General Information
Waxahachie
We have been doing Summer Moonlight Movies in Waxahachie for many years now. The first year we showed the movie on the side of one of our buildings downtown. The second year we purchased an inflatable movie screen from Open Air Cinema and have been using it ever since. We have our own project, sound system, and DVD player and we get our movies from SWANK, a distributor that takes care of the licensing fees and sends a copy of the film for us to show. The local Lions Club brings their concession trailer and provides concessions for us. It is a great community event! I have attached a photo from the movie we showed last Friday night so you can see the set up and the crowd. The movies are sponsored by my Main Street program and paid for out of my budget. They run about $250-350 per movie depending on what you show.
At times we have gotten sponsors for some added attractions to the movies. One local business—Burleson’s Honey—provided several cases of honey for us to pass out when we showed “The Bee Movie”. My downtown lawyers gave donations once for us to give away a couple of bicycles. Those are just a couple of examples. If you have any other questions, let me know. I am not sure if the attachment will go through on the list-serve but I can send it to you individually if necessary.
- Anita Brown
Movie Licensing
Hello. Uvalde Main Street would like to possibly start movies on our Downtown Square. We have looked into the licensing and it is quite expensive. We are wondering how others run this type of event, for example, do you ask for sponsors to cover the cost of licensing fee? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Kasie Morgan
Beaumont
We have done weekend Classic Movie Festivals. I would be happy to discuss sponsorships, the movies, the events around the movies, invitations etc….
- Carolyn Howard
Canton
In Canton we do a Summer Movie Series........We go thru SWANK (I can get anyone that wants our representatives information for you). We show 5 movies 4 kid movies and 1 Date night movie. This year I selected some movies and took a poll from the Advisory Board to choose what we will be showing. We average an attendance of around 450 per movie. We get local businesses or civic groups to sponsor the movies. We have been very successful with the Lions Club, Rotary Club and Banks being sponsors. We allow them to have a table at the movie to promote their business and give away things to the kids like the glow sticks, necklaces, stickers.....etc. We do not allow them to give popcorn, candy, drinks or hot dogs because Main Street has a concession.
We show two movies in June, one in July, one in August and one in September. We show them on Friday nights and start at dark. This year we are going to do something different to make if more fun for the kids, we are going to have themes with the movies such as, we are showing the Little Rascals and we are going to have the kids dress up as their favorite Little Rascal. This will be the 4th year we have shown the movies and to see the kids all playing together before the movie starts is so rewarding. It is a fun event and we have people come from the surrounding communities beside just here in Canton. Last summer we were able to get the Sing-a-long version of Frozen. We were the first city to show it outside of a theater. The kids loved it as well as the adults.
Our representative is Rachael Pickerel of Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. 800-876-5577 She is so sweet and helpful with any questions, very knowledgeable of the movies and the dates they are available.
- Tam Erwin
Canyon
Here in Canyon, we partner with our Canyon Area Library who holds the licenses through SWANK. We show 2 movies a year. One in July and one in Aug. We also get sponsorships which have a waiting list (that’s a good thing to have!). Most of our sponsorships come from our civic orgs and local banks. We show our movies at dark, as well as hand out popcorn and water. Our movies are free too. We normally average around 550-700 per movie. Except with Frozen, which we showed last summer, we had over 1,200. We felt that was a little too crowded. We get our local police to walk around the Square and be there if they are needed. Hope this helps for you!
- Honnah Taylor
Kilgore
Hi Everyone - We had a second Friday event in which we showed a movie and had downtown businesses sponsor the movie … For $25 or $50 (can’t remember how much) we showed a slide before the movie with the business names & logos (businesses could also be included on other advertising elements as well).
Also, I worked with a non-profit that did movies in the park and we had business sponsors – they included ads before the movie, name of t-shirt & mentions in newspaper articles and radio spots. These sponsorships mostly covered the cost of the movie. We also sold concession stand food and the profit from those items was what we were able to keep for the non-profit. Hope this helps and Happy Monday!
- Melinda Brown
Longview
In Longview, we use SWANK as well… Very helpful…We sell sponsorships as well to re-coop the costs of the fee to license the movie and the cost of the screen / sound equipment. We have been giving away the drinks and popcorn, but this year we are going to charge a very nominal fee for the refreshments. Too many people were taking advantage for the word ‘free’ and asking for several cans of drinks and many bags of popcorn. The cost of the movie remains free. We usually do themed activities for the movie we choose. Frozen was by far our biggest turnout and we did that one last October. ET was another big hit! I would love to hear suggestions on what movie others are showing this fall to help my board with ideas.
- Elaine Reynolds
Outdoor Movie Equipment
I was curious if anyone has their own equipment for showing movies outside? We’re looking into purchasing some with sponsorships and want to have the correct price/equipment to know what our goal needs to be.
- Jenny Rowan, Pittsburg
Burlington, Iowa
This will be our fifth year showing films on a screen painted on the side of a building: http://www.greaterburlington.com/downtown/downtown-events/5v-outdoor-cinema/. A local computer company supplies and runs the hardware, and they partner with the adjacent Elks Club to provide the sound. We use Swank and get a sponsor for each film, which they get to pick. They also play a commercial beforehand and are asked to put on games for the kids before the movie starts. We get $750/sponsorship and have always sold them quickly, so yes, we do make some money. Our organization also gets some income from soda and candy sales, while the downtown popcorn shop sells popcorn and snow cones (we don’t charge them anything). In addition, we pass the bucket at the start of the film for donations; younger kids as volunteers always seem to get the best results! Yes, “Frozen” was the biggest draw we ever had.
Things to remember:
- Use a film distributor or risk a heavy fine.
- Build in some rain dates.
- Think about things like nearby streetlights, traffic, etc. that could diminish the experience.
- If at all possible, have inside restrooms available close by. No one wants to use a porta potty in the dark.
- Kids’ movies definitely bring the most people.
- Friday and Saturday nights work best, and as people noted, watch the sunset time and the length of the movie.
While we do make money on outdoor movies, it is not a huge fundraiser, and it is unlikely to benefit your downtown businesses unless they are vendors and you draw huge numbers of people. Free events draw families that don’t necessarily have a lot of money to spend; outdoor movies are more of a feelgood event.
Steve Frevert - Executive Director, Downtown Partners, Inc. - A Main Street Iowa Program
319-752-6365
Cedar Falls, Iowa
For the past 11 years, we have hosted a movie series in a park in our district. We upgraded to an inflatable screen last year. Sound a projection equipment is coordinated through the university's theater department located in our community. We host six movies throughout the summer. Our movie distributor is SWANK with prices ranging from $200 - $400 per movie. Attendance averages 800. We show family friendly (G or PG) movies and try to get a mix of current and older, classic shows. Before the movie, the local acoustic guitar association provides live entertainment while we wait for it to get dark. A local church handles popcorn and snacks. We also have a vendor who provides a meal for families who come early for the music, which starts at 6:30. We have sponsors for the series and they are listed in all advertising. Sponsorship includes a 30 second commercial for each business which is shown before the movie starts. The commercials are high quality and can be used by the businesses to schedule as they see fit.We view this as a goodwill activity for our community. We don't charge vendors a fee or take a % of sales. Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like more information. I will gladly share our sponsorship letter etc.
Carol Lilly - Director, Community Main Street
319-277-0213 (office)
319-429-0468 (cell)
Sterling, Illinois
This will be our 4th summer of movies in the Park. We get our films (which includes the necessary licensing) from Swank. http://www.swank.com/ We fall under the "Parks & Recreation" category. Your fees for each movie are based on estimated audience size. We are currently under the lowest level and films range anywhere from $175-$350 per movie. Newer releases being more. The initial investment in the large inflatable screen we have, and the DVD player and sound system was before my time with main street, but from what I understand was a few thousand dollars. The City, Chamber and another local community development group all chipped in to the initial equipment expense. We run 6 movies each summer - every other week from the time school is out until it is back in session. We get are businesses to sponsor each movie to defray the cost of the film, along with other "advertisers" - who's logos we run on a power point loop before each movie. This additional revenue helps pay for the port-a-potty we leave at the park for the summer and some advertising. We invite area non-profits (church groups, Relay for Life teams, Girl & Boy Scout groups) to provide our concessions each week. They will bring popcorn, cookies, pop & water to sell. We let 2 groups participate each movie. Many attendees bring their own popcorn & snacks. It's been enormously popular. We're a town of 15,000, with an immediate neighboring community of 9,000. Our average attendance for each movie is between 300-400. When we showed "Frozen" this past summer, we were probably close to 1,000. You could hear the kids singing along from the high school 12 blocks away (or so I was told). The first year they did a mix of film types - animated and family oriented films. We have found that the animated and children focused movies are the best.
Depending on where you live and what time the sun sets, be conscious of the film's run time. Here the sun will set enough for it to be dark enough to show the film by around 8:30 p.m. 90-100 minute films are best. Before we started paying attention to this, they showed a film that was over 2 hours. The crowd started leaving and kids got antsy with that long of a film. We purchased our equipment through: Moonlight Flix, 726 E. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803, 563-579-1477
http://www.sterlingmainstreet.org/movies-at-grandon/
I'd be happy to answer any additional questions about our program.
Janna Groharing -Executive Director
Office: 815/626-8610
Email: janna@sterlingmainstreet.org
Sulphur Springs, Texas
Last year was year three. Criterion and Swank both do movies. Criterion is less, but I like Swank’s choices a little better. Our blowup screen, projector (7,000 lumens), stand and JBL PA system were about $10,000 initial investment. We still have the system intact. We order all our movies at once and show them every Friday night in June, July and August… about 14 movies at an average of $300 a show. Frozen, by far, was the most popular… we decided to show it twice and had the same result both times. We invite local businesses and select market vendors show up to sell goods at no charge. We’ll also run a commercial before the show for sponsors or we’ll hang their banners. It doesn’t pay for the entire cost, but it helps. On the time, we tell people it will be “At Dark”. Make sure you think about what electricity you have available and blocking off the area where the projector is (we have a rear projector – shows from the back of the screen). Speaking from experience, make sure you test your system and get comfortable with it several weeks in advance. Otherwise, it will be slanted or blurry or something will be off. AND if something is off and it is minor, chances are, you will see it, your City Manager may see it, your staff will see it…. But if anyone else sees it, I’d be surprised.
Rent the DVD, but you may want too consider streaming it off iTunes on an iPad in case there is a scratch in the DVD – had that happen on my first movie. My second was in a DVD player that was not compatible with the projector. It showed the movie, but it did some weird things. One night, I simply had to cancel the movie and do a rain day because of a technical issue. Your first year, don’t be discouraged if you have a small turnout. I almost gave up on the movies in the park, but my colleague in Paris, Texas shared here story about how it took time to build. She was right! Thanks Cheri!!All said, it is something the kids really love.
Shane Shepard