Movie night can be as simple as dinner and a movie with the family or, it can be a couple of friends coming over for a movie and some snacks. But if you want to make it a really special evening, you may want to know how to plan a movie night.

Movie night focuses on a single activity – watching a movie. However, choosing the right movie, the right guests, the right food and whether or not to make it a sleepover are all elements that need to be planned.

Like most party planning, a few basics will help you achieve success. Here are a few fundamentals that are universal to good movie parties. 1) Have food and beverages ready when guests arrive. They can mingle and chat over appetizers and a drinks, for example, while you wait for everyone to arrive. 2) Plan the seating appropriately for your amount of guests. If your viewing area will only comfortably accommodate six, keep the party small.

Remember that people will need a place to “park” their food and drink such as an end table or coffee table while they are watching. Take that into consideration when planning your seating. In fact, a good initial step would be to determine where you are going to watch the show, and then figure out how many guests to invite.

If it is a very casual get-together, then email invitations or even a text message are fine for sending out invitations. However, if you are going to a lot of trouble to prepare a special night, with decorations and theme food, you may want to “go the distance” and find invitations to fit your party. They are available on the Internet on many different sites if you search “movie night invitations.” http://www.partyinvitations.com/party_invitations/children_pizza_movie.htm

Have a great movie night!

The most successful movie nights take a theme from the movie and plan the party around that. Here’s a classic example. Invite everyone over to watch “Animal House” and have a full-blown toga party. Granted, the toga party is only one of the many antics going on in this hysterical film, but “Animal House” was significant in helping to put the toga party on the map. http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/trivia.htm

If the theme is going to be more around the actual movie, match the décor with the look of movie itself. Decorate with images of the movie’s location, images from the movie, or the stars of the movie. http://www.thisishollywood.com/Movie_Party_Night.php

If you really want to go all out, you can do the whole Hollywood bit around the movie. If it’s an Oscar Award winner, you have oodles of options for a Hollywood Movie Night, from invitations to decorations to costumes. http://hollywoodmegastore.com/

You can opt to have the decorating planned around “going to the movies.” You can find a popcorn Mylar balloon. http://shindigzparty.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/host-a-movie-night-party-for-summer-fun/ You can buy and serve all the movie candy from the lobby. There are sites that specialize in movie candy, duplicating the treats you see in the case near the popcorn. http://candyaddict.com/blog/2006/08/20/do-you-smuggle-candy-into-movies/ You can also easily find old fashioned popcorn boxes on the web, to serve the popcorn in. Hotdogs would be fun to serve as well. And various sodas like Coke. In other words, duplicate the “candy counter” at the movies! Yes, this is part of serving food, but it also counts as decorating because you are re-creating the look of the movie lobby.

Ahead of time, watch the movie you plan to show, and plan as much of the menu as you can around the movie's theme. If possible, put the food in a different room than where the movie is being watched. Food leads to conversation.

If guests gets up in the middle of the film for more food and/or beverage, it’s quite possible that conversation will break out at the food table, whether the movie is in progress or not. If this is going to bother you or your other guests, put the food and beverage as far as you can (within reason) away from the viewing area. This gives guests the option to “party” without the movie, if it’s not their cup of tea.

If you’d like, you can go in the other direction. That is, select the cuisine for the evening and then pick a movie to accompany it. For Italian food, perhaps “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas.” On TBS’ website, you will find “Dinner and a Movie” recipes. You can search with “Browse by movie name” to match the food, or you can select “Browse by recipe title,” then match the movie. http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,2441|1268|0,00.html One way or the other, you can get some great movie theme food ideas for your party.

One of the activities for the evening is built into the mingling and chatting over food and drink before the movie. Then, there is the movie itself. You may want to consider an “[Intermission]].” Pick a spot in the film that’s a good stopping place and take a break. If not everyone is riveted, there may be a lot of cross-talk going on during the show. Taking a break enables people to decide if they want to continue watching the second half, or mingle with conversation at the food table or while sitting near it. People like options. Provide seating near the food table.

During break time, or before or after the film, you may want to plan a game, such as a trivia quiz game, around the movie. http://www.evite.com/app/cms/ideas/movie-night However, if you play the game at “half time,” it may be difficult to get everyone reassembled to continue viewing. If guests are going to snack and mingle and then watch the movie, an activity after the fact may provide a fun continuation to the evening, and avoid post-movie letdown.

This is not an activity per se, but at any given time, if someone wants to pause the movie for a good reason, accommodate the request. It may be a need for a potty break, and you may have more than one “taker.” Or, it might be such an incredibly funny comedy that everyone was laughing so hard, they missed the following next line or two. Hitting “pause” at that point will give them a short break to let the laughter die down, then resume. You may want to rewind to before the funny bit so people can enjoy it all over again, then carry on with the viewing.