are one strategy. The landlord is betting that a 1947 movie house and a group of brand-new neighbors will keep each other busy, and the theater's three-year term is how long that bet runs.

Three years, and the work came first

The Inwood Theatre opened in Inwood Village in 1947. Over the decades it has burned, closed, reopened, been bought by Landmark around 1984, shifted to art-house and foreign films, and been remodeled several times. The stretch before this year was the closest it came to leaving. The theater closed briefly in 2024 over its lease. According to The Dallas Morning News, Landmark then worked out a month-to-month arrangement with the landlord that let it keep operating.

That changed in May 2026, when Landmark signed a new three-year lease. The paper called it the first multiyear term since the 2024 default. The lease came with a list of improvements, and L&B described the first round to the Morning News:

• Leather recliners in place of the LoveSac couches
• New LED poster cases out front, replacing the old ones
• A refinished terrazzo floor at the original entry
• More upgrades planned over the following two years

Landmark's Inwood Theatre page now advertises the new recliner seating.

Hoffman told People Newspapers the reinvestment is tied to the calendar. "They're saying they're committed to making improvements, slowly," she said. "Each year is tied to some initial capital investment that they plan on making." This is a renewal with milestones built in, set for three years and tied to work done along the way.

Christine Mullis, who manages the property for L&B, told the Morning News the landlord wanted to give the theater "the opportunity to be able to really turn the ship around," and added that "2026 so far has been a great year for movie theaters and we hope it's the turning point." The same article spelled out the other half of the plan. The landlord hopes new neighbors in Inwood Village, PopUp Bagels and Jungle Studio Fitness among them, will help bring the theater back.

The landlord's half of the deal

Inwood Village covers 358,968 square feet. Its longtime anchors include Trader Joe's, Ulta Beauty, CVS Pharmacy, Flower Child, Doughbird, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Hiatus Spa and The Lash Lounge. Most of what changed in 2026 fits a pattern. Several of the new arrivals are national brands opening their first store in Texas or the Dallas area, and two are strength and fitness studios.

PopUp Bagels started it. People Newspapers reported in April that the chain picked Inwood Village for its first store in the state. Rejuvenation, the Portland-based home brand owned by Williams-Sonoma, announced its Dallas store in a September release and held its grand-opening celebration on Oct. 15. Shopping Center Business counted six new tenants in its October report. Rejuvenation and Ball and Buck were already open, and LAKE Pajamas and LiftHER were next.

The new tenants spread out the hours people come to the center. A morning bagel line, a mid-morning strength class, an afternoon trip to a lighting showroom and an evening movie each bring a different crowd. That is the revival Mullis described, and a multiyear lease gives the theater time to benefit from it.

One storefront went the other way. Supercuts closed its location at 5470 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 334, at the end of July.

The change also reaches beyond the center's property line. A short walk west on Lovers Lane, Açaí Brasil is at 5601 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 110, and Yo-Chi, an Australian frozen yogurt chain that recently made its U.S. debut, is at 5710 W. Lovers Lane, Suite 101.

The 2027 arrivals point back to the theater

The tenants signed for next year push the center toward evenings, which is when people see movies.

Charlie's is a new restaurant from three Dallas restaurateurs: Bob Sambol, the namesake of Bob's Steak and Chop House; Hunter Pond, who created Hudson House; and Rick Dunlap, Pond's co-CEO. The Dallas Morning News reported that it will take the former Adelmo's space at Lovers and Inwood, is named after Pond's son, and is expected in spring or summer 2027. Pond described the menu as "old-school New York continental," with pastas, chops, salads and seafood. Charlie's won't take reservations online. Diners will book by calling the restaurant's landline.

"After 30 years, I wanted to create something that feels humble and familiar with great hospitality, a beautiful room, people you know and a restaurant you want to return to again and again," Sambol said in a statement the Morning News quoted.

Charlie's will be part of an intersection that already has a dinner crowd. The paper named Neighborhood Services and Pond's Drake's Hollywood nearby, and Dunston's Steakhouse across the street, which dates to the 1950s. The fashion brand BURU is also slated for Inwood Village in 2027. A few blocks north, Campisi's plans to return in early 2027 at 7709 Inwood Road, in the former Perch Bistro & Bar space, after a fire in late 2025 closed its Lovers Lane restaurant.

The theater's three-year lease was signed in May 2026. Charlie's and BURU arrive partway through that term. The theater's next round of upgrades is scheduled over the same two years. A dinner reservation at Charlie's and a 7 p.m. showing next door are the kind of pairing the landlord is counting on.

What's on the calendar between now and December

The theater's best-known regular is still running. The Advocate quoted an Inwood Village representative describing the midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show as "widely believed to be the longest-running midnight movie showing," performed with a live shadow cast from Los Bastardos. Los Bastardos' director, who goes by the stage name Victor Entropy, told the Morning News that the theater's murals and Art Moderne design suit the show. He also helped repair freeze damage to those murals a few years ago.

These are the dated events on the center's calendar after this week:

1. Saturday, Nov. 21, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Santa portraits at Framebridge Inwood Village, with free digital photos included with a frame purchase, per the store's event page.
2. Saturday, Nov. 28, 11:55 p.m. The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Los Bastardos at the Inwood, per the troupe's schedule.
3. Sunday, Dec. 6, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A second round of Santa portraits at Framebridge.

Both Santa sessions fall on weekend mornings, when the new tenants are open. You could get bagels at PopUp, have portraits at Framebridge, then stop at Rejuvenation or LAKE Pajamas for gifts without moving the car. The Nov. 28 show runs on the same block until well after midnight.

Mullis told the Morning News that so many people say they grew up going to the movies at the Inwood. The three-year lease signed in May is the window the theater has to show it can keep a newer crowd coming back.

If you're thinking about how places like Inwood Village shape daily life in Preston Hollow, the team at Hunter Realty Group would be glad to compare notes. Let's get a coffee, maybe at a table near the Inwood's marquee, and talk about which corners are changing.