13 thoughts on “Drive-In Theaters”

  1. I’m getting better use of my Netflix subscription now than I ever did before. Binge watching movies I missed in the theaters.

  2. There’s one in our area that’s incredibly popular during the summer. They’re having to delay their opening, though, because even though seeing the movie in your car would be super safe, they’d still have to worry about the restrooms, and all of their actual profits come from concessions, which would be harder to handle.

  3. I’ve seen a couple of reports on churches moving their sunday services to drive-in theaters. I think that’s a superb idea.

    I’ve never understood the move away from drive-ins. When I was young, I was fortunate to live in an area that still had one (they have been a dying breed for a very long time – even way back in the 90’s). I loved it – and hated walk-in ones. Still do. There’s only one (!) remaining drive-in in Arizona, and it’s over 100 miles from me. I would love to see them make a comeback.

    There’s also the fact that a drive-in is a lot cheaper to build than a walk-in.

    1. At least here in the Northeast the drive-in was killed by one fact. All that beautiful (zoned commercial) land. Drive ins were May-October at best and the lot was so huge that selling it off made far more money than running it. I know of at least 3 that are now Shopping Centers.

      1. That’s a very good point.

        I fell into the trap of local thinking; I’m in a rural area, where land costs are nowhere near the issue they are in an urban or suburban environment. Heck, the local drive-in sat abandoned for decades here. It closed way back in 1986, and by the time I saw in in the early 2000’s, the screen was long gone, as was the concession building, but it still had the parking plus posts for the window speakers. They cleared the lot around 2009, and since then it’s stood as a vacant lot, for sale. And this is a pretty prosperous area.

    3. Drive-ins have been disappearing since well before the 90’s. One of the two near my hometown in Michigan closed in 1969. Another, in Downey, CA, closed during the year I lived there in 1976. There were 4,600 drive-ins in the 50’s. Only about 300 left now.

  4. If you have a good sound system in your car a drive can be as good as a sit down theater. The one in Granbury TX told you to tune to a FM station to get the sound. They even pulled up all the posts the old metal window speaker hung on. That was 20 years ago, and as far as I know, it is still open.

  5. There’s one about fifty miles from here that we went to one time. Was interesting watching a movie while the Canada Day fireworks were going off in the sky behind the screen.

    The other one near here was closed a few years ago because they couldn’t afford to upgrade to a digital projector. That may be what closed most of them that survived into the 21st century; its’ one thing to run a drive-in as a hobby using existing equipment, but something else to invest a hundred thousand dollars in replacing that equipment.

  6. Here in Jacksonville N.C., there were three drive-in theaters. One of those showed porno movies. There are none now. We do have drive-in restaurants. Those are doing good. One idea would be to build a drive-in funeral parlor. Everybody sits in their car during the funeral.

    And how about drive-in doctors offices? The doctor goes to car, to car, checking the patients.

  7. I’m just the right age to remember drive-in sex. Most folks complained of discomfort, but I had a 1954 Buick sedan with bench seats front and back and six feet between the door handles.

  8. We still have a two screen drive in in my town. It shows double features on each screen so there is usually a movie I’m interested in watching.

    Maybe they should use it for a drive in funeral parlor for the next month or so until it is movie season again.

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