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Kelli Kennon-Lane, current owner of the Bijou, documents how movies are selected and lessons learned in running the theater in Mount Vernon over the past year.
While the Bijou might be a small, cozy theater, housing at most 70 for a film showing, owner Kelli Kennon-Lane says movie attendance in the community is definitely not dead.
“If we’re not watching a movie we bring to the Bijou, we’re probably seeing a movie at FilmScene in Iowa City,” Kennon-Lane said. “They’re the theater we’ve really tried to mimic as we’ve relaunched, with different beverage and theater snacking options.”
Kennon-Lane said while the movie industry has seen a great deal of volatility, that’s not as apparent locally.
The theater is a for profit endeavor, utilizing proceeds to pay for bills and the lease, but Kennon-Lane and her husband John have worked to keep the theater community focused.
One piece of advice that they had from Chris and Kira Moore after taking over was to do a complete evaluation of the theater and look at price points.
“That’s where we arrived at bulk concession sales made much more sense than individually wrapped snacks,” Kennon-Lane said. “Sustainability is a core value of our family, and purchasing in bulk allowed us to offer cheaper prices to customers and ourselves, while reducing uncompostable waste. It just required a little more education to our movie goers.”
The theater received two notable grants in the first year of ownership – one from Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group for business improvements to the façade and the second from T-Mobile Hometown Grant that allowed additional work on outdoor screen, privacy fence, beautification, a mural and other projects.
“We know Chris and Kira had applied for grants to make a second screen, but with construction prices in 2025/2026, we could not make a second screen even feasible and still pay our lease,” Kennon-Lane said. “The outdoor screen allows us to show two different movies during the summer months.”
During those first few months as new owners, Kennon-Lane said they also solicited feedback from community members on the business in general.
“The biggest feedback we got – keep first run, family friendly films your focus,” Kennon-Lane said. “And the community has shown time and time again, those are our most successful movies to date. Whenever we have anything that allows multiple generations to gather, that does well.”
More classics and remastered movies was another request, and Kennon-Lane said the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie 35th anniversary proved that was true for the community.
“We had two sold out showings for the Turtles movie, one of them on a Wednesday evening,” Kennon-Lane said.
The third piece of advice was independent films or opportunities with smaller studios if she doesn’t like the options at the top of the box office for the community.
“That’s required working with and making cases for independent studios to look our way when they’re trying limited releases,” Kennon-Lane said.
She recounted that’s how she got “H is For Hawk” to screen locally, partnering with local libraries and book clubs for special sections or bringing in a red tailed hawk for a few of the screenings.
Other recommendations have been trying weekday matinee screenings for elderly patrons or dog friendly screenings (where people can bring their dogs with them to screenings, something the Bijou is now allowing for all showings).
Another popular option is sensory friendly screenings, where the movie is played at a lower sound and the lights aren’t fully dimmed, to be a more welcoming environment to people who can get overstimulated but want to watch movies safely.
Kennon-Lane walked people through the six steps to booking a movie she takes part in.
The first is evaluating the box office potential for a release by looking at the current top 10 lists or projections.
“Things like an R-rated movie being in the top 10 mean that is likely to not be the best option for the community here,” Kennon-Lane said. “If it’s PG or more family friendly, it will play better in these communities.”
Then, she works at negotiating terms with a booking agent at a studio, deciding if they are going to be showing a movie on the break (first week a film is released nationally) or off the break (when a film is reducing the number of screens it’s on in subsequent weeks).
She also will consider the booking requirements. Some films require she has a clean schedule where she’s only showing that film. Others allow her to show other films at the same time. She also determines how long of a run she is booking for a film.
After that, she will put tickets on sale and begin promotions for the movie.
Studios will demand a portion of ticket proceeds for the film, depending on box office performance overall.
When a film arrives, she downloads the films from a hard drive and then test screens to make sure it plays perfectly, and then makes sure keys work for subsequent screenings.
Aside from those screenings, Kennon-Lane said the free outdoor movies during summer months are a way to have memorable and affordable famly experiences at the theaters.
She also holds meet and greets or special events with some screenings.
Private rentals occur at the theater at least twice a week, usually in non key times.
The theater also holds fundraising shows or organizations every few months, where a portion of proceeds of concession sales can benefit different organizations.
Bulk popcorn to go sales are offered as well.
The theater has a few goals for 2026, including finding ways to connect with people when not in theaters.
A longer term goal is building an ADA compliant and accessible restroom off of the lobby. That will be a rather large investment, however, as it will deal with plumbing and construction off the lobby to happen.
Another long term goal is a wheelchair ramp from the city parking lot to the theater lawn for better accessibility to the theater.
When it comes to how best to support the theater, Kennon-Lane suggested coming to a movie, gifting a movie experience to someone else, giving the theater feedback, leaving the Bijou a review online, talking about your experiences at the Bijou to others and engaging on social media.
