With Sydney’s summer season right around the corner, a few tried-and-true favourites are starting to pop back into the frame for both locals and visitors. And one of the most exciting: open-air cinemas.
Sydney loves an outdoor movie night. While the historic Blacktown Drive-In out in the Greater Western Sydney region still gets plenty of applause for its retro appeal and smart programming, city slickers tend to prefer cosying up on a bed, bean bag or blanket and watching the latest hits on a massive screen.
This week, two of Sydney’s most beloved open-air cinemas have announced their summer 2024/2025 schedule, presenting a clever mix of new blockbusters, classics and cult icons. We already know that the world’s biggest ‘bed bed’ cinema is heading back to Barangaroo at the end of this November.
Now, details have been announced for both the long-running Moonlight Cinema in Sydney’s leafy Centennial Park and the gorgeous Westpac Openair Cinema in Mrs Macquarie Point.
Moonlight Cinema
Tickets are now on sale for the popular Moonlight Cinema, which returns to Centennial Parklands to run from late November 2024 to March 2025.
While Sydney doesn’t exactly have starry nights anymore (at least visibly), the epic location is still one of the best places to watch movies while our famously fun, famously outdoors summer season caps off a very transformative year for the harbour city.
As always, the schedule is packed with some of the year’s top releases as well as a two-week run of Christmas classics to get everyone in the mood for Sydney’s holiday season.
Movies being shown this year include Wicked, Gladiator II, Heretic, Challengers, It Ends with Us, Deadpool and Wolverine, The Fall Guy, Twisters, Kneecap and body horror shocker The Substance. And then you’ve got fun inclusions like the original Mean Girls and Barbie, as well as Boxing Day release Better Man, detailing the life and times of Robbie Williams. Families get a nod in as well with Inside Out 2 and a special preview screening of Paddington in Peru.
Festive flicks include:
- Elf
- Red One
- Love Actually
- The Holiay
- The Muppet Christmas Carol
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
But you won’t just be watching a movie while relaxing on bean bags. Singapore Airlines’ Gold Grass add-on includes waiter service and the best seats in the park, while Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling is offering the brand’s own Platinum experience with a food package, personal waiter service and super comfy deluxe double bean bags.
Where: Centennial Parklands
When: November 22, 2024 – March 30, 2025
Price: Tickets start from $27.50
Westpac Openair Cinema
Westpac Openair Cinema is arguably the most “Sydney” of all the outdoor movie spots, given it takes place in the grand location of Mrs Macquarie Point. With its sparkling vista including both the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, this beautiful open-air cinema should once again be one of the most popular things to do in Sydney this summer.
And it’s locked in dates. You’ll find the dreamy cinema running from January 9, 2025 right up through to February 18, 2025. Yes, its a short season but these are usually the months where Sydney is at its peak in terms of both beauty and weather (fingers crossed).
The cinema has only revealed three titles so far. To no one’s surprise, Gladiator II is on the cards, as well as Wicked and Palme d’Or winner Anora from acclaimed filmmaker Sean Baker. The latter, an indie flick led by Mickey Madison, tells the story of a sex worker from Booklyn who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, causing conflict amongst the family with sketches of the forbidden romance trope.
In previous years, Kitchen by Mike was the caterer for the Westpac Openair Cinema but details on what you’ll be eating and drinking while luxuriating in front of the big screen are yet to be announced.
Tickets for the open-air cinema go on sale from Monday, December 9.
