I was told that we couldn't charge entrance to the movie - but there's nothing saying you can't accept donations. On the Movie Licensing website (
Search Results for " movielic.com "
) it say:
Are there limitations to this Public Performance Site License?
Yes. This license is for K-12 Schools only. This license does not permit entertainment movies to be used when an admission fee is charged, other than to cover costs. Outdoor showings are not allowed or covered under our movie licensing agreements. In addition, the movies may not be altered, duplicated, digitized or transmitted electronically in any form without specific permission from the copyright owner.
This is the company we deal with and the company that I think is used in the Movie Night kit. I don't know if there are any other such companies that other schools deal with.
There is a Movie Night Kit, and I believe that is the one that we use, or we use one similar. I think it takes care of the royalty/copyright stuff, altho you still likely need a license.
We were informed last year-- that even with a license to show the movie-- you couldn't charge an entrance fee just to come in and watch the movie-- that was copy write infringement to the movie company-- so we weren't sending them the royalties ---and that we could be fined a hefty fee--- has anyone else heard about this or know about this--
we were charing $1.00-- and then we would have concessions available for purchase...
We did a "High School Musical" Movie Night. PTO members and kids were encouraged to dress up as their favorite characters, we gave out inexpensive cheerleading pompoms, we had door prize raffles (posters, notebooks...other HSM-related stuff).
To answer a prior question, we charge admission ($2.50) and also have a concession booth with reasonably-priced, healthy food choices. Admission can be paid with Box Tops for Education, in lieu of admission fee.
Yup, you need a license to publically show a movie, to avoid copywright infringement.
An idea that might be fun would be to have the PTO members dressed for the part. For example...
Lets say you do a Pirates of the Carribean night (pirate theme). All of the PTO members can be dressed as pirates. Would make it fun and also show who the PTO reps are...
Dawn M;144406 wrote: I've never heard of the movie license issue before...our PTO just this summer applied for our own EIN # but does that have anything to do with us needing or not needed a license?
As far as ideas...we are doing an 'Election' theme for movie night this year - we've done Christmas movies the past two years but are having the kids vote between two movies then show the winner the 1st Friday in November. We're hoping to really pump it up during October - decorations in the halls...handouts for the kids...hopefully some of the older classrooms can use it to talk about the presidental election and show how an election will work at our school level.
In order for teachers to show movies in their classrooms, the school or district is supposed to have purchased a license. So it is possible that if they have a license, you won't need one.
