The University Programming Board attracted nearly 100 students to Chapman Auditorium during a two-day screening of the 2011 summer blockbuster “Fast Five” on Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18.

The event was the first of three, two-day Movie Nights for the semester. Kerry Smith, senior business major and Weekend Events Chair for UPB, said that the movie nights were a success, and that the Florence branch of FATZ restaurant donated sweet tea and cups for the students.

“It went pretty smoothly,” Smith said. “It seemed like the students had a good time. One student even brought in a high quality sound system for the movie. FATZ donated about seven or eight gallons of sweet tea and about 60 cups. It was nice.”

Warren Snell, operating partner for FATZ in Florence, said that the restaurant wanted to show its appreciation for what the university gives to the Florence community.

“We appreciate everything FMU does for the community, and we wanted to help out as much as possible,” Snell said.

The movie was shown in Chapman Auditorium on Sept. 17 and 18. On each night before the movie began, UPB showed its own version of previews, Smith said.

“We showed upcoming UPB events, and we even had a ‘Silence Your Cell Phone’ preview,” Smith said.

The UPB Movie Nights take place throughout the semester. Assistant Dean of Students and UPB adviser LaTasha Brand said that there was a change from Movie Night beginning at 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. this semester.

“We wanted to, hopefully, have a higher attendance than previous Movie Nights,” Brand said.

Junior biology major and Social Events Chair for UPB De’Swinyana Jones said UPB also held a movie survey at the beginning of the semester where volunteering students were asked to choose the movies they would most likely come to see from a list of eight choices.

“They were given a survey and were supposed to circle their top five,” Jones said. “Then we tallied up the answers. We had about 200 students do surveys.”

In order for UPB to show a movie, the organization must purchase a temporary license to avoid copyright issues. UPB obtains the licenses through Swank Motion Pictures, Inc.

“The licenses only last for the time we tell them that we are going to show the movie,” Brand said. “A license can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,200, but usually falls in the $600 to $1,000 range. If we want to show the movie for a longer time, we would have to pay more money.”

The next scheduled UPB Movie Nights are Oct. 15 and 16 at 6 p.m. in Chapman Auditorium. The movie will be “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”