Beat that, Alamo Drafthouse.
The founders of Stoner Cinema Pop-Up, a new series of cannabis-friendly film screenings, want to mix the freedoms of movie night at home with a theater-like experience. This isn't a flimsy projection screen in someone's backyard, though. Founders Nick Barreto and Josh Manary have a deep bag of tricks to make an old flick feel new again — not that they're picking duds.
"We're paying $400 or $500 to the studios for screening fees," Manary says. "We're doing stoner movies right now, but we're also thinking about summer-related movies this year and horror movies in the fall. We just want to wrap cannabis around good movies and use any innuendos we find."
Stoner Cinema Pop-Up's first movie screening, Half Baked, took place in April 2022. Viewers were handed bags of Funyuns and cartons of Half Baked Ben & Jerry's ice cream during scenes with certain references, and before and after the screening, they could visit a handful of food vendors, art exhibitions, cannabis sponsors and vendor booths. Showings of Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke and Pineapple Express followed, with similar audience interactions — and some of the biggest joints a movie crowd has ever seen.
Barreto likes going big with cannabis. Whether he's using giant papers to roll multi-ounce joints or creating a thirty-foot bong so he can plant it on the ground and take a hit from the roof of a building, he's a flashy stoner MacGyver, and he knows how to infuse those stunts into a movie night.
"Someone rolled up a pineapple-shaped joint for Pineapple Express. It was huge," Barreto recalls. "At one event, we put a dart board with holes in it in front of our faces, and then someone would throw joints so we could catch them in our mouths. We caught a few."
He has a habit of showing up to concerts and big shows with a pound of weed as his ticket backstage to meet the likes of Rick Ross or Tommy Chong. According to Barreto, it's pretty effective. Most of this action plays out on Instagram, where he and Stoner Cinema Pop-Up have garnered tens of thousands of followers.
"People really love when we add things like that to the movie, and it helps us go viral," he says. "At the end of the day, it's just cannabis, so we want to have fun with it."
A pineapple sized joint before it was smoked during the Pineapple Express screening.
Stoner Cinema Pop-Up Instagram
"Most of the other people around town doing movie nights are just showing one without paying for the rights. We wanted to be the first at doing this legally when it came to the cannabis and movie licenses, and it has been fairly easy, actually. We've been to a lot of cannabis lounges and know a lot of people," Manary notes.
Colorado's cannabis event and hospitality space has struggled to get off the ground in the decade following recreational legalization. Although the State of Colorado and City of Denver both issue cannabis hospitality licenses, special event permits don't exist, and establishment licenses must qualify under a strict set of location and operational requirements. Just one licensed venue and a few mobile lounges are open for cannabis use in Denver. Movie theaters, most of which are owned by multi-state corporations, are virtually guaranteed to stay away from open cannabis use under current state and city laws.
Barreto and Manary have been around Colorado's cannabis space for over twenty years combined, working for various grows and dispensaries. They became friends after running into each other at local industry events, which eventually led to smoke sessions and movie watching. But as commercial weed grew up, most cannabis companies tried to shy away from stoner culture in an effort to lure in new customer demographics. Not these guys.
"These are our roots, so why do we need to stray away from that? Creating these huge joints and smoking devices are just fun, also. I enjoy doing it, and re-creating what you see in movies or on the internet is a fun challenge," Barreto explains.
According to Manary, the "Stoner" in Stoner Cinema Pop-Up is just as important as the "Cinema" part.
"Seeing faces of people in awe, whether it's normal weed stuff or something crazy, it's awesome. We're bringing people together," he says. "Those are the types of movies I like, too: Road Trip, American Pie. Movies that make everyone laugh."
Bringing people together over copyrighted films and copious amounts of pot isn't cheap, though, so the two have had to pool their personal stashes and seek out partnerships in the cannabis industry. They recently secured a continued sponsorship from Denver dispensary PotCo, with Colorado brands like Blazy Susan, Indico, Kaviar, Muncheez, Ripple and Snaxland, among others, providing donations and resources as well.
Future Stoner Cinema Pop-Up targets include How High, Mac & Devin Go to High School, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and The Sandlot. Manary says they are currently in talks with Chauncey Leopardi, the actor who portrayed Michael "Squints" Palledorous in The Sandlot, to make an appearance. Leopardi currently owns a dispensary and cannabis line in California, and his flower brand, Squintz, sells a strain named Wendy, after his on-screen love interest in the movie, so such a visit isn't out of the question, according to Barreto and Manary.
"We're figuring this out as we're going. A lot of this just pops up and we roll with it," Barreto says.
Given the baseball bat-sized joints they bring to parties, rolling with it shouldn't be a problem for these two.
Stay up to date on Stoner Cinema Pop-Up movie announcements and request invitations to screenings (21+) at stonercinema.org.
