COVID-19 has had a huge impact on everyone, but most importantly small businesses. 

While big movie theater chains like Cinemark and AMC weren’t struck as hard by the pandemic, small movie theater chain Flix Brewhouse struggled more.

Flix is a small movie theater chain with now only 9 locations in Texas. Having to go through 2 shutdowns, Flix was starting to have little hope they would be able to bounce back. When attempting to reopen in Sept. of 2020, Flix faced some tough obstacles. 

“With the Tenet reopenings it was very awkward walking in and telling people they have to wear a mask while eating,” Frisco/Little Elm General Manager Anita Robinson said. “It was hard to know if we were going to come back from that.” 

With no new content and more streaming services being created, it made it hard for people to want to go to the movie theaters. 

“The hardest thing is without first-run content, you can’t be a movie theater chain,” Robinson said. 

Flix was able to reopen in Dec. 2021 just in time for the new Spiderman movie. After reopening, they were close to full capacity the whole weekend. 

“Now it is better because the CDC is saying you don’t have to wear masks anymore and lots of places are doing away with social distancing. So a couple of days ago, Flix revised its mask policy,” Robinson said. “This reopening for Spiderman felt normal again.”

But even when times were getting hard for Flix and their employees, they still found a way to stay connected even when they couldn’t see each other in person. 

“We have an internal communication app that kinda works like social media but for work. People posted their workouts and inspirational messages, so for 6 months this [was our way of staying] super connected,” Robinson said. 

That is what makes Flix so different from other movie theaters. With being a local business, it allows them to create close bonds with each other. 

Another way Flix stands out from other theaters is how they offer alternative programming where each month has a theme with show throwbacks that relate to it. 

“The month of March is all about Steven Spielburg,” Robinson said. 

Flix has had a bumpy road, but they have fought their way through and are ready to bring back the excitement of going to the movie theaters.