Starting a Movie Night

February 12, 2016 7:12 AM

My Canadian town doesn't have a repertory cinema. I'd like to start a regular movie night and publicly screen classic movies. What do I need to know? I'm not interested in making a profit, but I'd like it to be an event that's open to the public and charge enough to cover the costs of licensing, venue rental etc.

I know nothing about this, so any guidance is welcome. My main questions at the moment are:

- Is this even feasible/legal?
- How do I go about getting a license to publicly screen a film?
- How much does it cost?
- How does the distributor get the film to me?
- Can I use a regular digital projector and pull-down screen, or do I need special equipment?
- Does it help if I organize it through a local arts nonprofit?
- Is it easier if I do it by donation instead of charging a set rate for tickets?

posted by Prunesquallor to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: Laws vary significantly of course. Just to give you an idea, I run a small movie club in my town in Vermont (USA) and we show mostly classic movies. We pay for licensing for each movie and it runs usually between a hundred and three hundred dollars. Some movies are not available at all. It's studio by studio really, some are costlier than others. It does not matter if we are non-profit. It does not matter that we charge money or don't. We use a regular LCD projector and a pull down screen and it works well for a small group (maybe 50 people). We have a good sound system, the sound is the hardest thing to get right.

If we did this at the public library in my town, they have a blanket license to show movies from certain studios but it only extends to movies shown AT THE LIBRARY and there are stupid rules about how they can advertise it so they don't compete with my local movie theater.

The really big deal is "open to the public." If this were just a movie night at your house, you could usually do whatever. If it were me, I think I'd be calling these people and talking shop with them or talking to your local public library and seeing if you can work out a deal. The way our library has interpreted their license, they can't use it to show a movie next door (where the film club operates) but this may be a thing that people interpret more or less strictly. Good luck.
posted by jessamyn at 7:20 AM on February 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Some film distributors will cut a deal with you about this, and let you rent a title from them for around fifty bucks or so. This would generally only apply to independent film distribution companies, and not major studios (which is who you'd need to talk to if you want, like, CASABLANCA or something, though there are some smaller companies with rights to some classic films). Generally, this would only be feasible if you were not charging any admission to the event. If you are selling tickets, it will be more expensive.
posted by cakelite at 7:29 AM on February 12, 2016

Best answer: I do this in my small Canadian town ; )

I am the town librarian so I have access to NFB films for free and I pay an annual licence fee of $750 to ACF for unlimited amount of showings (Criterion is the other major player in Ontario but I have heard bad things about their customer service from multiple other libraries and the fact their licence still talks about VHS makes me laugh, getting a quote from them is free though). Movies from NFB and ACF are shipped to me via courier and I ship them back.

I use a high end digital projector and pull down screen and have had no complaints. I don't charge as we are a public library. I would LOVE it if a community member said they were willing to handle marketing/paperwork/set up-break down/etc and give them the room for free. YLMV (your librarian may vary).

Canadian National Film Day is April 20th, the NFB is promoting it heavily and offering some great film out.
posted by saucysault at 8:02 AM on February 12, 2016 [4 favorites]

Does it help if I organize it through a local arts nonprofit?

Bit of a US-based long shot, but. . . . the company I work for has provided equipment for movie nights at area (non-profit) colleges and universities, and if you have one in your area, partnering with them might get you either lower prices for licensing and/or a wider selection of movies. (The movie nights we do are usually just-out-of-theaters-not-yet-on-DVD films.)
posted by soundguy99 at 7:22 AM on February 13, 2016