You can only make so many trips to the multiplex for mediocre movies. Instead of sitting through another popcorn flick in the dark, turn your backyard into the modern version of a drive-in and invite over an audience of your closest friends. We'll help you gear up.

1 How to Build a Backyard Cinema Dan Hallman Making the most of these dog days—and nights—isn't just about pool parties and patio barbecues. Big-budget blockbusters are an essential summer staple for vitamin D—deprived cinephiles and beach bodies alike. But you can only make so many trips to the multiplex for mediocre movies. Take control of your plein-air pixels by creating an outdoor theater that celebrates—and even outshines—a drive-in theater. Whether your guests are watching battling aliens, sharks, or cybernetic organisms hopping back in time, you'll be the most popular person in the neighborhood with your DIY backyard cinema.

2 Camp Chef Backyard Big Screen, $283 Michael Larsen Film buffs will approve of the 16:9 aspect ratio and the opaque black layer behind the white face of the 120-inch-diagonal screen, which blocks out distracting background light. A 9.5-foot-tall frame stabilizes the 44-pound apparatus on breezy nights.

3 Cyber Acoustics Powered Speaker System, $40 Michael Larsen The rest of your theater is expensive, so go for cost-effective portable speakers. Sound from this three-piece set—it hooks up to the projector or the DVD player, depending on the system—carried over a backyard and wowed our test audience.

4 Vallarta Outdoor Drink Dispenser, $59 Michael Larsen This dispenser stylishly holds 8 quarts of your drink of choice. The stainless-steel spigot keeps the juice flowing. Oh, and we'd like to thank whoever spiked the lemonade.

5 Strathwood Basics Anti-Gravity Adjustable Recliner, $65 Michael Larsen Sit comfortably through even epic films (Lawrence of Arabia, anyone?), thanks to a steel suspension that evenly distributes weight. The Textilene seat offers a variety of positions for both legs and back, so you can put your feet up after intermission.

6 3M MP220, $500 Michael Larsen This lightweight, battery-powered projector has 2 GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot—perfect for slideshows on screens up to 75 inches. The Android OS interface enables video projection from an iPad at 65 lumens. The MP220 compensates for the so-so moving-image quality with long-lasting power and portability.



NOTE: When purchasing a projector, consider contrast ratio—the measurement of the brightest color (white) to the darkest (black) that a display system can produce. A high ratio yields crisper images and more vibrant colors and can better create subtle, shadowy tones—a feature that's important for movies such as The Godfather, where key scenes take place in dimly lit rooms.

7 Optoma HD20, $830 Michael Larsen With a 4000:1 contrast ratio, 1700 lumens, and 1080p resolution, the HD20 produces clear, bright images and pleases a big crowd, filling screens as large as 300 inches. Although you have to manually adjust the projection height, this projector shines at less than $1000.

8 Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 5010, $2600 Michael Larsen Deep-pocketed, 3D-loving movie buffs might want to spring for this machine. A high-performance, air-spaced Fujinon lens; 2400-lumen color; and a cinema filter keep images sharp and colors true, while the 200,000:1 contrast ratio brings out subtleties that might otherwise be lost. The 5010 enters 3D mode with the flip of a switch (sorry, glasses not included).

9 Jaws Blu-ray, $30 Michael Larsen To celebrate its centennial, Universal is restoring some of its classic films—starting with Jaws. A team ran the original negative through a wet scanner to fill in shallow scratches, then digitally repaired tears and deep gashes and corrected color frame by frame. After watching it, you won't even want to go into your pool.

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