Essay: Why Houston needs the River Oaks Theatre By Cary Darling, Staff Writer Houston film fans may want to prep for another potential disaster, though this one has nothing to do with polar vortexes or ominous blips on the satellite off the coast of Cape Verde. If, as the Chronicle reported Thursday, Landmark Theatres, the operator of the River Oaks Theatre, and Weingarten Realty, the owner of the land on which the River Oaks sits, can’t come to some sort of resolution over an expiring lease at the end of the month, the curtain may come down for the last time in the historic picture palace. And this would go beyond being just more ancillary damage caused by the pandemic, though the collapse of the movie-exhibition industry in 2020 — box office was down a disastrous 76 percent last year as crowds fled indoor public spaces — no doubt is one reason the River Oaks finds itself in this predicament.