Lubbock, the Panhandle and the Big Country: every independent screen a filmmaker can book.

The Panhandle kept its single screens. Small towns own restored 1930s and 1940s movie houses through nonprofits and economic development corporations, run first-run on the weekends, and rent them on weeknights, several with rate sheets posted on the internet. Nowhere else in Texas is a filmmaker more likely to be the only thing playing. San Angelo and Big Spring, by contrast, have no independent screen at all on the evidence, Odessa’s city-owned Ector is reported as a live venue, Midland’s one locally run screen is a drive-in with no rental page, and every multiplex in the Permian Basin is a chain.

This is the Panhandle and Big Country edition of the statewide directory. Every entry was checked against the venue’s own website on September 4, 2026. Published rates are linked, not repeated. Anything not on the venue’s site is not stated here.

Lubbock.

LHUCA’s Firehouse Theatre at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts is a 160-seat room with a projector, a fourteen-speaker 5.1 system, and recording capability, and it is home to the Flatland Film Festival, twenty-third edition September 24 to 26, 2026, the same weekend as the El Paso Film Festival. Flatland’s filmmaker page and FilmFreeway listing spell out the terms: no premiere requirement, but nothing previously televised or publicly online; shorts capped at 25 minutes; a High Plains Hero award for the best feature about Texas and the Southwest; Pro-Res delivery for accepted films. Rentals name film screenings and music video releases among suitable uses, at rentals@lhuca.org. Rental rates are not published.

The Cactus Theater, a 1938 house owned by Darryl Holland since 2016, runs a hundred-plus live shows a year and a Cactus Cinema series of classic and independent film on a newly installed digital projection system. Rent the Cactus lists film screenings, with projector setup, by inquiry form and info@cactustheater.com. The site gives two seat counts, 383 and 399. Ask which is right when you ask about rates, which are not published.

Stars & Stripes Drive-In on the Clovis Highway is the family-owned three-screen twin of the New Braunfels location, and its events page offers private movie screenings and full-venue rental with daytime availability. Daytime is the only way to get an exclusive screen without competing with the weekend double feature.

The Panhandle single screens.

The Fair Theatre in Plainview is city-owned, seats more than 500, and publishes the plainest rental rate card in the state: an hourly base, a four-hour block, a whole-day rate, a projector screen fee, and a separate copyright fee for public film showings. Say up front that you hold the rights to your own film so that last line is waived rather than assessed.

The Mulkey Theatre in Clarendon, a 1946 house owned by the local economic development corporation and reopened in 2019, runs first-run Friday through Sunday and rents the 240-seat auditorium and balcony outside those hours. The Rent the Mulkey page links a rate sheet with an events tier and a private movie special. The sheet is dated 2023; confirm it is current. The Mulkey keeps concession rights at events. Across town, the Sandell Drive-In, run by the Morrow family with volunteers, is available for private events year-round by phone, but its website’s season copy is from 2015 and its current status is unconfirmed.

The Ritz Theatre in Wellington is a 1928 Mission Revival house rebuilt by Historic Wellington, Inc., a preservation nonprofit, and it runs first-run Friday through Sunday. Rent the Ritz publishes flat rates by hour block for the theater, the lobby, and both, with an hour before and after included. The theater’s own about page calls it a hundred miles from the nearest metro. That is the pitch.

The Palace Theatre in Canadian, a 1909 house restored in 1998, runs first-run with a THX system it advertises as the best sound in Texas. Its party rentals page publishes a private two-hour movie for groups up to twenty and says to inquire for larger groups. That rate is written for parties watching a booked title. Confirm playback of your own file before you rely on it.

The Evelyn Theatre in Dumas is a locally owned house with Dolby sound, operated by Randy Nies, who started working there at twelve. It books private events by phone. The site posted a no-movies-this-weekend notice in late August, which is exactly when a small-town house is most likely to say yes to a private booking.

The Wallace Theater in Levelland is a 501(c)(3) restoration, still finishing, that hosts concerts, films, comedy, and private events. Special event rentals go by form and info@wallacetheater.com. The events calendar showed community theater and no film series, so a screening here is a rental, not a slot.

The Lamesa Movieland is a nonprofit single screen, first-run daily except Monday, with digital 3D. The site lists theater rentals and private screenings by phone and at lamesamovieland@yahoo.com. Monday is the obvious dark day.

The Tascosa Drive-In in Amarillo reopened in July 2024 under a new owner, per Mix 94.1, and runs Thursday through Sunday. Its rentals page takes inquiries by form; the Book Now button on that page is an empty link, so use the form or the phone.

The Big Country.

The Historic Paramount Theatre in Abilene is a 1930 atmospheric palace, 1,131 seats, with digital projection and a year-round classic film series. Rental lists film screenings, uses three rate schedules by nonprofit, private, and for-profit status, none published, and comes with one condition that changes the math: your tickets have to be sold through the Paramount’s box office, at no cost to you, with an email to its 23,000-plus patron list and a post to its followers included, and the rental balance settled out of ticket sales within five business days. For a filmmaker without a marketing budget, that condition is the reason to book here.

The Grand Theatre in Stamford is a nonprofit reopened in 2018 that shows first-run at five dollars a seat and says in its FAQ that private rentals have limited availability. Contact is grandtheatrestamford@gmail.com. Ask for weeknights.

The Abilene Frontier Film Festival, October 2 and 3, 2026 at Frontier Texas, a museum rather than a cinema, has a Texas Film category and a shorts-only Big Country category with reduced fees for residents of twelve named counties. The 2026 call closed August 15. The Amarillo International Film Festival, October 8 to 10 at Arts in the Sunset, takes submissions on FilmFreeway; the Amarillo Film Society behind it has no screening room of its own and neither does the venue.

Call before you count on it.

The Majestic in Eastland, nonprofit-run and showing first-run Friday through Monday, and Big Sky Drive-In in Midland, three screens per Cinema Treasures with a website last updated in 2015, publish no rental path. Both are probably a yes by phone. The Palace in Childress, the 3M Palace in Colorado City, and the Texas in Shamrock are community single screens whose sites were down or missing. The Ector in Odessa is city-owned and reported as a live venue.

Fourteen rooms, four with a rate sheet posted, in a part of the state where a Friday-night screening can be the town’s whole weekend. If you shot the film out here, this is where it should play first, and the High Plains Hero award in Lubbock exists to say so.

If your film is not finished yet, that is the part we do. For filmmakers explains how.