Coney Island 2012: Free Movie Screenings on the Beach

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Coney Island 2012: Free Movie Screenings on the Beach

July 9, 2012 by Tricia

Ghostbusters at Coney Island Flicks on the Beach. July 2, 2012. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Outdoor movie shows in Coney Island date back to the early days of the cinema. Hot dog inventor Charles Feltman’s grand restaurant and amusement park boasted the Seaside Garden Theatre where films were shown with live musical accompaniment. “At every performance 2,000 persons are seated in the outdoor theatre,” according to a 1917 article in the New York Sun. “The garden has won favor with the ‘movie’ public because of its location, which is by the sea.”

The 2012 season debut of Coney Island’s free outdoor movie series on the beach was last Monday. A nice crowd came out for Ghostbusters as you can see in Bruce Handy’s photo above. The movies are projected onto a giant screen set up on the beach between W 10th and W 12th Streets. In the past, pre-show entertainment has featured the Coney Island Sideshow, celebrity impersonators, trivia contests and dancing. The pre-show is at 7pm with the feature film starting at around 8:30pm. Here’s the rest of the 2012 schedule:

July 9 – Edge of the City: Underground NY Shorts By the Sea
Edge of the City: Underground NY Shorts By the Sea is a collection of independent short films, including The Best Thing I Ever Done—an endearing account of Domenico DeMarco, owner of the legendary pizza shop Di Fara—and A Man Named Magick, about a charismatic Midtown magic shop owner. The showcase begins at 8:30pm.

July 14 – Bound for Glory (1976)
David Carradine plays Woody Guthrie in this Oscar-winning biopic, set in the Dust Bowl, about the folk artist’s experience with the working class after leaving Texas to join the Okies headed to California in search of work.

July 16 – Manhattan (1979)
See Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway and Meryl Streep in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning love story.

July 23 – The Muppets (2011) (Postponed due to rain)
Jim Henson’s much-loved characters return to the big screen, as Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) aim to reunite the gang in an attempt to salvage The Muppet Theater.

July 30 – Girl Walk // All Day (2011)
This feature-length film is actually a long-form dance music video, featuring three dancers who use the cityscape as their stage. The movie is set to Girl Talk’s sample-heavy 2010 album, All Day.

August 6 – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt in the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series. Hunt and his team, who are implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, must go rogue to clear the Impossible Missions Force’s name.

August 13 – The Muppets – Rescheduled from July 23
Jim Henson’s much-loved characters return to the big screen, as Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) aim to reunite the gang in an attempt to salvage The Muppet Theater.

The free movie series in Coney Island is sponsored by the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC) and NYC & Company in conjunction with Rooftop Films.