Area theaters score touchdown with big screen broadcast of Michigan National Championship

Area movie theaters expect big crowds for Monday’s Michigan game.

Movie theaters across Metro Detroit have already scored with University of Michigan fans wanting to watch Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game on the big screen.

Trevor Baker, chief operating officer of Emagine Entertainment, says the company — which will show Monday’s game in theaters at eight locations in Metro Detroit, as well as a pair of theaters in Indiana — had sold around 1,500 tickets for the game as of Friday, at $20 a pop. He says sales have increased day-over-day every day since they went on sale Tuesday, following Michigan’s 27-20 win over Alabama in Monday’s Rose Bowl, which sent the Wolverines to the National Championship game against the University of Washington Huskies.

“We were curious: Would somebody pay money to come see something they can see for free on TV? And we felt they would,” says Baker, whose theaters also showed last week’s Rose Bowl game in its auditoriums, and has found success with broadcasts of UFC and pro wrestling events in the past. “Events like this are meant for community and sharing, and what’s better than going and seeing the game on a larger than life screen, getting food and beverage, and not having to clean up afterwards?”

Emagine, as well as other area theaters showing the game, are doing so in partnership with Theater Sports Network of Salt Lake City, which partners with media rights owners and exhibitors to bring live sporting events to movie theaters. The National Championship game is part of an agreement between ESPN and the Theater Sports Network which has brought approximately 75 games during the 2023-24 college football season to theater screens nationwide.

Ticket sales for Monday’s game — kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Houston’s NRG Stadium — have been “outstanding” at MJR Theatres, says MJR’s director of marketing, Anthony Taylor. Earlier this week, MJR reps announced they would show the game at three area theaters, and have since added a fourth theater to meet demand.

“This has been unquestionably the best selling live sporting event that we’ve seen, and I think it reinforces the desire for a shared cinematic experience for live events,” Taylor says.

Sales have been “soft so far” at the Ford-Wyoming Drive-In in Dearborn, says Courtney Clark, the theater’s manager of marketing and social media. But she expects to see an uptick in sales over the weekend and into Monday, as long as weather cooperates, and because of the theater’s unique tailgating opportunities. (Coolers are barbecues are welcome, she says.)

Michigan Theater executive director Russ Collins says he expects between 1,300 and 1,400 people at the downtown Ann Arbor theater for Monday’s game, two to three times the number that were there for the Rose Bowl game. Part of that is because students are back on campus Monday, after being absent over the holidays, and he expects a full house as Michigan vies for its first National Championship since 1997.

“It’ll be a really good, packed event,” he says.

agraham@detroitnews.com