Variety spotlights Michigan Theater’s innovation

Art house theaters are far from immune to the tough times that come with a recession. A number are looking for new revenue streams to keep afloat, and Variety magazine is pointing them toward the Michigan Theater for a splash of inspiration.Excerpt:Belove ultimately decided that the quickest area for improvement was in refining the theater’s underused memberships, which began generating stable and lucrative revenue without much marketing push. “If I could double or triple that, it would probably tip us into a different level of comfort,” he says.Since starting their member program 14 years ago, Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater now takes in over $400,000 in annual subscriber revenue, while offering well-perceived premium benefits like free screenings, popcorn and validated parking.Read the rest of the story here.