Entertainment complex moves ahead with new branding, shift in management
HUTTO — The city’s highly anticipated entertainment center now under construction — which originally was to carry the EVO brand — will now be named Hooky, part of the new Hooky Cinema group.
Not everyone at City Hall is thrilled with the name, though, since it is often associated with skipping school.
The name was revealed at a City Council meeting last week, as well as Monday, March 10, by a development group during a Hutto Economic Development Corp. session.
“If you think about what EVO was, this is bigger, better, stronger, faster, more exciting, more involved and more elevated while still being really accessible to everyone,” Christian Helms of the branding firm Helms Workshop told EDC members.
Helms said the name invokes the idea of “playing hooky” from the daily grind.
“Hooky wants to create this call to action to people to get off their phones, get off the couch, get together and go to a place that’s active and social and has variety. Where there’s something for everybody and you can really interact and enjoy yourself with family and friends,” he said.
Some council members and an EDC board member have wondered if the company would consider changing the name.
Other officials noted such decisions aren’t the government’s place.
“I want to challenge the council to re-evaluate our role as a governing body on a business and what that role should or should not be in determining a name of a business,” Councilwoman Amberley Kolar said during the council meeting.
Brian Thompson, a councilman who also sits on the EDC board, had a similar message at the development corporation meeting.
“I understand that it’s not our purview to tell a private business what to name themselves, so regardless of the name I’m excited for this project to come to fruition for the citizens of Hutto,” Thompson said.
Charlie Tiantawach, CEO of parent company Es Vedra Cinemas, said the group will be rebranding 11 of its 18 existing theaters as Hooky this year, and five more next year.
Those properties are currently known as ShowBiz cinemas.
Es Vedra was formerly the business partner of the Elevate Entertainment Group, the parent company of EVO Entertainment, but the partnership was dissolved earlier this year. EVO kept some of the theater properties, but Es Vedra took over Hutto’s development.
Helms said his firm held focus groups with people 25 to 55 years old in areas where the company’s theaters are located.
Respondents said the Hooky name “piques interest,” “stands out” and “seems to have something for everybody,” he added.
Helms also said an informal survey of 75 students at an Austin middle school indicated only about 10 percent of the kids had ever heard the word “hooky.”
“If you see just a word on a piece of paper it can mean anything to anybody. It’s the intent behind it, what you’re going to do with it and how you’re going to share it with people that really creates the value for that name,” Helms said.
At Monday’s meeting, Es Vedra team members confirmed the development was on track to open in May and updated the EDC on current milestones. The 54,400-square-foot facility will feature an eight-screen cinema with IMAX, 12 fullsize bowling lanes, an expansive gaming space and enhanced food, beverage and cocktail menus.
The IMAX theater will be a particular draw, making the Hutto entertainment center a destination venue for surrounding cities, according to Tiantawach.
“Working with IMAX we have a radius, where there will not be another IMAX within 10 miles,” he said. “The IMAX is just for the city of Hutto.”
