How to Start a Movie Club

Learn how to start a movie club that can help you develop a social network of film fans who share the same interests. Movie fans often foster enlightening discussions and share the most entertaining news stories regarding favorite actors, movie soundtracks, special effects, directors and related production elements.

Determine the Membership Criteria

Eligibility requirements for joining your movie club should be decided when planning to start this association. Movie club memberships can be opened to the public or run as an invite-only group. Invite other movie fans to join during the initial launch of this club regardless of the criteria that you choose. This will help you start the club with an active membership as it grows in popularity. You will also have to figure out how to manage the expense of watching movies during club meetings. Annual membership dues can be used to cover the cost of movie rentals or tickets to the cinema. You can also require members to participate in fundraisers that help to cover the cost of running the movie club.

Setup a Meeting Schedule

Discuss the frequency of meetings with all members of your movie club. These meetings can include a movie screening, discussion and serving of refreshments. You can meet one or more times each month depending on the level of activity expected in this club. The meeting schedule and activities should fit the interests of all members of the movie club or the majority of individuals represented among this group. It is also important to select a location where everyone can meet to watch movies and discuss future engagements involving the club. Meetings can be held at a variety of locations including the homes of your members, libraries and movie theaters.

Delegate Member Responsibilities

Operate your movie club as a collective effort that requires all members to share responsibilities that help to maintain a smooth and long lasting initiative. You can instruct members to select a responsibility at random by pulling index cards with certain tasks written on them. Responsibilities can also be assigned to specific members if this will be a more efficient method of sharing entertainment duties for the movie club. Members can be responsible for supplying food, games, suggestions for future meetings, movie reviews or reminding everyone about scheduled meetings.

Movie Selections

Host a discussion with other members to determine how movies will be selected for your club to watch. Will everyone watch the latest film release with the most favorable critic ratings or can members vote on movies to screen during the next meeting regardless of their release date? The method in which movies are selected should be determined during meetings with all of the founding members of this movie club. You will also have to determine if the club will watch mainstream films, independent films, foreign films or a mixture of these movie types. Movie clubs can screen a variety of films or be setup around comedies, urban movies, horror, documentaries or other specific film genres.