The title of the new Riverfront Fort Wayne Film Series explains itself in the simplest terms, the most convenient definitions.

The series of movies shown along the city's riverfront begins Saturday with “The Breakfast Club” at Headwaters Park West with brunch and cocktails by Calhoun Street Soups, Salads and Spirits. Because of catering and alcohol, tickets are being sold for Saturday's 21-and-older event and space is limited to 100 people.

“Mean Girls” on Aug. 17 and “Troop Beverly Hills” on Sept. 30 are free and open to all ages without tickets.

Megan Butler, program events manager for Riverfront Fort Wayne, says the committee tasked with choosing movies for the new series looked for cult favorite, family-friendly titles. The movies will be projected on a large outdoor screen in one of the city's riverfront parks.

Riverfront Fort Wayne expects to program the series annually and include one dinner-and-a-movie event each year.

“It's just a different way to experience a movie,” Butler says. “We're trying to go beyond what you would experience in a movie theater.”

To that end, all three movies will include activities such as arts, crafts and contests. Among “Breakfast Club” activities Saturday will be a trivia contest, and people dressed as a character will be entered to win a prize.

Butler says “Breakfast Club” was an easy fit for the movie series because it is a pop culture favorite that spans ages.

“Everybody knows it,” she says. “Even if the movie came out before they were born.”

Riverfront Fort Wayne plans to continue the movie series and move it to a permanent home when Promenade Park opens in 2019. For now, Butler says she hopes the series familiarizes people with the spaces already along the rivers.

“To us, it made sense to invest in this program now because it was one that we could do now. Some of the programs and events we just cannot do without that park, so we're holding off on them. But this is one that we could move around (to different parks).”

– Corey McMaken, The Journal Gazette