After a two-year absence, Herculaneum’s “Movies in the Park” series will make its return, beginning this weekend.
The four-movie series will begin Saturday, July 30, with the Disney animated flick “Encanto,” and continue with two more animated features – “Paw Patrol: The Movie” on Saturday, Aug. 13, and “Clifford the Big Red Dog” on Saturday, Aug. 27.
The series will conclude on Saturday, Sept. 17, with a live-action movie geared for a more general audience, “American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story” about the former St. Louis Rams quarterback’s rise to fame.
All movies will start at dusk and will be shown on an inflatable screen at Herculaneum City Park, 776 Joachim Ave.
Admission and parking are free.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks, blankets, lawn chairs and insect repellent.
“We aren’t planning to have a concession stand,” Mayor Bill Haggard said.
He said he’s glad to see the outdoor movies return.
They began in 2008 but were called off in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the past, we’ve had six to eight movies in June and July, but because we got a late start this year, we figured on four,” Haggard said. “We’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll have more people out because the weather might be cooler, particularly for the last movie.”
He said the fact that three of the four movies are geared toward younger audiences wasn’t by accident.
“Those kinds of movies were always our biggest draws,” he said.
All four movies are 2021 releases.
“(The rights to show them) aren’t cheap,” Haggard said. “They cost us about $500 apiece.”
He said the money to pay for the rights is drawn from the city’s celebrations fund.
Haggard said the future of the “Movies in the Park” series will somewhat hinge on the success of this year’s schedule.
“What we might do next year will depend on what happens this year,” he said. “We’d like to buy a new projector that will allow us to start the movies sooner, and a bigger screen. But we’ll have to see how this goes.”