Bill Arceneaux dubbed Only in Theaters as “one of the best films released in 2023”, in his review of the film on Movie Going With Bill. Bill praises the Laemmle family’s determination to keep their business going and having a sense of humour, even when it looked as though things were falling apart. He adds, “What makes Only In Theaters a great film isn’t in its thesis of movie theaters being important to the human condition but in its commitment to telling this one story about this one family, put through the wringer, who happen to have been showing movies to people for over a century.”