“We are moving towards I-35,” said COO Rob Lehman. “We have the Mayan, the Galaxy, the Cibolo (theaters) and now New Braunfels.”

The company is taking over the former Alamo Drafthouse location in the MarketPlace shopping center. The Drafthouse announced in March that it would not reopen the theater, which opened in 2013 and closed for about a year due to the pandemic.

It is one of the few sites in Drafthouse that have been closed due to the company’s bankruptcy, including Westlakes in San Antonio and the Ritz in Austin.

On ExpressNews.com: Alamo Drafthouse permanently closes West Side theater due to coronavirus pandemic

The new Santikos theater is slated to open this summer, Lehman said. This will be the chain’s first adventure in New Braunfels.

It will take around 60 to 90 days to clean and renovate the space of 11 auditoriums, he said. Among other things, the chain will install recliners as well as a new HVAC system. Part of the kitchen space will be reused as the chain offers a smaller menu than the Drafthouse.

Santikos has nine theaters in San Antonio. It was the first channel in the country to reopen following the March 2020 closures that were aimed at helping contain the pandemic.

The Silverado at Loop 1604 and Bandera Road is the last Santikos theater to reopen. Eight of its screens will be open on weekends from Friday. These screens will be split between the two major Memorial Day weekend releases, “A Quiet Place Part II” and “Cruella”.

Theaters across the country have been hit hard by the pandemic, but things are starting to change, Lehman said. Attendance figures have slowly climbed and this weekend’s big outings should be doing well.

“We are heading in the right direction after 12 brutal months,” he said.

[email protected] | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN