We had themed movie nights. That way you can control how many people come. This year was the first year we tried it so we only did two...Girls night out and Guys night out. The "Girls night out" was for Moms and daughters and "Guys night out" was for Dads and sons. We are going to try to add Date with Dad (Dads and daughters) and Date with Mom (Moms and sons) next year. We had the movie in the multi-purpose room on a HUGE TV that the school owns. We didn't want this to be a fundraiser so everything we free. We offered popcorn, candy and drinks as refreshments.
The kids and parents loved it and couldn't believe it was free. We only spent about $40 on each night. As long as you don't charge admission to the movie, there is no problem with copyright. Hope everything goes well.
According to the website www.movlic.com
, the license does not permit the entertainment movies covered to be used when an admission is charged, other than to cover costs, and does not permit advertisement of the movies to the general public.
For us, the cost of the license is $350 per year. I think we can charge admission to cover our cost of the license and any other costs (i.e. projector rental, video rental etc.) We haven't started doing movie nights, but are hoping to do so soon. I would clarify this issue before doing so.
Thank you for the reply. I do have more questions for you. I would e-mail you but your profile doesn't list your address. How did you charge admission?? We thought there were "legal" issues involved. Feel free to e-mail me with more info.
I will fill you in on some of the questions you asked, but feel free to email me for more details, there just isn't enough room here for all the information. First It was a HUGE HIT!!! :eek: Parents and Kids, we showed Monster, Inc. We did charge $1 admission and did concessions. Showed in our gym on a movable white wall we have and all families brought their own "seating", anywhere from beanbag chairs to blankets and pillows, those that did bring the foldable camping chairs sat on the side of room or in back only. We had 4 volunteers for admission, and 6 volunteers for concessions, need to pop popcorn early as their was a wait for us to keep up, Oh and me to run the movie. Like I said I could give you all the tips you want just email me. Good Luck and Enjoy!
Our PTO has proposed to do two movie nights next year. I need someone that has experience with this event to help me out. I know we can't charge "admission", but I'm hoping we can sell concessions. These are the questions I have...Was the movie shown in your gym? If so, how did you arrange chairs so everyone could see? How did you "control" the crowd. Did it require several volunteers? And last but not least, was the event a big hit with students and parents? I love how we come up with a great idea but have no idea how to pull it off!!