On Friday Oct. 17 at 7 p.m., kids, families and people of all ages attended the outdoor movie night at The Centre in Canyon Country. This month’s featured movie was Hocus Pocus, a family movie with magic, witches and all things spooky.
City Cinemas in the Park originally began during the COVID-19 pandemic as a drive-in event, where moviegoers could watch movies from the safety of their own car. Joel Beck, the organizer for City Cinemas in the Park, explained: “It first started with our drive-in movies. It was the start of the pandemic, and we just wanted to do something for the public while we were all under the lockdown.”
Since then, screenings have been held in Central Park, Newhall Park, Bridgeport Park, the Canyon Community Center and The Centre. With these several locations, Beck is hoping to attract as many people as possible. “We wanted to test different parks and we wanted to reach every part of the city. We added [The Centre in Canyon Country], which is usually not on schedule. We wanted to reach those people here [in Canyon Country],” he said.
This year, each fourth Friday from June to October, a different movie was featured: “The Little Rascals” in June, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” in July, “Back to the Future” in August and “Top Gun: Maverick” in September. For October, the movie chosen was “Hocus Pocus,” a lighthearted Halloween movie.
Beck explained how these movies were selected: “I basically look at different lists of top 100 [movies, and] I’ll make a list of about 15-20 [of them] and then I’ll send it all throughout the entire city’s different departments and get their input.” He added, “These free events, we try to keep family-friendly. We do ‘Shrek’, we do ‘Hocus Pocus,’ just crowd pleasers.”
Attendees brought chairs, picnic blankets and snacks to enjoy throughout the movie. There were also food trucks selling ice cream, burgers, fries and more. One child attendee, whose guardian wanted her to remain anonymous, commented, “I ate french fries and hamburgers from one of the food trucks.” She mentioned, “[I’d rate it a] ten. I liked the tomato, the sauce and the buns.”
The sponsor for this year’s movie night events, Henry Rodriguez State Farm, had a booth where they handed out snack buckets. The snack bucket consisted of popcorn, chips and a Coke Zero. To receive one of these buckets, attendees were asked to leave a good review on Google or Yelp to help grow their business. Shannon Garcia, an employee at Henry Rodriguez State Farm, elaborated on the company’s involvement with City Cinemas in the Park. She commented, “Our boss, Henry Rodriguez, is super into the community, [he] always wants to come up with something unique and interesting so we put these popcorn buckets together.”
Overall, City Cinemas in the Park is more than just a monthly movie showing. Despite the pandemic, our community found the will to stick together even during adversity. City Cinemas in the Park is a reflection of our community’s resilience and strength.
