Like every good movie that’s had a remake, the movie theater at Peninsula Town Center in Hampton has undergone several iterations throughout the past 14 years.
The latest, EVO Entertainment, abruptly closed its doors on June 17. Attempts to reach the Austin, Texas-based management group via its website, phone and email were not successful.
The movie theater first opened in June 2010 as CineBistro, a concept developed by a Birmingham, Alabama-based theater company. In addition to eight movie theaters featuring 40-inch leather seats with swing-away dining tables, the roughly 50,000-square-foot building also housed a bistro, bar and nine-lane bowling alley. Moviegoers enjoyed an upscale menu that included salmon and steak, wine and cocktails. At the time, the venue was only open to people over 21 years old after 8 p.m.
CineBistro’s then executive director, Fred Meyers, said in a 2010 Daily Press story about the opening that the theater was taking the age-old dinner and a movie to “new heights.” Seven years later, in July 2017, the complex was under new management and renamed Peninsula Movie Bistro.
Knoxville, Tennessee-based Phoenix Theatres Entertainment installed electric recliner seating and call buttons. The bowling venue, Score Bowling, remained in operation. The company also added theater-type food including soft pretzels, hot dogs and flatbread pizzas. Under Phoenix’s management, Peninsula Movie Bistro lowered its age policy to make it more family-friendly.
But in less than two years, the movie theater was again under new management. In February 2019, Studio Movie Grill opened its first location in Virginia within the Peninsula Town Center establishment. The Dallas-based company was known for operating venues with in-theater dining and kept the facility as it was.
Studio Movie Grill temporarily closed all of its locations in March 2020 due to the pandemic and the Hampton location remained shuttered, according to a 2022 Daily Press story.
By May 2022, EVO Entertainment Group opened the eight-screen venue anew after renovating the theater and bowling alley and adding an arcade. The Hampton location was the company’s expansion outside its Texas market.
Now, the EVO website only lists 12 cinemas in its charge and the Hampton location is no longer shown. The company, maintaining EVO as a brand, rebranded as Elevate in October 2023.
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com