Placentia, CA Invests in Premium Titles, New Ideas to Draw Large Crowds

Each summer, the city of Placentia in California invites the community to its Movies in the Park series. After packing picnics and blankets, families arrive early to pick a prime spot. According to Matthew Brand, Placentia’s community service coordinator, excitement for the series is so strong that many attendees even arrive before the event staff!

To boost audience engagement, attendees are invited to vote on which movie will finish off the summer series. “When they come up to vote, we get the opportunity to say ‘hello’ to each and every single person in our audience,” shared Brand. “And to incentivize attendance, the city hands out free glow necklaces to kids and features pre-show musical games. “Nothing is better than a father singing “Let It Go” with his daughter after she guesses the correct Disney movie.”

For concessions, local nonprofits are allowed to sell snacks and drinks. “Our guests love to support local nonprofits while satisfying their cravings at the same time,” said Brand. Because attendees usually bring a picnic dinner to the event, the organizers suggest selling non-dinner items like fun drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy and more. Beyond concessions, the event’s nonprofit partners have taken part in canned food drives, bike fixing clinics, games, karaoke and more to engage with the community. “These add an additional element of fun, and they are always well-received by our guests.”   

In addition to nonprofits, the organizers have ongoing partnerships to make the event happen each summer including the city’s refuse company. “In return for their sponsorship, we invite them to a movie of their choosing where they give out free, freshly popped popcorn,” shared Brand. “The crowd loves it, as so do they.” Brand also makes sure to properly thank all of their sponsors before and after every film to “make it clear to everyone in attendance who has made their movie experience possible.”

Over the years, Placentia has continued to invest in their movie program by making technical upgrades to its audio and visual equipment. And these upgrades do not go unnoticed as the series sees an average of 1600 guests each summer. “Our attendance ranges from 250 to 600 or more per movie,” Brand shared. “We have found our niche in showing children’s cartoons and have also found its well-worth the extra money to show all premium titles. They always draw about 150 extra guests or more.”

Once the series is over, the program’s organizers send out a survey to attendees. The survey allows the community to share any film suggestions for the next summer and asks them to rank various characteristics of the program based on their experience, including movie selection, video quality, sound quality, seating options and more. Additionally, the organizers always try to do one or two new things each year to keep things fresh. “We keep the ones that work but are always trying to improve,” shared Brand. For example, last summer the program showed a movie at a new location – one they’ve never hosted an event at before. “What we found was that about one third of our guests had never attended [a showing] before,” said Brand. “And some of them continued to attend the rest of the movie series even though they were farther away!”