More than 5,000 Boston University students packed the BU Beach Friday night to watch ‘Finding Nemo’ for the Programming Council’s annual Fall Drive-In Movie, council Chairman Mike Pereira said.

College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jon Taffel raved about the event and its attendance.

‘The turnout was amazing,’ Taffel said. ‘It was a great time. I really liked the movie choice.’

Kathryn Baum, a School of Education freshman, said she liked the Programming Council’s choice of ‘Finding Nemo.’

‘It was a really funny movie,’ Baum said. ‘I don’t think you come across many cartoon movies that are enjoyable and that so many college students would want to come out and watch.’

Event planners said they chose ‘Finding Nemo’ because of Pixar films’ popularity and the film’s huge showing at the box office. ‘Nemo’ had the eighth-largest box office gross of all time.

‘It had such huge success so we decided on it,’ Pereira said. ‘Everyone loves ‘Finding Nemo.”

Though the movie itself attracted numerous students to the event, others came just to socialize with old friends and make new ones. Many Resident Hall Assistants chose to have their floors attend together.

‘I attended the drive-in movie as a freshman with my floor and had a great time,’ said Sleeper Hall Resident Assistant Maria Giannopoulos. ‘It gives everyone on the floor the opportunity to get to know each other better.’

One of Giannopoulos’ residents, College of General Studies freshman Anais Cayo, said the plan worked perfectly.

‘I’m excited it was a floor event so we could spend more time with people on our floor we didn’t really know yet and get to know more people,’ Cayo said.

Pereira said the Programming Council expected a larger turnout than the 4,000 students who attended ‘Spiderman’ last fall, but the turnout still astounded them.

‘I helped plan the drive-in movie last year … and we thought it couldn’t be surpassed,’ said Programming Council Film Chair Meredith Modzelewski. ‘But this year it was incredible.’

The BU drive-in is one of the largest movies run by The Great College Movie program, according to the company’s owner and organizer Mike Humphreys.

‘This is probably the biggest drive-in movie we do,’ Humphreys said. ‘It’s the first time I’ve seen this many people at an event it’s almost to the point of insanity.’

The Fall Drive-In Movie marks the beginning of a series of movies that the Programming Council will hold on Thursday nights throughout the fall, planners said.

‘We planned out the whole semester in advance so we can make sure people know that, ‘It’s Thursday night, there’s a movie at the GSU,” Modzelewski said.

College of General Studies sophomore Megan Shedden said she would probably attend the regular Thursday night movies.

‘I had a great time they should be playing more movies like this,’ Shedden said. ‘I’d definitely be interested in attending them.’

Program organizers handed out magnets with schedules for fall movies, the first of which will be ‘Old School’ on Sept. 25, with admission costing $1.