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Topic: Cinema going to the dogs, or dogs going to the cinema
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Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 11-13-2019 12:19 AM
https://www.chron.com/entertainment/movies/article/Dog-friendly-theater-that-serves-unlimited-wine-14827176.php
North Texas dog-friendly theater serves unlimited wine and movies
K9 Cinemas in Plano is unlike any theater you've been to.
For starters, the concession stand serves bottomless free wine on Friday and Saturday nights. More important, however, are the pooches: many good boys and girls, all brought by owners to the world's first and only dog-friendly indoor theater.
Owner Eric Lankford, 29, opened K9 Cinemas as a passion project. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Lankford left an unsatisfying job in the pharmaceutical industry in 2018 and moved to Texas looking to do something that made him happy and let him be closer to his best friend: an Australian Eskimo named Bear.
"I love movies, and Bear gets terrible separation anxiety," Lankford said. "I wanted to do something where people could go out and watch a film and be with their dogs."
Lankford planned to model his business after other dog theaters, but upon searching databases for canine-friendly cinemas, he realized none existed.
"Out of 27,000 theaters registered on CinemaTour.com, there were no dog-friendly venues," Lankford said. "I had to do all the paper work and figure it out myself."
And figure he did, buying K9's "hole in the wall" Plano property where he began showing films a couple days a week to locals and their dogs.
Now K9 is a six-days-a-week operation, offering a co-working space on weekdays where dog owners can get out of the office and hang with their canine friends while working on the local WiFi. Fridays and Saturdays are movie nights, and for $15, dogs and their owners can watch movies on leather couches and drink wine to their heart's content.
The rules at K9 are simple. Owners are limited to two dogs per person and must bring their pet's medical records to their first screening. They're also asked to pick up after their furry friends when they use the doggy lavatory -- a courtyard where pooches can relieve themselves during intermissions.
After that, it's just dogs and their owners watching movies en masse -- a simple idea that could be coming to a city near you.
"We have investors coming in," Lankford said. "We have people wanting us in Hawaii, Colorado Springs, Los Angeles ... a bunch of people in Austin."
Some of the people interested in K9 Cinema include Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank" and "Modern Family" actress Ariel Winter, who have reached out to Lankford to express support for his idea.
For now, however, Lankford's busy perfecting his system and learning the ropes of canine theater management -- a venture not without its unique and adorable quirks.
"The dogs bark when a dog on the screen barks," Lankford said. "Other than that, they're pretty quiet."
Dan Carson is reporter for the Houston Chronicle. You can find him drinking unlimited dog wine on Twitter.
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