The Screen on the Green series offers free, family-friendly movie screenings on the stage located at the park’s north side. Programming runs one to two times a month and usually features recent blockbusters as well as beloved classics.  

Guests are free to bring food, chairs, and blankets to keep fed and comfy. Glass bottles and BYOB alcohol are not allowed, however. But if you feel like unwine-ding a little, you may purchase beer and vino at Discovery Green’s Lake House restaurant.

Considering the events offered at TMC’s double helix–shaped park celebrate intersections between the arts and sciences, it’s no surprise that monthly movie nights have made their way onto the calendar. Plus, doctors and medical researchers need a way to relax just as much as the rest of us.

Film events at Helix Park are always free, and run the gamut from kid-friendly Disney and Pixar favorites to nostalgic titles you probably watched with your dad (think Top Gun) to holiday-themed selections.

Market Square Park holds alfresco movie nights suitable for all-ages. Its regular Movies Under the Stars series, which also pulls double duty as outdoor entertainment at Trebly Park, emphasizes both new and established family-friendly classics, like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Interstellar. Bring your own lawn chairs, cozy blankets, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages. A new all-day café concept, Petite Lucie, is set to open and feed moviegoers (and other visitors) later this year.

This is an option for the art house crowd. Though it doesn’t host a regularly scheduled series like Screen on the Green or Movies Under the Stars, the Menil Collection still screens films projected onto the side of the main campus building from time to time, inviting food trucks to come along and feed visitors lounging on the front lawn. True to the museum’s mission, every film event is free and thematically coincides with one of the permanent or featured exhibitions.

The annual BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) event, held every April in partnership with Aurora Picture Show, puts a twist on the typical movie night by asking visitors to share their own cinematic works with the crowd.

Miller Outdoor Theater is, and always has been, a space for the performing arts first and foremost. However, a movie will still occasionally slip into its programming once or twice a year, ideal for friend groups and families seeking both free entertainment as well as an excuse to roll down that legendary hill.  

Drive-in movie theater mainstay Moonstruck boasts an awesome view of downtown. Guests may sit in or outside their car, but sitting on top of the vehicle or leaving the headlights on is not allowed. Outside food is also prohibited, but there’s an on-site concession stand for snacking and a rotation of food trucks every Saturday night. Feel free to bring your pet along—as long as they’re properly leashed. This venue also hosts comedy shows, concerts, and film festivals.

Bring the family and watch movies together with the Cullen Sculpture Garden as the backdrop. The Moonlight Movies series offers a selection of titles based around a specific theme. For example, “A Hero’s Journey” featured The Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (it was planned, anyway, until a hurricane hit). All visitors are provided with individual headsets so they can listen at the volume most comfortable for them. 

MFAH doesn’t allow outside food or drinks, but they do offer free bags of popcorn. Cocktails themed around the evening’s viewing are available for sale, and both the MFAH’s Café Leonelli and Le Jardinier keep late hours to feed peckish cinephiles.

Transform your movie experience with a scenic city skyline, dreamy sunsets, adult beverages, pre-movie games, and traditional concession refreshments at Rooftop Cinema. This open-air theater provides guests with wireless headphones, and screens first-run blockbusters as well as indies, classics, and themed special events. A previous Celebrating Black Cinema series showcased beloved titles like Love & Basketball, Nope, and Coming to America.

Show up early to the Skylawn when you decide to take in one of its family-friendly movie nights. This five-acre park sits on the roof of POST and also includes a farm, a mobile bar, and open spaces for performing, lounging, exercising, and taking in a beautiful view of the downtown skyline. Tickets are free, but you’re still required to RSVP beforehand to secure your seats.

Along with Market Square Park, Trebly Park is also home to the family-friendly Movies Under the Stars film series, which includes older titles like The Dark Knight and Dreamgirls (starring an obscure local actress by the name of Beyoncé) and more recent smash hits like Wakanda Forever. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own blankets and food, or purchase a snack at the park’s own Tout Suite outpost.