Cleveland

This page is designed to compile all known ways to attend a free advanced movie screening, both online and offline. If you live in Cleveland and know of other providers or offers in your area, please leave a comment and help us out.

General Providers

When you attend enough advanced screenings, you start to notice that the same providers keep sponsoring them. So it's in your interest to find out more about these providers.

1. Local Radio

Generally, local radio stations can give out screening passes six ways:

• Listen to win: "Our 29th caller gets tickets for two to see.."
  
• Pass pick-up: "Drop by our station office and pick up passes..."
• Expo or festival: "Stop by our booth and be sure to grab tix..."
• Follow the van: "Our wacky afternoon DJ has driven the prize van over to some local business and is giving away free hot dogs and movie passes!"
• Point system: "Join our listeners club, and when you earn enough points..."
  
• Online contests: "Enter by Monday. We'll select five winners then to attend..."

Q104 offers one online screening contest at a time, and it changes about once a week. 98.5 WNCX used to do something similar, offering about 2 movies a month. ESPN 850/1540 has also offered passes.

Z107.9 has no online contests, but it mentions movie passes among the many prizes for members of its listener club, so be sure to sign up.

News Radio 1100, 93.1 WZAK, Kiss 96.5, Majic 105.7, and Mix 106.5 have both contest pages and listener clubs. Also try Soft Rock 102.1 and The Wave 107.3.

Feel free to find other local stations by using Radio Locator or your favorite Internet search engine.

2. Local Print

The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Sun News share an Internet presence at Cleveland.com, which has its own contest page. You may run across a few screenings a year. Also be sure to flip through the print versions of each: the Plain Dealer publishes daily, and the Sun News is a neighborhood weekly with new issues every Thursday.

Speaking of, you should also look for any weekly or community papers that you might find in libraries or in colorful boxes along city sidewalks. Cleveland Scene has a Free Stuff page that has included screenings before. So far, the Free Times has offered only music prize packs. Don't forget to check the print edition to see if any additional movies are offered.

Finally, there's Cool Cleveland, a weekly e-mail newsletter with a event list that might be helpful.

3. Local TV

CBS 19 lists contests in the left column, and screenings have appeared there in the past. ABC 5 offers movie-related prizes, but not screenings. Then there's NBC 3, MyFox 8, My43 TV, and The CW.

4. Local Internet

Creating Cleveland is a college blog (don't knock blogs, because you're reading one right now) that lists screenings; sometimes you pick up the pass, and sometimes you e-mail to win them.

5. Regional and National Internet

Movie Jungle, which is based out of Lexington, KY, spreads into other cities in the Midwest. Check to see if Cleveland is ever among them. (Cincinnati and Columbus appear regularly.)

Film Metro has gone national and may offer screenings just about anywhere. Take a look and see if your city is included.

Be sure to check the national forums at Fat Wallet and Slick Deals as well. THE MOVIE OUTSIDER has a representative that posts offers on each of those forums, and compiles a list of screenings by city that links back to here. More importantly, other members in the forums will relay info about multi-city screenings sponsored by the movie studios and PR firms. Use these sites in tandem, and you'll get about as much publicly available information as possible.

Specific Offers

27 DRESSES (otherwise opens January 11)

Q104 screening
Tuesday, Jan. 8, in Richmond Town Square, time unknown