The State celebrated its 500,000 patron last November, the beginning of its fourth year. However, the theater increased its partnerships with other nonprofits, Lake explains, offering more free events for the community. The State's net ticket sales in 2010 were upwards of $550,000 (down a bit from '09). That business is what allows theater leaders to show what it feels are other worthwhile movies, even though they know there will be empty seats in the house. At seven weeks we had really held it as long as we possibly could, despite the fact that it was still doing great business." "We opened it with all of the other theaters across the country…but negotiates with each theater independently because some theaters, like us, are single screens. "The Weinstein Company knew they had an Oscar winner on their hands, and they expected all theaters showing it to hold it through the Oscars," explains Lake. "However, we are free to show any film once it has been released on video," she says.Īs for how long the theater has to hold a film, there are a lot of variables: the film itself, the film's distributor, and whether or not the theater is opening it "on the break" or, if not, how long it has been since the film opened.Ĭase in point: recent Best Picture Oscar winner, "The King's Speech," which brought the State its best holiday season ever, but also had some movie enthusiasts wondering if the film would ever leave. "And because our mission is also to save the indigenous American art of cinema, we often show films we know will not fill the theater, because they are films that should be shown."īut what films can it show? The deed restriction on the building dictates that the State can only show films that open on 200 screens or less, says Lake, or they can ask Carmike (owners of Traverse City's only for-profit theaters) for permission to show films they wouldn't be able to otherwise. "As a nonprofit theater, our mission is serve the community – it is very important that our doors are open to everyone," says the State's Deb Lake. But profits or not, how do these small town theaters make it work? The Garden Theater in Frankfort, The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay and the Elk Rapids Cinema are all for-profit operations, though small those profits may be. The Vogue will be the second theater in the area to operate as a nonprofit. Earlier this year it was announced that The Vogue Theatre in Manistee, closed since 2005, is the first benefactor of Moore's new State Theatre Project (see sidebar). The success of the nonprofit State Theatre is leading a resurgence of small town theaters across Michigan – including a few in our own backyard. Six weeks, hundreds of volunteers and thousands of volunteer hours later, the theater reopens in November 2007 and has shown movies daily ever since. Two years later, Rotary Charities donates the theater to the Traverse City Film Festival. Filmmaker and Antrim-county resident Michael Moore creates a Traverse City film festival in 2005 that turns the lights back on at the rundown – yet still majestic – theater. Its story of resurrection reads like a fairy tale. REGION – The 95-year-old State Theatre in Traverse City is undeniably the "grand lady" of independent movie houses in northern Michigan.
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