NEW YORK:
From Bryant Park to Pier 17 and Manhattan rooftops, New Yorkers are turning movie and television screenings into shared summer rituals, where the setting, the crowd and the stories become part of the experience.
There is something different about watching a movie in New York when the cinema has no walls.
Instead of rows of seats in a dark theatre, there is grass beneath you, people arriving with blankets and snacks, friends trying to find a good spot, couples settling in beside strangers and a city skyline providing a backdrop that no movie theatre could reproduce.
Then the lights go down and, for the next two hours, hundreds of people are watching the same story together.
That simple idea has become one of New York’s most enjoyable summer rituals. Across the city, parks, waterfronts and rooftops are transformed into temporary cinemas.
Some screenings are devoted to beloved classics, while others are built around the latest television obsession.
Many of the outdoor events are free and operate on a first-come, first-served basis, while special screenings may require registration or reservations. But what they have in common is the feeling of watching something together.
After experiencing several of these events myself, I have started to think that the movie is sometimes only half of the attraction.
Bryant Park is one of the clearest examples of how this works. Its Movie Nights have become a New York summer tradition, with people arriving well before the film begins to claim a place on the lawn.
The atmosphere starts building long before the opening credits, as people bring blankets, meet friends, bring food and settle in for an evening rather than simply arriving for a two-hour screening.
This year, the summer movie-night special ended with The Truman Show being screened for the second time, as watchers came in the afternoon and waited until after sunset for the film to begin.
Sitting on the lawn in the middle of Manhattan and watching a film that so many people already know by heart made the experience feel strangely new.
Photo: Author
The movie itself was familiar, but the setting and the audience changed it. Someone laughs at a line you have heard ten times before, someone reacts to a scene you had forgotten was coming, and people around you quietly comment on moments as they happen. You become part of an audience again.
Perhaps that is one reason these screenings feel particularly appealing now, when so much entertainment is consumed privately and on demand.
Streaming has made it possible to watch almost anything at any time, but it has also made entertainment increasingly solitary. Outdoor cinema brings back the simple pleasure of reacting to a story alongside other people.
Television becomes a communal event
The phenomenon is not limited to old movies. Last summer, I experienced the other side of this culture with The Summer I Turned Pretty.
I went to Bryant Park for a special screening of the first two episodes of the show’s third and final season. Fans gathered on the lawn with blankets, snacks and friends, and the atmosphere was closer to a concert or fan gathering than an ordinary television screening.
Photo: Author
What made the evening particularly memorable was the appearance of the cast. The actors came onto the stage to greet the fans, turning what had already been a large communal viewing experience into a live fan event.
For people who had followed the characters and storylines through the previous seasons, suddenly seeing the cast in front of them added another layer to the experience.
The audience already had theories, favourite characters and strong opinions about what was going to happen next. So when something happened on screen, the reaction travelled across the lawn: laughter, screams, cheers and collective gasps. It was essentially a giant group chat, except everyone was sitting together in the same physical space.
That is where watching television becomes something more than watching television. The audience is no longer simply consuming an episode; it is participating in a shared cultural moment.
City skylines become part of the film
The same idea takes on a completely different atmosphere at Pier 17. Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Movies With A View brings free outdoor films to the waterfront, where audiences can watch with New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline behind the screen. The screenings are first-come, first-served, making arriving early part of the ritual.
I first watched Forrest Gump at Pier 17, where the waterfront setting changes the entire feeling of a familiar film. The light changes as the evening progresses, the water moves, buildings begin to glow and the skyline becomes part of the visual experience. Somewhere between the real city and the movie on the screen, the two begin to overlap.
You are not just watching Forrest Gump anymore. You are watching Forrest Gump in New York on a summer night. That distinction sounds small, but it is exactly what makes these events memorable. The location becomes part of the story you remember later, just as much as the film itself.
