Brooklyn’s Domino Park transforms into a pop-up theater this weekend, courtesy of HBO.
A neighborhood of tiny homes will appear in the park starting Friday, for what the network calls a “Stay Home to the Movies” experience. It’s the ideal “night out” for the homebody in you.
Movies will stream inside the four houses, which will be open to the public through Sunday. Each house will focus on films of different genres, like comedy, action and drama. While unable to confirm the film lineup, HBO promises it’ll include a variety of “hit movies,” all currently available to stream on the network’s GO platform.
Jason Mulderig, HBO’s VP of brand and product marketing, says the event will combine the best of staying in and heading out.
“We wanted to create the in-home watching experience, but the excitement and the connectivity of being with other people that you get when you watch a movie,” Mulderig says. “When you go to the movie theaters, you are connected with those people experiencing the same thing, at the same time.”
Last year, HBO took over a brownstone for the inaugural “Stay Home to the Movies” event and screened a different film on each floor of the five-story house. This year’s stunt moves into tiny homes in an effort to help give back to the city.
All of the materials from the homes will be donated to the Habitat for Humanity NYC, which helps build housing for low- to moderate-income families across the five boroughs.
“We were just trying not to be wasteful with the homes we built. We are spending money to fabricate these and make them feel real and lived in, and at the end of the day, we didn’t just want to scrap them,” Mulderig says. “We wanted a place for them to go where they could be reused.”
The free pop-up “neigHBOrhood” will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Two films will also screen outdoors on the Domino Park lawn on Friday and Saturday, at 8 p.m. The pop-up can accommodate up to 150 moviegoers, but the homes can only fit 10 at a time. So, you’ll be encouraged to rotate between flicks.
In addition to the movies, attendees will be able to step into a “video booth” experience, play a roundup of backyard games and snack on treats, like Honest Tea and Brooklyn Popcorn.
“[The best part is] watching the movies with other people, laughing with other people, getting the thrills with other people and then talking about it after,” Mulderig says.
