Neighborhood Flix Cinema & Cafe, which billed itself as Denver’s only family-run movie house, will close Saturday after 10 months, done in by an inability to compete for first-run films. The three-screen cinema opened Nov. 2 in the Tattered Cover Book Store cultural retail complex at East Colfax Avenue and Elizabeth Street, offering upscale food and a balance of independent and studio films.
But Flix had trouble booking the type of new, star-powered titles that tend to draw audiences on their opening weekends; those films went to local chain outlets and well-connected multiplexes. Flix was owned and operated by Denver native Jimmie Lee Smith, a 1983 George Washington High grad; his sister, Melodie Gaul; and his wife, Broadway actress Michelle Dorant.
