An average of 400 students attend the weekly Friday Night Filmworks to watch movies no longer in theaters.
Friday Night Filmworks, a University Program Board sponsored event, brings a movie that usually is about to be released to DVD to Pruis Hall at no expense to the students in attendance.
UPB is able to get ahold of these movies in transition from theater to DVD through Swank Motion Pictures, UPB president Claire Roy said.
“Around early summer time, Swank gives us a listing of movies that will be available in time for the coming semester, and from there, we choose what we believe will be big hits,” Roy said.
UPB does not solely decide on what plays. The group has recently decided to gather student input as well in the form of polls sent via email.
“We did this during summer break, so for those students who actually checked their emails, they got to decide what we would show during the fall semester," Roy said. "The plan is to continue doing this for next semester and onward as well."
From the emails, UPB was able to gather about 500 responses to the online poll, with committee members and executive board members voting as well.
Attendance, as is typical for most events, sways with the popularity and overall excitement for whichever movie is being shown. In the past, movies like “The Hunger Games” or the “Transformers” series will usually fill up the 640 seats in Pruis Hall, a feat that was pulled off last week during the Filmworks's season opening show of “The Amazing Spiderman 2."
“It’s usually the big action movies that tend to fill up quickly, mostly due to the fact that these films tend to appeal to more people than your standard ‘chick-flick,' even though those type of movies also tend to do well,” Roy said.
As a caveat to this student involvement and excitement for certain movies already posted for the semester, Roy did say that there are times when movie schedules will change due to release dates being swapped, which is something that may upset a few students with plans already.
Alex Eastman, a sophomore biochemistry major, said Friday Night Filmworks beats the alternative of simply watching a movie in their residence hall room.
“The sound quality is pretty amazing, and being able to watch movies for free is always a major plus,” Eastman said. “You can’t really complain with that.”
Some students use Friday Night Filmworks as a date on a budget. Sophomores Anthony Huber and Michelle Yockey attend a few times a semester due to convenience.
“Why spend over $20 in movie tickets alone at the AMC and deal with MITS when we could just as easily go to Pruis and see a free movie in a theater-quality environment?” Huber said.
Both said Friday Night Filmworks is a great chance to see a film that they meant to see in theaters but just never got the opportunity due to the mix of classes and work schedules that comes with the college lifestyle.
The next movie playing will be "Maleficent" on Sept. 12.
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