5 Inventive Ways to Pump Up Summer Movie Screenings

Summer is the busiest time of the year to see movies, and it’s also the season when people are most likely to watch them outside of traditional theaters and cineplexes. In many cities, there is a growing number of options to see movies outdoors or in unusual venues. Here are five inventive ideas for screenings that go beyond the norm.

1. Create an environment inspired by the movie.
Now in its seventh year, the annual NewportFilm Outdoors summer film series in Rhode Island specializes in documentaries and uses a different venue for each of its weekly movie screenings. The venue is usually inspired by the movie; for example, a screening of The Weekend Sailor on Thursday will take place at the Newport Shipyard. A June 30 screening of The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble was held at the Marble House, a historic mansion, in partnership with the 2016 Newport Music Festival that started the next day. Being AP, a film about horse-racing jockey Tony “AP” McCoy, will screen August 25 at the Newport International Polo Grounds.

“We always try to pair the theme of the movie with the location,” says NewportFilm executive director Terri Conners. "The environmental documentaries are on nature preserves or beautiful, protected land. When we have a horse film, it's shown on polo grounds or at an equestrian center. Sometimes the partner is just as important as the venue. We always have the community in mind.”

Conners says that booking a venue for the program can take anywhere from eight days to five months, and they plan for crowds of anywhere from 700 to 1,300 people.

2. Improve comfort levels.
For many outdoor screenings, attendees bring their own chairs or blankets, and the audio quality can suffer. However, the Rooftop Cinema Club in New York and Los Angeles solves the problem with an upscale perk: cabana seats with wireless headphones.

3. Offer an over-the-top cinematic experience.
The Miami Heat basketball franchise is sponsoring a Summer Movie Night series, which began June 24, at the AmericanAirlines Arena’s Xfinity East Plaza in Miami. Attendees experience a 16-foot, ultra-high-definition LED screen and a 70,000-watt sound system, as well as perks such as free admission, parking, and popcorn.

"Because Miami is a city where living, working, and playing outdoors is a year-round amenity, we recently transformed 34,000 square feet of previously underutilized and uncovered outdoor space into an environmentally friendly and technologically sophisticated exterior venue,” says Michael McCullough, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the Miami Heat and AmericanAirlines Arena.

In order to attend the event, people have to register using the Miami Heat app. "The Miami Heat and AmericanAirlines Arena are a mobile-centric organization," he says. "Using the Heat mobile app to register our movie-night guests provided an opportunity to streamline the registration process."

4. Have a costume contest.
Movie-events company Cinespia encourages people to dress up as characters during its outdoor screenings in Los Angeles. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Cinespia held a Halloween-night costume party and contest last year at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The company also had a photo booth with props tied to the movie. Meanwhile, Miami Heat’s first Summer Movie Night screening on June 24 was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and guests could participate in a costume contest in which the winner would get four tickets to the team's home opener.

5. Provide live entertainment.
Street Food Cinema, Eat See Hear, NewportFilm, and the Central Park Film Festival are some of the organizations that make bands, singers, DJs, or comedians part of the of movie-screening experience. Film Concerts Live produces international events that have live orchestral music during movie screenings held in concert venues such as the Hollywood Bowl. Films in the series include Back to the Future, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the 2009 Star Trek reboot, Jurassic Park, and Home Alone.

Screenings of music documentaries are also sometimes held in concert venues, with the documentary subject performing after the screening. This year, Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and DJ Steve Aoki each starred in movies that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and the artists did post-screening performances at the venues. Yoshiki did the same at this year’s South by Southwest festival.

Correction: The name of Rooftop Cinema Club has been updated.