Magic Bag Theatre

Info Updates:

6/19/2009 - Willy Wilson

I love the website! I just wanted to update you! The Magic Bag underwent an ownership change and remodeling in 1996. It was remodeled further in 2006, expanding the lobby, the bar and the bathrooms.

2/20/2009 - Steve Bielawski

The Magic Bag is really a nightclub these days. All the theatre seats are gone, and the auditorium has been covered with plywood. It has three levels with seats and tables, each level closer to the screen being two steps down from the level behind it. There is a fourth level, where the speakers are, and one more for the stage. The stage is a square of plywood which is as wide as the screen; that makes it a good size for a concert. While there is no microbrewery, they have a lot of bottles of beer in the refrigerators, as well as a full bar. They have a waitstaff to bring you refills, even during the movie. In fact, they do not refer to a ticket charge for the Brew and View movie, but rather call it a cover charge.

2/17/2009 - Steve Bielawski

I may be wrong about the on-site microbrewery. Please take that out of the previous comment. I will attend a show there soon, and I will tell you if they do indeed have a microbrewery there. Sorry for the inconvenience.

12/30/2008 - Roadie

My mother use see movies there with her parents when they lived in Detroit. I remember it being an adult theater except for a short time it was DÃ©jÃ Vu. I can remember there sign "25 beautiful women and 3 ugly ones".

11/17/2008 - Claudia Ellison

I used to come from the East side with my boyfriend in the late 60''s to see foreign films, and of course it seemed so sophistocated to me at the time, being a small town girl. However, the two movies I remember seeing were "Elvira Madigan" which was strange and sad, and "Repulsion" by Roman Polanski, starring a very young Catherine Deneauve, and that was a very disturbing movie. I still don''t like violent or scary movies to this day!

2/7/2005 - Doug Shirk

The information was a bit mistaken on when the Studio North went adult. Although I couldnt give you the dates, I saw "Medium Cool" and "Closely Watched Trains" in the mid to late 60s there, and I dont think it went "adult" until the early 70s.

12/9/2004 - Debbi

I remember this theater as the Studio North, in the 1960’s. It was one of the few theaters in the Detroit area where you could see foreign films, avant-garde films, classic films . . . in short, one of the few theaters that showed films that weren’t from the major Hollywood studios. Not that I have anything against Hollywood movies – I don’t. But I remember the feeling I had, as a young teenager, going to the Studio North: a feeling of adventure and excitement, a feeling that I was a bit more sophisticated. The parking for the theater was odd: two rows of parking spaces in the middle of Woodward, with several lanes of traffic between the parking and the theater.

1/13/2004 - Cinema Treasures

Opened in 1921 as the Ferndale, this 425-seat theater was renamed the Studio North in 1961. Not long after it switched its name, it also switched to adult films. For years, its owners, the city of Ferndale and Oakland County were involved in legal battles, over charges of prostitution as well as various other charges, and in 1989, the city of Ferndale finally succeded in shutting the Studio North down. In 1991, after an extensive renovation, which also reduced the theater's seating to 300, it reopened as the Magic Bag Theatre, which features concerts as well as "brew 'n' view"-style movie screenings.

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