Free Things to Do in New York: Movies Under the Stars

During summer in New York there are several free outdoor film festivals. Having a picnic while watching your favorite movies is a plan a lot of New Yorkers love.

The outdoor film festivals kick off in June in New York. They keep going through July and wrap up in August.

Below are the most important outdoor movie series in New York, so you can check which screenings line up with your trip and catch one. If you do, you'll have a very New York summer night.

1. Movies under the Stars

Movies under the Stars screens films in different New York parks across all 5 boroughs. Admission is free and it's an event for the whole family.

Screenings start in May, before summer officially begins, and run through September 6, 2025.

You can check locations, dates and movies on the event page.

2. Movie Nights in Bryant Park

Bryant Park Movie Nights run every Monday from June 10 through August 12, starting with Forrest Gump and ending with Titanic. (Did you know the pier where the Titanic survivors came ashore is very close to the new Little Island park?)

In 2024 the Bryant Park film festival celebrates its 31st edition. Summer nights in Manhattan wouldn't be the same without it.

Bryant Park opens its gates at 5 pm so people can settle in with their blankets and picnics and wait for the movie to start at 8 pm.

Check the Movie Nights lineup on the official page.

3. Movies with a View in Brooklyn Bridge Park

If you ask me, the best free outdoor movie screenings happen at Brooklyn Bridge Park during the Movies with a View festival, a New York film series now in its 24th year!

The programming is genuinely good, but you also get the breeze off the East River, a seat right next to the famous Brooklyn Bridge, and the Manhattan skyline glowing behind the screen.

The lineup for this film series with a Manhattan view is already out, with screenings on Thursdays in July and August.

To get you excited, here are the movies playing in 2024:

📅 July 11: Past Lives

📅 July 18: Pulp Fiction

📅 July 25: Mean Girls

📅 August 1: Creed

📅 August 8: But I’m A Cheerleader

📅 August 15: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

📅 August 22: The American President

📅 August 29: audience choice winner.

Where?

Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1  (High Street subway station, A and C lines)

What time?

Gates open at 5 pm. The movie starts at sundown.

4. Free movies in Riverside Park

On Wednesdays in July and August you can watch box office hits on the riverbank at the Pier 1 Picture Show.

Keep an eye on the lineup on the official page for this film series.

Where?

Pier 1 in Riverside Park, around 70th Street.

What time?

Around 8:30 pm (they wait for it to get dark)

5. Free movies on an aircraft carrier

Only in New York do these wonderful things happen: on the last Friday of May, June, July and August you can watch free movies aboard a real aircraft carrier that served in World War II, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

On those Fridays you can also tour this one-of-a-kind museum for free (at the Intrepid Museum you'll step inside a nuclear submarine and get up close to the first space shuttle ever sent into space).

The event runs from 5 pm to 9 pm, and you can check the schedule on the museum's page. Entry is first come, first served, so it pays to show up early.

Here's the lineup of movies aboard the Intrepid Museum's aircraft carrier:

• Friday, June 28: Apollo 13
• Friday, July 26: First Man
• Friday, August 23: Moonfall

6. Outdoor movies in Central Park

The Central Park Film Festival also screens movies completely free. Plus, before the film starts a DJ gets the evening going.

We're waiting on the lineup on the official page for the 2024 festival.

Where?

The movies are screened in the area between Sheep Meadow and Terrace Drive, around 72nd Street (72 St subway station, B and C lines)

What time?

Gates open at 6:30 pm, movies start at 8:00 pm

Around 8:30 pm (they wait for it to get dark)

 -o-

During the New York summer there are plenty of free movie screenings under the stars in other New York neighborhoods, but here I've covered the established festivals, events where you get to discover corners of the city and have a great time without spending a cent!

My advice: arrive early to grab a good spot on the lawn.

Don't forget a solid picnic and a blanket.

Leave the alcohol, glass bottles and chairs at home, they won't let you in with them.