Choose Your Own Movie Showing

"Good gosh, Nick! You're talking more about movies than books these days."
"Well, uh....yeah, I've got nothing to say."
Our Choose a Movie Showings have been pretty successful, so I figured we'd talk about them a little. Typically we've held these (we've held about three) as one of our Summer Reading events, but you could do it any time of year.

Our basic thought was, "Wouldn't it be fun to have a movie premiere at the Hayden Library?" Now the licensing fees and logistics of making that happen are a little bit difficult, so we figured we would show a movie that had already come out.

But how do you get middle and high school students to come to something like that? Wouldn't they just watch it on Netflix? Promise them pop, popcorn, candy, and the chance to choose the movie they want to watch! Want it to be even more special? Hold it later at night (say 11pm), so it feels more like a movie premiere (well what a movie premiere used to feel like. Why is it that midnight showings are more like 7pm or 8pm showings now?)

The way I figure it, you could choose the movies in a couple of ways:
1) Ask your members to bring their favorite library appropriate film, and have your attendees vote for their favorite favorite.
2) Choose five films that you think they'll enjoy and have them vote for their favorite.
3) Do a mixture of both ideas (what we do). Have some pre-selected films for the group, but leave it open so someone could bring a suggestion if they wanted.

P.S. Here are a couple of suggestions: The A-Team, Back to the Future, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Dark Knight, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Maverick, Oblivion, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Princess Bride, Star Trek Into Darkness...just to name a few.

P.S.S Make sure you have the rights to show the film. Even if you aren't doing it for profit, movie companies (and the law) don't smile on organizations that show a company's work without permission. We use Movie Licensing USA, and you can purchase a one-time license, or a subscription to show available movies for a specified amount of time.