One of Traverse City’s downtown movie theaters has gone dark.

Today marks the end of June, a month in which the Bijou by the Bay scheduled zero film showtimes and never once opened its doors to the public. The theater has been closed since a mid-May spate of technical difficulties, which forced multiple showtime cancellations. 45 days later, the theater hasn’t reopened, and Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF) – the nonprofit that operates the Bijou and its sister downtown movie house, the State Theatre – hasn’t shared any plans for reopening. 

On Thursday, May 16, the joint State Theatre and Bijou by the Bay Facebook account posted: “BREAKING NEWS…. Tonight’s showing of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has been CANCELLED because of a technical issue at the Bijou. We hope to have this resolved by tomorrow. Please stay tuned for further updates. Thank you.”

The issues weren’t resolved a day later, when the Bijou announced that all programming would be cancelled for the whole weekend, nor were they resolved by May 23, when the Bijou scrapped another weekend due to the same technical difficulties. TCFF confirmed in a comment on the latter Facebook post that the problems had to do with the theater’s projector.

Since then, there have been no posts on the State/Bijou Facebook page referencing the technical problems or plans to get the theater open again. The account has remained active, posting about screenings at the State Theatre, including that theater’s ongoing TCFF Tuesdays film series. 

Questions about the Bijou’s future were underlined earlier this month when a power shut-off notice was found wrapped around the theater’s door handle. The notice, dated June 11 and relating to the Bijou’s account with Traverse City Light & Power (TCLP), showed an outstanding balance of $940.12. “This account is eligible for shut off on or after 7 days from the date printed on this notice,” the notice warned.

The Ticker inquired about the notice and the Bijou's status to TCFF Founder Michael Moore and Angie Forton, executive director of the State and the Bijou. Forton shared screen captures of TCFF’s accounts with TCLP, which showed that the Bijou’s outstanding $940.12 bill had been paid by credit card on June 15.

“As you can see from the attached, there are no issues with the utilities. The theaters are in good standing,” Forton told The Ticker in an email. “We have a great summer planned, including the kickoff of our 20th year of TCFF, a mini-fest at the end of July showing ‘the Best of the Fest,’ and a continuation of our hugely successful TCFF Tuesdays…”

Forton did not provide details about the planned mini-fest; Moore did not respond.

Under TCFF’s contract to use the Bijou building – a facility owned by the City of Traverse City – the theater is required to “maintain a minimum program of at least one film showing per day for at least 200 days per year.” In 2022, after failing to meet that requirement, TCFF invoked a force majeure clause, citing the “ongoing worldwide health crisis” of COVID-19.

Traverse City Mayor Amy Shamroe says there is still plenty of 2024 left – 184 days – for TCFF to meet its 200-day requirement.

“They have a specific number of days a year they are supposed to be open, so being shut down long term might not be in violation if they end the year within that number,” Shamroe says. “But I believe there are other stipulations about [the Bijou] being available for public use and other accommodations to the public that factor into their low rent.”

Shamroe raised similar concerns last year when TCFF invoked the force majeure clause. “The Bijou is supposed to be there for the public to use, including for nonprofits and other groups to use, but they’ve often been closed,” she said at the time. “They opened for their own festival [in 2022], but then closed again promptly.”

As the Bijou sits dark, the State Theatre seems to be pivoting away from new release films toward older cinema. Beyond TCFF Tuesdays screenings, the only new films to get multi-showing runs at the State in the past two months were action comedy The Fall Guy, the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, and indie comedy Babes. Since mid-May, the theater has programmed full-weekend runs of 1998 German thriller Run Lola Run, 1941’s Citizen Kane, and 2001 cult classic Wet Hot American Summer. 

The trend will continue for at least the next few months. Friday morning, TCFF announced a pair of new series for the summer: “The Best Popcorn Movies of All Time” and “Late Night Date Night at the State Night.” The goal with these series, according to the email, is to give local audiences a chance to see beloved films “on the big screen, in the way they were intended to be seen by the great filmmakers who made them.”

The popcorn movies series will include weekend runs of Jaws (this weekend) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (next weekend), while the late-night series will offer 10pm Friday and Saturday showings of films like Animal House (this weekend) and Speed (next weekend). Other movies on the docket this summer include When Harry Met Sally, A Hard Day’s Night, Casablanca, Fargo, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Dark Knight, The Godfather parts I and II, Once, and The Shawshank Redemption.