By Lookout Staff

June 15, 2012 -- If a stroll down Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade doesn't turn out to be a stranger-than-life experience, walk to the end of the strip next month and catch a movie on a big screen.

Downtown Santa Monica Inc. is presenting its second annual “Cinema on the Street” series of weekly summertime movies every Friday in July on the Promenade between Wilshire Boulevard and Arizona Avenue just outside of Chipotle.

"To kick-off each movie, MI’s Westside Comedy Theater will have you laughing in your seats with a pre-show comedy performance," Downtown officials said. "Bring a blanket or beach chairs, a date, family and friends to enjoy your favorite classic movies and an evening of fun."

The series kicks off Friday, July 6, with “The Sandlot,” a 1993 sports comedy about a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962.

The 1984 sci-fi comedy classic, “Ghostbusters,” starring Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis as a goofy trio of parapsychologists chasing down ghosts in New York City, will be screened, appropriately, on Friday, July 13.

Rio, a 2011 computer animated musical comedy about a male blue macaw taken to Rio de Janeiro to mate screens Friday, July 20, in 3D.

The series wraps up on Friday, July 27 with a screening of “The Artist,” a 2011 French romantic comedy-drama that takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932 and is shot in black-and-white with no dialog.

The movies begin each night at approximately 7:30 p.m., though the time is subject to change depending on the sunset. Attendance is free.

Parking is available in city parking structures throughout Downtown Santa Monica (www.smgov.net/parking).  Vehicles entering after 6pm pay a $5.00 flat rate.

For more information visit www.downtownsm.com