2016 Top 5 List for Outdoor Movies

Each year we calculate the most shown outdoor movies of the year. In addition we have highlighted 5 great events and 5 wonderful foods seen at our outdoor movie events.

Most Shown\Top Movie for 2016

The force was strong, but not strong enough for this years top spot.

1. Zootopia
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. The Sandlot
4. Despicable me
5. Night at the Museum

 

 

Honorable mention. This year Aladdin came out of the Disney Vault. It was great to see one of my favorite animated movies on the big screen again.

Aladdin at a FunFlicks event

Food, food wonderful food, glorious food

Top 5 food and snacks

1. Ice-cream food truck from LA Salt and Straw... Yummy!
2. Gorilla Grillers - a few years ago  had an amazing cheese steak. Great to see them again at Temescal Street Flicks.
3. Fresh Churro -  Terry Martinez put on a great event every year for the community, she found a local Churro vendor who is amazing and provides them for her street party. So good..

4. Zocoalos Coffee - Wonderful Halloween event in one of the gems of the East Bay, Zocalos Coffee house. Great coffee.

Photobooth at Zocalo Coffee House

5. Our Popcorn - The FunFlicks employee diet. FunFlicks popcorn. No movie is complete without it.

FunFlicks Popcorn

Memorable Events

We run hundreds of movie nights each year,every event is special, we love what we do and enjoy all event. Here we highlight 5 of these great nights (that I personally attended).

1. It's a Wonderful Light we highlight all our services with a movie, video gaming, Photobooth, Hashtag Printer and popcorn. A wonderful Holiday event in Downtown San Leandro. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Just Dance in Downtown San Leandro

Photo Strip from Photo Booth

2. Rise of the Sufferfests. Documentaries can feel dry if you are not immersed in the subject matter. Rise of the Sufferfests is a wonderfully crafted  documentary. What made these events special was the larger than life personalities in the documentary and the energy and authenticity of Scott Kneely.

Rise of the Sufferfests in Lake Tahoe

Scott and Friends - Rise of the Sufferfests

3. Star Wars Screening of The Force Awakens with guest appearance by Daniel Logan (Who was the young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones).

Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett) at a movie night

501st legion making bunny ears

4. Stand By Me - The Town of Brownsville OR is where the classic 80's movie Stand By Me was filmed. Stand By Me day happens every year, this year was the 30th anniversary. After striking the event my son and I crossed the bridge (at about 1am).

Bridge in Brownsville, OR used in Stand By Me

5. Tamascal Street Flicks - Great weekly film series put on by the Temecsal Business Association. Films all had a local Oakland flavor.

#digitallivesmatter at the Temescal Street Flicks

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Paul the Outdoor Movie Guy

Movie Licencing Questions Answered

Let me start with the following disclaimer. I am not an attorney; I have never played one on TV. All information provided is to the best of my knowledge from working with outdoor movies with FunFlicks, my clients and licensing companies for many years.

Do I need to Obtain a License to show a Movie?

Unless you are hosting a private party at your own house you require a license. Little Tommy's birthday party is fine. However, if that party was in a public park you would be required to license your movie.

The Movie night is at our school, we are covered, right?

Unless strictly for education purposes in a classroom environment you are required to obtain licensing.

If your school plans on doing events indoors they can apply for an individual films or a site license. A site license allows multiple showings within a calendar year.

Outdoor Movies require a different license, these are more expensive. Yearly site license is not available for outdoor movies.

Contact Criterion USA or Swank Motion Pictures for more information.

Where do I get licensing from?

Most movie studios are represented by one of two companies; Criterion USA or Swank Motion Pictures. Most movies that are available on DVD are available for licensing.

However, some movies get removed from public viewing. Some examples currently would be the original Star Wars trilogy and the Harry Potter movies.

Disney movies have windows when they are not available for public viewing (usually during the release of one of their movies in traditional movie theaters). If you are planning a movie series showing Disney/Marvel/Pixar movies call Swank Motion Pictures and ask about the Disney window.

If it's in the Disney Vault its probably not available for licensing.

Criterion USA does not carry Disney but has a great selection of animated and live action movies, both can give you great suggestions on what to show and help you develop compelling schedule.

I want to watch something new, it’s not out on DVD yet, is that possible?

There is a brief window where the movie is no longer playing in the Theater but is not available on DVD. Sometimes these movies are available through the licensing companies (restrictions apply, sometimes only available to Universities).

Contact Criterion USA or Swank Motion Pictures for more information.

Neither Swank or Criterion carry the movie, what now?

You may have selected a movie that is independent or is looking for distribution, try contacting the studio who made the film.

Just because the large companies do not have it in their catalog does not mean that licensing is not required.

So, all movies require licensing?

Some old movies have fallen out of copyright or may have been subject to mistakes when the film was made making the copyright invalid. Night of the Living Dead may be the most famous (maybe not the best choice for a family movie night).

How much is licensing?

That depends on crowd size, location and movie. For events outside for under 200 guests be prepared to spend anywhere from $225 to $500. Larger crowds are more expensive.

It's expensive, can I get a discount?

FunFlicks customers save $100 on select titles through Criterion by contacting Cary at 800-890-9494 x 224 (FunFlicks Licensing page).

If you are planning a movie series, you can sometimes get a discount if you do all\most of your licensing with one of the licensing companies (but you never heard that from me).

Can I charge admission?

If you are looking to charge admission it changes the licensing model, there is often a gate split required with the licensing company. Please call them, they are the experts (Criterion USA or Swank Motion Pictures).

There are also very specific rules about how you can advertise your event (so not to directly compete with traditional movie theaters).  Both Criterion and Swank Motion Pictures provide images you can use to publicize your event.

Outdoor movie nights are a great way of building community, many cities run free events every summer.

Thanks

Paul the Outdoor Movie Guy

Rise of the Sufferfests at Lake Tahoe

I took the trek up to Tahoe to provide a FunFlicks outdoor movie equipment for the second screening of Rise of the Sufferfests. The screening took place at Commons Beach in Tahoe City on the north shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe. Heavy rain driving up but by the time I reached the lake it had cleared (mostly).

I had seen a picture of Scott when watching the trailer.  He was easy to identify with his shaggy appearance. A close band of friends and fellow mudders made short work of setting up their outdoor theater viewing area.

The Film

Tough mudder, Spartan Races, Tough Guy, the list goes on. Over the past few years Obstacle Course Racing or OCR has seen increased popularity. Rise of the Sufferfests is an entertaining documentary that looks into the fascination with and history of OCR. What motivates people in the modern world to put themselves in such pain.

You get to ride along with Scott Keneally as he struggles in making a documentary, competing in OCR races and becoming a father. His personal story within the broader scope of the documentary really kept me personally invested in the film.

With many great interviews with larger than life characters the documentary is highly entertaining on many levels and nearly makes me want to do a OCR race... nearly.

Scott has more outdoor screenings scheduled for this year. Check Rise of the Sufferfests for more details.

Find a screening near you
Paul the Outdoor Movie Guy

Teen Beach Movie Sleep Over Party

We had an incredible Teen Beach Movie sleepover birthday party. We moved furniture, decorated and had the Guest come in their PJ's with sleeping bags for the night. As it was a sleepover, we made it a double feature! Teen Beach Movie and Teen Beach Movie 2.

After singing, dancing, photos, 2 movies and crafts the girls were tired. Just after midnight they fell asleep. The next morning we cooked breakfast and sent them home.

Here are some great ideas for you from our event...

Decorations

We made the beach theme run throughout the party. A trip to the local home improvement store made turning our venue into a beach hut a breeze. Guests were greeted with tiki torches (Under $5 at home depot on sale).

6 ft. H x 16 ft. L Natural Reed Bamboo Garden Fence made a great photo backdrop and also hid some other features (and mess) in the room. We also picked up some Tiki Totem's.

Beach balls, buckets, beach towels and a couple of other items around the house added to the feel of the beach theme.

Disney has some great downloadable printable available!

Before the movie you can also use the screen to display a logo or imagery for your party. As we had a TV in the room we played a video of waves breaking. We used a downloadable backgrounds from Disney as an image for the main screen.

We used a huge 8 foot wide indoor funflicks screen, the girls were amazed.

Fun, Games and Crafts

Video Bingo
Lingo Bingo is a great game that can be printed out and played whilst watching the movie. Each time a phrase is said you mark off a square.

 For someone who loves the movie think about laminating the bingo cards.

After laminating use a paper cutter to separate the Teen Beach Movie Lingo Bingo cards. This will give you a clean cut. I also rounded the corners so there was no sharp edges.

The added advantage of laminating the cards is you can use a dry erase marker to play and wipe off after each game (those little beach balls will get lost in our house).

We also printed Teen Beach Movie food labels from the Disney Party kit (using a paper cutter to get nice crisp edges)

Karaoke

We also picked up the Teen Beach Movie Karaoke CDs. Karaoke machines can be rented or maybe even think about purchasing a home version. The girls love it!

Photo booth

A photo booth is a great activity for your party. This can be as simple as an iphone with some props. We chose one of our photo booths which was attached to a printer that prints photo strips. The screen and photo strips were customized to fit with the beach theme. The girls printed over 100 picture during the night!

TOP TIP : Theme your props, photo booth screen and prints

Flip Flop Craft

No visit to the beach is complete without Flip Flops (slippers if you are Hawaiian). Send your guests home with some cool customized footwear.

You can pick up inexpensive flipflops for around $3 (be sure to get guests sizes before the event). Ribbon was cut and ready for guests to tie onto their flipflops to decorate.

TOP TIP : Precut the ribbon before your party

Food

We kept the party food simple with pizza, fruit, chips and a cake. No movie would be complete without Popcorn, which was served in beach buckets.

Cake decorated by the birthday girl.

Don't forget to take a photo of the master piece!

We cleaned up the beach buckets and used them as bags and sent our guest home with a lay, flipflops and sunglasses.

Hope our party helps to inspire you

Surf Up!

Paul the Outdoor Movie Guy