How to host a backyard movie night

To host a backyard movie night in DFW, book a 20-foot inflatable screen and start the movie about 40 minutes after sunset, around 7:35 PM in mid-October. For a daylight party, a 12′ × 7′ LED trailer can start any time. Set up with the sunset behind your guests, tell the neighbors, and have repellent and fans ready for the mosquitoes at dusk.

When to start the movie

A projected picture needs real dark, which comes about 40 minutes after sunset. An LED screen makes its own light, so it can start as soon as guests sit down. These are mid-month times for Dallas.

In June and July a two-hour film on a projector ends after 11, so a summer party with young kids belongs on an LED screen. The LED versus projector guide compares the two.

Which screen fits a backyard

Most backyards fit the inflatable. Classic Movie Night is a 20-foot inflatable screen with a projector, sound, and an attendant for four hours, for $895. It needs one standard outlet within 100 feet and a fairly flat, open patch of lawn with room for its tie-downs. It suits after-dark shows for up to about 250 guests on blankets.

The 12′ × 7′ Block Party LED trailer costs $2,750 and is for daylight or early starts, like a graduation party at 4 PM or a June birthday where the kids need to be asleep by 9:30. LED packages don’t include sound, so add pro sound for $395 or have the technician connect your own speakers.

A trailer also needs a way in. A truck tows it, so it needs a driveway, an alley gate, or a side yard wide enough to pass, plus a fairly level spot and clear space overhead for the raised screen. Measure the gate and the narrowest point of the side yard, where AC units and gas meters stick out. Send us the numbers and a few photos before you book.

Lay out the yard

• Keep the sunset behind your guests. The sun sets in the west, so put the screen on the east side of the yard, facing west. Guests who arrive before dark won’t be squinting into the sun.
• Put the house behind the audience if you can. With the screen at the far end of the yard facing the house, the sound points at your own walls and the kitchen windows are behind the crowd. When this conflicts with the sunset, follow the sun for an LED or summer start and the house for an after-dark show.
• Give the screen room. Leave a few steps of open grass in front of it and keep the tie-downs clear of the patio and pool.
• Give the projector a clear line. It sits in the audience area, lined up with the screen. Keep a lane open in front of it so nobody walking to the cooler casts a shadow on the movie.
• Plan the power. The blower and projector share the outlet. Run cords along the edge of the blankets, not across the path to the back door, and plug the popcorn machine and fans into a different circuit so a tripped breaker can’t take the screen down.
• Turn off the lights. Porch, flood, landscape, and pool lights all fade a projected picture.

Sound and the neighbors

Aim the speakers at the audience and the house, and set the volume for the back row. Dallas’s city code counts a radio or TV played loud enough to disturb the peace, quiet, comfort, or repose of people in nearby homes as a noise offense (§§ 30-1 and 30-2). Suburbs write their own rules, so outside Dallas, check your city’s noise ordinance.

A few days ahead, tell the houses on each side and behind you the date and roughly when the movie ends, and give them your cell number so they text you before they call the city. Ask anyone with a floodlight aimed at your yard to switch it off for the night.

Do you need a movie license?

Usually not for a private party. Under federal copyright law, a showing is public if it’s at a place open to the public or where a substantial number of people outside “a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances” gather (17 U.S.C. § 101). Family and invited friends in your backyard generally don’t meet that test. Charging admission, or inviting the general public or the whole neighborhood, can change the answer, and then you need a public performance license. This is general information, not legal advice. A party on your own property usually doesn’t need a city permit either.

Bugs, blankets, and popcorn

Plan for mosquitoes before sunset. Dallas County Health and Human Services says the mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus are more active at dusk and dawn, when a projector movie starts. Put repellent with DEET or another EPA-registered ingredient by the back door, and empty standing water from flower pots and kiddie pools the week before. Then run a box fan or two at the edges of the blankets. In a field study in the Journal of Medical Entomology, fan-driven wind strongly reduced mosquito catches.

Kids take the blankets up front, and lawn chairs go behind them for the adults. The popcorn machine adds $150 and makes about 100 servings, plenty for a sleepover.

Heat, storms, and wind

On summer nights the yard stays hot well after sunset, so put out water and let guests step inside to cool off.

Set a rain date and a time to decide, such as 4 PM on the day. If thunder starts during the movie, take everyone inside. The National Weather Service says there’s no safe place outside when thunderstorms are in the area, and to wait 30 minutes after the last thunder before going back out.

Wind is the inflatable’s limit. It catches wind like a sail, and the attendant decides on the day whether it’s safe to put up or keep up. If unsafe weather cancels the party, you can move it free to any open date within 12 months. If your date can’t move and the call comes before the halfway point of the show, you can choose a refund of everything except the deposit instead.

Run of show for an October movie night

Mid-October sunset is 6:55 PM, so a 7:30 arrival leaves time for popcorn before an 8:00 movie.

What it costs

Each includes four hours, setup, and delivery within 30 miles of downtown Dallas. Texas sales tax is added, travel past 30 miles is $3 a mile, and an extra hour on the inflatable is $150.

Book the screen

The backyard and private parties page covers birthdays, graduation parties, and other setups. Once you have a date, send a booking request and we’ll confirm availability in writing the same business day.