A church cannot legally show a movie for free without a public performance license or a narrow legal exemption that almost never fits a typical church event. Federal copyright law gives filmmakers exclusive control over public showings of their work, and whether the audience pays makes no legal difference.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works The practical path for most congregations is an inexpensive annual license, and a small number of films can be shown with no license at all.
Why a Free Screening Still Counts as a Public Performance
Copyright law treats a performance as “public” when it happens somewhere open to the public or where a substantial number of people beyond a normal circle of family and friends have gathered.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works A movie shown in a fellowship hall, sanctuary, or youth room clears that bar easily, even when attendance is limited to members.
Charging nothing does not help. Congress deliberately removed any “for-profit” limitation from the public performance right, so free screenings get no special treatment.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works Owning the DVD or Blu-ray does not help either. Those discs are licensed for private home viewing. Pressing play in front of a group turns that private license into an unlicensed public performance.
The Exemptions and Why They Rarely Save a Church Movie Night
Copyright law contains a religious services exemption, but it was not written with movies in mind. It covers performances of nondramatic literary or musical works, and dramatico-musical works of a religious nature, during a service at a place of worship. Singing a hymn is protected. Playing a film, faith-based or not, is not. The exemption does not extend to the sequential showing of motion pictures, and a movie night is generally not part of a worship service anyway.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays
A separate exemption allows instructors and students to perform films during face-to-face teaching at a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar instructional space.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays That language points to accredited schools, colleges, and universities, not to Sunday school or a midweek small group. A church-affiliated K–12 school could qualify, but only when the screening happens in a classroom, ties directly to the curriculum, and is led by an instructor. A congregational movie night sits well outside those lines.
Fair use is the last defense people reach for, and for a full-length screening it is a losing argument. The four statutory factors ask about the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, how much is used, and the effect on the market.4U.S. Copyright Office. Fair Use Index Playing the entire movie to an assembled audience uses the whole work in the exact way copyright holders sell licenses for, so the market-effect factor cuts hard against the church. Nonprofit and religious character helps on the first factor, but courts have not treated it as a free pass.
Short clips used during a sermon look better. A two-minute scene used to illustrate a point is partial use for commentary, which is closer to what fair use was built for. The argument is stronger, not safe, and most annual church video licenses already cover sermon clip use, which removes the guesswork.
Getting a License
When no exemption applies, the church needs a public performance license. Two practical options exist: an annual umbrella license or a per-event license.
Annual Umbrella License
The most common choice is the Church Video License from Christian Video Licensing International (CVLI). It authorizes unlimited showings during the year of films from major studios including Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount, and Lionsgate.5US Church Video License by CVLI. Total Producer Package Pricing scales with weekly attendance:
- 1–99 regular attendees: $315
- 100–199: $342
- 200–499: $377
- 500–999: $503
- 1,000–1,499: $719
- 1,500–2,999: $1,056
- 3,000 and above: $1,388
For most congregations, that works out to less than a dollar per member per year and covers movie nights, youth events, and sermon clip use. Two limits matter before you plan an event.
The license prohibits advertising specific movie titles, characters, or studio names to the general public.7Christian Video Licensing International, LLC (CVLI). License Terms You can promote a “family movie night” on a public sign or social media, but not “Come watch The Lion King this Friday.” Internal communication with members is generally fine; the restriction targets outward advertising that could pull in an outside audience.
The license also authorizes screenings at the church facility named in the application.7Christian Video Licensing International, LLC (CVLI). License Terms A showing on the church lawn is generally covered if the lawn is part of the property. A screening at a public park, a rented community center, or an off-site retreat is not, and needs a separate single-event license.
Single-Event Licenses
Companies like Swank Motion Pictures sell per-screening licenses for a specific film on a specific date. Per-showing cost is higher than an annual license spread across multiple events, but this is the right fit for a church that only holds one or two movie events a year, or that wants to screen in a park or community space. You contact the licensing company, name the film and date, and receive permission for that event.
A Streaming Subscription Is Not a License
Pulling up a movie on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+ and projecting it for the group violates the platform’s terms and the copyright holder’s public performance right. Amazon Prime Video limits its license to “personal, non-commercial, private use.”8Prime Video. Amazon Prime Video Terms of Use Disney+ restricts content to “personal, non-commercial home use only.”9Disney. Disney Terms of Use A personal streaming account cannot substitute for a public performance license regardless of how the movie is played.
Movies You Can Show Without a License
Some films require no license at all. Movies whose copyrights have expired are in the public domain and free for anyone to show. As of January 1, 2026, all films published in 1930 or earlier have entered the public domain after their 95-year copyright terms expired, including the original “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the Marx Brothers’ “Animal Crackers,” and early Disney and Fleischer Studios cartoons. The Internet Archive hosts many of these titles for free download.
Some independent filmmakers release their work under Creative Commons licenses that grant blanket permission for certain uses. A license tagged “CC BY-NC” allows noncommercial use as long as the church credits the creator.10Creative Commons. About CC Licenses A free church screening qualifies as noncommercial. The catalog is narrower than what major studios offer, but the option is worth exploring for a church on a tight budget.
What Happens If a Church Skips the License
The typical first step is a cease-and-desist letter from the copyright holder or its licensing agent. Studios and licensing companies watch for violations, and events advertised on social media are easy to find. Ignoring the letter can escalate into a federal copyright infringement lawsuit.
Statutory damages make that lawsuit expensive on their own. A court can award between $750 and $30,000 per work infringed, with no requirement that the copyright holder prove actual financial harm. Willful infringement can push damages to $150,000 per work. A church that genuinely did not know it needed a license may qualify as an “innocent infringer,” which can lower the floor to $200, but licensing requirements are widely publicized and that argument is a hard sell.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
A single civil judgment can easily exceed the cost of decades of annual licenses. At $315 to $1,388 per year, the license is the cheapest protection a church can put in place.