Selecting An Outdoor Movie

When people think of arranging an open air movie event one of the most asked questions is “Can you recommend a movie for our event please?” Our normal response is to offer suggestions and possible ideas rather than give a specific title. This paper is therefore a summary of the suggestions we offer clients considering hosting an outdoor movie event.


The very first thing to understand is why people will actually attend your event in the first place. People love watching movies under the stars, it is fun, it is magic and it is romantic. They are there because they want to be there to have fun and a great time. They can do things outdoors they cannot normally do in a hard top cinema. They can laugh, they can giggle, they can enjoy a beverage and generally have a great time with their family and friends. With this knowledge in mind it is relatively straight forward to think about what type of movie to screen. This leads to thinking about classics, themed, comedy and action type of movies. It probably eliminates “heavy”, dull, thinking types of movies, but as always, not necessarily so!

Themed movies are always fun. As an example, you could consider a rock ’n roll evening and ask everyone to dress in their favourite Elvis gear and show an Elvis movie. Another idea is with the Blues Brothers. There are an unbelievable number of Blues fans out there and this movie is normally always highly successful. It may be a good idea to think of possible props to really give the event a bit of wow factor! Committees are a good way of generating ideas. Classics are another terrific idea and often work very well. Unless you are after an all night event, it is probably a good idea to avoid Gone With The Wind as it runs for about 4 hours!

For family movies it goes without saying to stick to with G rated movies and perhaps PG. It all depends on the age group of course! For the very young it is hard to go past a Disney movie, it is always 100% kid safe, colourful and action packed. For title ideas perhaps wonder through a video store or just do a Google!

The film studios do not allow all movies to be screened outdoor or on DVD outdoors. Sometimes they insist that the movie can only be screened on 35mm film. Paramount movies cannot be screened outdoors. George Lucas movies such as Star Wars cannot be screened outdoors. Therefore it is a good idea to request two or three movies when seeking the requisite copyright licence. There are two main film distributors in Australia, Roadshow who control about 80% of the films available and Amalgamated Movies who distribute Sony/Tristar. Part of Roadshow’s catalogue is available for free downloading on this site whilst Sony’s catalogue is available from the Amalgamated Movies site: www.amalgamatedmovies.com .

The internet can also help. There is a site called Internet Movie Database showing a rating of box office rankings and also by genre. Click here: http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross?region=world-wide

Some of the more popular movies we have screened are shown on the last page. This list is not meant to be definitive but just to give you a few ideas to think about! They are not in any particular order.

Images of many movie posters may be found by searching Google Images and typing the name of the movie.

People are not coming to your event to see the latest and greatest movie, they will go to the hard top cinema for that. They are coming to your event for a terrific, fun time. Therefore, unless it is for a specific occasion, the title of the movie is not that important. What works is which movie will be most appealing to your audience and gives the audience a happy and wonderful time. You may want to screen a movie for a specific type of audience. As an example, at a surf carnival you may want to show a surf movie. Our inflatable movie screen will contribute to the wow factor as it certainly is an awesome experience. For more information phone our friendly team on 1300 365 015 or visit us at http://www.melbourneopenaircinema.com.au/ .