Discovery Green's Screen on the Green series offers free, family-friendly movies on the stage located at the Downtown park’s north side. Programming runs one to two times a month and usually features recent blockbusters, beloved classics, and seasonally appropriate selections.  

Guests are free to bring food, chairs, and blankets to stay fed and comfy. Glass bottles and BYOB alcohol are not allowed, 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 the Medical Center'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.

This Downtown 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 Wicked and Nacho Libre. Bring your own lawn chairs, cozy blankets, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages to make it a perfect night.

For the art house crowd, the Menil Collection offers something different. While it doesn’t host a regular film series, the museum occasionally projects movies onto the side of its main building, with food trucks on hand to feed visitors spread across the front lawn. True to its mission, every screening is free and curated to connect with one of the Menil’s permanent or rotating exhibitions.

Each April, the museum partners with Aurora Picture Show for the annual Bring Your Own Beamer event, which puts a twist on the typical movie night by inviting Houstonians to share their own cinematic works with the crowd.

This drive-in movie theater mainstay offers up a classic cinematic experience with a little more privacy, whether sitting inside or outside your car. Perching on top of a vehicle, leaving the headlights on, and bringing in food is 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. MFAH's Moonlight Movies series offers a selection of titles based around a specific theme. More recently, its Love & Other Adventures series featured The Princess Bride, La La Land, and Crazy Rich Asians. 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 complimentary bags of popcorn with admission and themed cocktails for sale. 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 and its two screens invite moviegoers in for first-run blockbusters as well as indies, classics, and themed special events, like singalongs and holiday film festivals. 

Show up early to the Skylawn for 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 titles like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Fighting Temptations (starring hometown hero Beyoncé) and more recent releases like A Minecraft Movie. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own blankets and food, or purchase a snack at Tout Suite.