We held our 2nd movie night 2 weeks ago and again it was a HUGE success. I posted pictures on this site. Everyone had a great time.
Our movie nights have been on a Tues and a Thurs. Start time at 5:30pm.
Our first movie we served drinks (Capri Suns & Hot Apple Cider) and free popcorn along with jerky (0.50 ea). Had about $150 in profits after expenses for cups & popcorn supplies.
This month we did a dinner: hotdog/chips/caprisun for $3. And a group of our kids sold gummy hamburger and hotdog candies too.
Our school has 480 kids. We planned for serving 150 kids/parents dinner. In the end it looked like we sold about 100. Did sell some chips and drinks by themselves.
Our profits for the night were $180.
We don't use our movie night as a fundraiser, but as a way to get our school community together for some fun. We had many parents thanking us for offering these movie nights. And honestly, I think the 'success' you have will depend on the movie you're showing. Other schools in our district have done movie nights but insist on showing older movies that have been out for a long time...and on the TV many times too. Showing newer released movies that many kids/parents haven't seen can play a large part on your attendance...again, my personal opinion here :0)
In November we showed UP. We served free popcorn, water and dum dum lollypops. We had about 50 people show up. We just showed G Force we only had about 10 people show. Our movie time has been at 7:30 on Friday's. We are going to show Cloudy with a chance of meatballs this month. We are asking people to bring a can of spaghetti and meatballs to donate to our backpack club. For every can the bring they will get a ticket for our drawing. We will have two baskets one with everything you need to make spaghetti and another with the movie, popcorn, candy, and drink mix all in a popcorn bowl. Our movie nights have always been free and everything we serve is free. My hope is to get more parents to the school. I am hoping by giving away the baskets more people will come. How else can I get more people to come without breaking the bank ? I have sent home fliers, posted movie posters and asked teacher's to tell students again on movie day? Any ideas ? Good luck on your up coming movies.
Simpsonparentclub-
Love the Canned Food Festival Idea!
Thunter- Would love to have you share photos of your movie night on our
Family Movie Night Group page
in the photo gallery or tell people what movie you showed and how the kids liked it in the Movie Tracker section!
Our movie nights have proven to be great fundraisers. We have charged our families admission ($3 per family) for our movie night. The last time we had a movie night, our Girls on the Run program used it for a fundraiser and raised over $350. The Parents' Club ran a concession stand that night and brought in over $250. We also had our own "Canned Food" Festival (instead of Cannes Film Festival), the families could either pay $3 per family or bring in 2 cans per person for admission. We raised over 500 cans & $30.00 in cash for our local food pantry.
Hope this helps out.
Our PTA showed Polar Express the night before we got out for christmas vacation. we had about 80 people come to the movie which for us was a great turn out. this was the first time we had down this kind of event and were excited at the attendance. we served popcorn and drinks which worked well. one suggestion -- if your local walmart has a snack bar check into buying the popcorn from them. it was very cheap for us to buy it there and not have the big job of keeping it popped during the movie. our event was completely free for everyone who came. the movie night kit had a lot of good ideas. we are already thinking about what movie we will show in the spring for our second movie night!
