AMC Theatres will honor the late country star Dolly Parton with a limited re-release of two of her most famous films: the 1982 comedy “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and the 1989 dramedy “Steel Magnolias.”
The films will play at 200 AMC locations, including throughout Parton’s home state of Tennessee, at discounted ticket prices from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2. Participating theaters will show two matinee screenings daily where possible, including one of each title.
In “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” Parton earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Miss Mona, the beloved and otherwise law-abiding proprietor of a popular brothel called the Chicken Ranch that becomes the target of a moral crusade by TV personality Melvin Thorpe, played by Dom DeLuise.
The public scandal challenges Mona’s secret romantic relationship with the town sheriff, Ed Earl, played by Burt Reynolds, who must decide whether to risk his reputation and future to defend the Chicken Ranch from Thorpe. In the film, Parton performs her hit single “I Will Always Love You,” which would later be famously covered by Whitney Houston for “The Bodyguard.”
In “Steel Magnolias,” Parton played Truvy Jones, the owner of a hair salon in Louisiana where a group of women bond over the course of the film including Shelby Eatenton, played by Julia Roberts, whose fateful decision to have a child despite the potentially fatal risk due to her type 1 diabetes tests the relationships of the group.
Alongside her iconic country career, Parton also starred in films like her 1980 cinematic debut “9 to 5,” which spawned a Tony-nominated musical, the 1992 rom-com “Straight Talk” and the 2021 Netflix film “Christmas on the Square,” which won her an Emmy. The title song from “9 to 5” became one of Parton’s most beloved No. 1 hits and earned her the first of two Oscar nominations for Best Original Song, the other coming in 2006 for the song “Travelin’ Thru” for the LGBTA+ dramedy “Transamerica.”
