My husband and I have been having Outdoor Movie Nights since our boys were small, starting 19 years ago. It was a weekly event for our family and one that we’ve enjoyed all these years.
When we moved to our house in the country, we started inviting neighbors and friends to our Outdoor Movie Nights, and still made it a weekly event. You can read about this in another article I wrote – “How to Host an Outdoor Movie Night – A Step-By-Step Guide” (lots of unique ideas in that article that you can use).
For the past couple of years, due to stay-at-home orders and gathering restrictions, we paused our Outdoor Movie Nights. But Summer just doesn’t feel like Summer without them, and we love having our friends come to visit, so we decided to start them up again! This article includes all the details about our latest Outdoor Movie Night. I hope you find it fun!
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Outdoor Movie Night
Planning our Outdoor Movie Night is part of the fun! Here are all the things I came up with for our latest movie.
The Movie
For our outdoor movie, I wanted to find a movie that:
- Had a retro, vintage feel to it;
- Was something most people haven’t already seen (and probably wouldn’t choose to watch on their own);
- Had high ratings (I mean – seriously – who wants to show a dud of a movie at their Outdoor Movie Night?!?!); and
- Was something fun in the spirit of Summer
I decided on the movie from 1985 called “Explorers“.
This movie is about three adventuresome young boys who turn a dream into a reality. The movie is an action-fantasy from director Joe Dante (Gremlins), who combines keen humor, warmth, and fantasy with unexpected twists. The movie stars a young River Phoenix and a young Ethan Hawke. “The adventure starts in your own backyard…”
The Outdoor Decor and Set-Up
It’s always fun to decorate for Outdoor Movie Nights! Sure, the decorations aren’t necessary, but they definitely set the stage for a fun evening.
The Driveway
Because I wanted this evening to have that retro feel, I came up with the idea of creating custom ‘Burma-Shave‘ type signs to greet our guests as they drive down our long driveway. I thought it would be fun for them to read the signs as they arrive.
We used a red fluted polypropylene sheet we found at a local hardware store for the sign boards. This sheet is 24″ x 36″, so we cut it into nine sign boards that measure 4″ x 24″. A friend cut out the letters using her Cricut vinyl cutting machine, and then we applied the self-adhesive letters directly to the red sign boards. We attached the sign boards to the driveway markers we use in the Winter to mark our driveway (also found at the local hardware store), using red Duck Tape.
I wrote this ‘jingle’ for our nine signs:
Welcome to our
Outdoor Movie
Food and drinks
Are pretty groovy!
Have fun, relax
enjoy the show
You have arrived –
We say Hello!
Split Rock Theater
The Viewing Area
We have a large cement pad in front of our garage and it makes the perfect spot for our Outdoor Movie Nights. It’s also close to our front patio where we can gather for Social Hour, and it’s close to the front doors – making it easy for guests to go inside to use the bathrooms.
Screen Tents – Living in the country surrounded by lakes, creeks, and large ponds, there can be a lot of mosquitoes buzzing around. Rather than sit outside unprotected, we purchased two large RV screen tents several years ago, and they work perfectly for housing all our guests. We lay out two large rugs in the tents, then add chairs in one tent and chairs and floor pillows in the other tent. Comfortable, cozy seating for everyone. (Photos taken before chairs and pillows were set up).
Movie Screen – Years ago, my husband used a repurposed billboard tarp and PVC pipes to make our own movie screen. You can see photos of it in the article I linked to above. We still have that billboard screen, but this time we decided to try a portable movie screen with our PVC frame. It’s pretty slick, attaches very easily, and is affordable, too!
Video Equipment – Since the movie we selected is on BluRay discs, we used our portable Sony DVD/BluRay Player, along with our projector. The projector we have is no longer made, but it is similar to this DBPower Projector. We also used our TCL Soundbar and Subfoofer for surround sound and awesome sound quality.
Tent Sign – I wanted to have a hand-painted sign on the backside of the viewing tents (the side that faces the driveway), so as our guests parked and walked up this part of the driveway, they felt like they were entering a drive-in theater. I used a 20″ x 30″ white foam core poster board, some red, white, and yellow paint, and black oil-based Sharpies to paint the sign. I saw a similar sign online, so I just used a pencil and drew the letters, arrow, and stars by hand to make my sign look similar. I’m definitely not a sign painter, but I think the sign turned out well. I’m thankful that my husband helped by outlining the letters for me (he is the sign painter in the family).
The Snack Bar Concession Stand
Normally, we turn our center island in the kitchen into the Snack Bar for our Outdoor Movie Nights. But this time, I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to have the Snack Bar outside near the viewing tents and patio, so I decided to use the rolling cart I use to move clean laundry back to everyone’s bedrooms. This utility cart makes an awesome Snack Bar!
I also made individual Snack Caddies for each guest to hold their beverages, popcorn, and candy during the movie. See the paragraphs below for information about these Snack Caddies.
Here’s how I decked out this cart.
Top Shelf – Popcorn – You can’t have an Outdoor Movie Night without popcorn! I used our giant red Tubtrug on the top shelf of the cart to hold all the popcorn we popped, along with a bunch of retro style popcorn boxes. Our guests were able to fill a popcorn box with popcorn, and add their own toppings. For toppings, I kept it simple – movie theater butter, and popcorn seasoned salts. I also used a vintage metal store sign holder from my vintage shop and made a Snack Bar sign to place on the top shelf. And, the top shelf also had a bin that held the Take Home Bags I made (see details below).
Middle Shelf – Candy – Since our Outdoor Movie Night has a retro feel, I wanted candy that you would have gotten at the theaters back in the 1980s. I chose: Dots; Milk Duds; Hot Tamales; Junior Mints; Sugar Daddy Lollipops; Swedish Fish; and Twizzlers. I wanted the candy to look like it was in a candy case, so I used square white boxes to make my own candy case. I taped eight 5-inch square white cardboard boxes together on their sides into two rows of four. I folded in the top and side flaps, then cut the bottom flap so it was half the height and taped that front flap to make sort of a ‘bin’ for the candies. I printed the candy logos in color, then used a glue stick to adhere the sign to the front flap of the candy ‘bins’. I had enough of each individually packaged candy for each guest to take at least one piece from each bin. Yum!
Lower Shelf – Beverages – For beverages during the movie, I made eight different types of cocktails and froze them in drink pouches. I put those frozen (slushie) pouches in flat beverage coolers with ice. I’m telling you, these Coleman Stacking Coolers are awesome! Not only do they keep beverages cold, I love that they’re red (fits the theme of the rest of the decor), I love that the top cover comes off (versus being hinged), as this makes it very easy to grab a cocktail pouch from the cooler, and I love that they aren’t very deep – which allows them to fit on this cart very well.
Handle Side – Trash Bag – On the side of the utility cart that has the handle, I hung a small trash bag using zip ties, for guests to use for their trash – easy peasy!
Front Side – Chip Rack – For guests that don’t like popcorn (yes, there really are people who don’t like it), I also bought a variety pack of individually bagged chips and made a clip rack to attach them to. For the chip clip rack, I used two cooling racks (from the Dollar Tree) that I zip-tied to the cart, and then used binder clips (also from the Dollar Tree) to clip the bags to the cooling racks. It worked perfectly!
Here are a couple more photos of the Snack Bar cart. Hope they inspire you!
The Indoor Decor and Set-Up
While this was an outdoor movie night, we did also spent some time inside, especially when our guests first arrived and during our Social Hour. So I decorated our center island and kitchen for the event too.
Snack Caddies – I mentioned the Snack Caddies I made in the paragraphs above – I wanted our guests to have a handy caddy to use to hold their beverages, popcorn, and candy during the movie. I also wanted each guest to be able to tell which caddy was theirs, but I didn’t want to put their own names on the caddies. Instead, I decided to use the names of twelve famous male movie characters and twelve famous female movie characters to label the Snack Caddies. I created the graphics using Canva, then printed the labels onto sticker paper. I also included a famous quote from that character, and made that into a sticker as well. I used three-compartment white plastic caddies (from the Dollar Tree) for the Snack Caddies (I thought about using the black caddies, but thought the white would be easier to see in the dark, and less likely to get stepped on). I put one actor or actress sticker on one side of the caddy near the handle, then their quote on the other side of the caddy.
I placed all 24 Snack Caddies on our dining room table, along with another vintage metal store sign holder and custom sign that said “Choose Your Character”. Our guests got to pick who they wanted to be for the night – a fun way to remember which caddy was theirs for the evening.
Take Home Bags – Because I wanted the Snack Caddies to stay here, and because I figured our guests might have popcorn or candy left over at the end of the movie, I used plain brown paper bags and turned them into “Take Home Bags”. I designed the graphic using Canva, then just ran the bags through my ancient HP LaserJet 2100 Printer. Yes, a couple of bags got stuck in the printer (they had bent corners and I shouldn’t have used them), but the rest of the bags went through that trusty printer with no problem. The custom printed bags turned out great!
Center Island “Lobby” – Since our kitchen / dining room area is the main hub of our home, and since I knew we’d be spending a little bit of time there during Social Hour, I wanted this space to feel sort of like a Lobby at a theater.
I used a really cool film strip table runner on the center island (and another on the dining room table with the Snack Caddies) to get this Lobby feel. I added my light-up Marquee Sign and spelled “Now Showing – Explorers” on the sign, and then placed the BluRay movie cover next to the sign. Very cool! I wrote more details about the movie on our Movie Clapboard sign. I also added three light-up marquee stars that we used last Christmas for our Star theme decor. I wanted our guests to have something to do during Social Hour, so I set out a deck of Movie Trivia cards, just for fun. Guests were able to pick up a random card, read the question, and see if anyone could answer it. We didn’t use these cards to play the game they were intended for, just used them to spark conversations. It was fun!
In the spirit of the movie, I used our retro FAO Schwarz Candy Rocket Dispenser filled with M&Ms as the centerpiece. Just wave your hand near the rocket, and out pops the candy.
Social Hour
We like to have time to visit with our guests before the movie starts. Our guests arrived around 7:00pm, and Social Hour began! We had a good two hours of visiting before it was dark enough to start the movie.
Since most of our guests had eaten dinner before they arrived, I wanted to serve light snacks and beverages during Social Hour.
Beverages – For beverages, I made my family’s traditional Summer Slush which can be served with alcohol or with Ginger Ale. It wouldn’t be Outdoor Movie Night without this Slush! I also made fresh squeezed lemonade and Long Island Ice Tea Freeze Pops to serve during Social Hour – they are so good! Of course, we had other beverages as well – everything from ice-cold bottled water to retro root beer. We saved the frozen cocktail pouches for the movie.
Snacks – I like to come up with different ideas for snacks – things that are fun and somewhat unexpected. This time, I made what I call PCC’s = Personal Charcuterie Cups. I used kraft french fry cups and bamboo skewers. I added candied mixed nuts and berries to the bottom of the cups, then added tall flatbread crackers, skewers of a variety of cheese cubes, skewers with a variety of hard salami, a skewer of mozzarella pearls and olives, and a skewer of berries and grapes. I set out all the cups on the center island and let our guests help themselves. I also made our traditional Shrimp Dip and chips – a favorite snack among our family and friends, and our favorite cheese ball with crackers. We also had watermelon, canteloupe, strawberries, cherries, and a variety of different kinds of grapes – healthy sweetness! Just very simple snacks to munch on while enjoying a cocktail and fun conversations.
Old-Fashioned Cartoons – We typically start Social Hour inside, but gradually move out to our front patio which is near our Outdoor Movie Viewing Area. I like to have old-fashioned cartoons playing on the big screen as our guests arrive, and continue playing through Social Hour. Since it’s not dark outside at this time, it’s kind of hard to see the screen, but you can see it and you can listen to the cartoons. Having these cartoons play during Social Hour usually sparks a lot of fun conversations of our youth and there is always lots of laughter! We stream the cartoons from our Amazon Prime account. We like to switch between Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 each movie night.
The Movie Starts at Dusk!
After we’ve had a chance to visit, enjoy cartoons, laughter, snacks, and beverages, it’s time to start the movie! We typically start the movie at dusk – around 9:00pm. Most of our guests drive an hour to get to our house, so starting the movie on time is important in order for them to get back home before midnight.
About 15 minutes before the movie started, we directed our guests inside to choose their Snack Caddy (if they hadn’t already) and to load it up with popcorn, candy, and beverages from the portable Snack Bar. Everyone found a comfortable seat or floor pillow, we zipped up the screen tents, and the movie began!
Candles to Light the Way – Out here in the country, when it’s nighttime, it’s VERY dark. To make sure our guests can find their way safely inside to use the bathrooms, we use candles and solar lights along the sidewalks and steps to light the way indoors. This soft lighting doesn’t interfere with the movie, and adds another layer of ambiance to the viewing area and patio.
Intermission – When our kids were younger and had their friends here for Outdoor Movie Nights, we always took an intermission half-way through the movie so they could all use the bathrooms and refill their concessions. This has now become a tradition, so we always let our guests know we’ll pause briefly for 5-10 minutes for an intermission. Cocktail, anyone?!
Take-Down
Sadly, all fun evenings have to come to an end. When the movie was finished, our guests transfered any of their leftovers into their Take Home Bags, and we said good night. Our family and friends mostly live about an hour south of us, so we didn’t expect them to stick around after the movie – unless of course they want to. We got the snacks, pillows, rugs, and video equipment back inside the house that evening, and saved the tents and movie screen for the next morning. By hosting the Outdoor Movie Night on a Friday night, our guests still had their weekend to themselves for busy Summer plans.
Until the next time….
P.S. Spoiler Alert – In hindsight, I wish we would have watched the movie first to be sure it would be a good movie for this event. As it turns out, the movie was just okay (bordering on bad). We all just said “well, it was the overall experience of Outdoor Movie Night that made this fun”. So if you decide to host an Outdoor Movie Night, I highly recommend you pick a different movie, and then watch it first!
I hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas! If you decide to try any of them, let me know how it went in a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!
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