I hope Drive-In theaters make a comeback

I always wanted my mom and dad to buy a mini-van, so we could do this...

I was nineteen. I had my first (secondhand) car - a '72 Ford Galaxie 500. A true land yacht, I would convert the back seat area into a king-sized bed with a couple of foam cushions, plastic bins for the floor compartments, and some bedding.

Plus, I had won a season pass to every drive-in theatre in a thirty-mile radius. Admit two.

Best summer of my life.

You might be interested in this thread, OP.

Nothing like forgetting that big ugly speaker is still hinged on the window as you drive off in a hurry to get out of the parking lot.

Rofl R4.

Surely, technology has improved since then, so that you wouldn't have to use those gigantic metal speakers which were completely full of static.

Before drive-ins died, they had advanced to the point where you could just use your car radio to pick up the sound.

Now, you could probably just use your phone or some other device.

Yes, yes. Why not just watch the movie on your phone? Why pay to go to the drive-in?

It's for the experience and romance.

What are patrons supposed to do when they have to relieve themselves?

It will never happen OP. People didn't have a choice back then. Going to a movie by the car load was cheaper than buying individual tickets. And in keeping with American tradition of cheap, Netflix is a much better deal these days and 1000 times the quality. Americans are not going jump in a car to watch a crappy movie quality and crappy sound just for nostalgic reasons. Most parents these days didn't even go as kids themselves.

They had public restrooms, R6.

Watch the movie "Grease," to get an idea of what it was like.

They had bathrooms by the snack bar. And to be honest, you went to the snack bar as an excuse mingle with other people and get out of the fucking car. Most people were really not there for the movie. Like cursing for straight people in a vanilla Disney sort of way.

I remember seeing clueless and waterworld when we moved to our new city. it was fun. would be hard to be profitable now but with enough people who have a niche for such nostalgic entertainment can suggest it too their kids, grandkids, new and old friends. just please anything is better than the slobs who spend 18 hrs a day playing some weird video game

Before the pandemic, our local city of Long Beach used to have weekly movie night at the beach for free for any one that wanted to show up. Lots of gays of course. Bring your own towel, food an adult beverages.

Real estate in tolerable climate areas of the US is too expensive for drive in movies. Also, part of the charm was driving over the crunchy parking lot of sand & bluestone. The mafia would never allow that today. You’d have to have cement parking lots.

I remember the snack bar closed around the middle of the film. When we were kids we finally scrounged up enough coins from ourselves & our parents to get ice cream, but the snack bar was closed. Not enough people bought snacks after the middle of the movie, so rather than pay someone to sit there & only sell a few things, they shut it down.

There was a weekly film at Cooper’s Beach in my town in summer but the pandemic will probably shut it down.

R8/9, I understand the existence of public bathrooms; my larger question was how comfortable people will be lining up to use them.

My local drive in is packed every weekend.

When I was a kid that's all we ever went to was drive-ins. Was cheaper. And you got two movies. Plus they had a playground. I love going to them. But I think now they're going to be very packed. But I'm still going to go. It brings back good memories for me.p

Did anyone here ever sneak people in your trunk? Rofl

I've got a big patio. A projector. A 120-inch screen. And an outdoor pizza oven.

I have outdoor movie/pizza/popcorn nights. It's just more fun watching movies outdoors. That's what people are doing now - putting up large screens or projecting video onto their houses, and inviting the neighborhood to come over and watch a movie in the back yard.

It's gonna feel kinda strange sitting out there all by myself this summer.

I never got to experience them back in the 60's or 70's, but I've been to two of them in recent years and they have the sound hooked up to your car radio, which makes for a pleasant listening experience. The snack bar was much cheaper than a regular theater and the food was better, too. If I had one closer to me, I'd go all the time.

I honestly thought that all drive-in theaters had closed down.

Where are the open ones located?

R3, and this one:

Audiences used to know how to behave. In 2020, people would find a way to make the experience awful. They’d honk their horns non-stop or drive around crashing into things.

People suck. I’ll watch the movies at home.

Rofl R22. So true.

They'd be busy trying to pull some idiotic stunt, to make something go viral, rather than actually trying to watch the movie.

My favorite part as a kid was the snack-bar ads, which featured a countdown to when the second feature was going to begin,

[quote]Being out under the stars, cuddling under a blanket, sneaking in a beer, and of course... the snack bar.

Most college aged kids went because it was a great place to have sex. Steaming up windows, moaning as loud as you can because the sound from the movie obscured it. That delicate situation where you were so into it, that you didn't realize your naked ass was pushed up against the backseat drivers side window and the people in the next vehicle could get a nice good look at it. Getting your clothes back on and being the last to leave.

Sitting on your boyfriends fist as you rocked up and down. It made watching even the worst movie an exciting experience.

loved the excitement of playing on the playground right under the big screen, until it started turning dark, the light on the big screen would come on and then you ran back to your parent's car, knowing the movies were about to start! mom would have different kinds of popcorn for us, RC brand cola and dad was ready with the "OFF" spray for the mosquitos... good times and cheap back then...

[quote] Sitting on your boyfriends fist as you rocked up and down

Oh, R25.

You sound like a hopeless romantic!

I'm sure sex happened at drive-in movie theaters, but I remember them as being a big draw for families, including mine. Cheap entertainment, as others have mentioned, and it got you out of the house on hot summer nights, at a time when many people didn't have air conditioning at home. All the ones we went to had the big clunky speakers that hung from your car window. They were part of the charm. How did getting the sound through your car radio work? Did you have to leave your car running the whole time you were there, breathing in carbon monoxide?

Lol R28.

You'd do a reverse turn on your key, so that the radio would work, without the engine being on.

And yeah, those metal speaker monstrosities were the worst!

are movies in the park only something you see in the movies or do they actually do that?

This was my prediction when Covid came to town.

They actually do have films in the park in larger cities (Portland), and small towns (where I am at the moment).

The Pendleton Pike Drive-In Theater in Indianapolis had a small roller coaster. As a kid, I loved that place. The Westlake Drive-In was the nicest. But the most fun was the Clermont-DeLuxe. The Twin Drive-In was trashy, but huge. A friend was conceived there.

Watched the film classic Kansas City Bomber at the Hilltop Drive-In

My dad took my brother to a drive-in in 1977. Guess what was playing. Star Wars and Iron Man.

Fifteen minutes into Star Wars, I fell asleep, and I woke up during Iron Man.

We also had a station wagon. I loved that night, even though I missed seeing Star Wars.

That's the only problem, R34.

Once you get too cozy in your car, with your pillows, and comforter, popcorn, candy, and soda, it's inevitable that you'll fall asleep.

Put me anywhere under those conditions, and I'll pass out. lol

There's one on the outskirts of Houston called the Showboat. I haven't been because it's quite a drive but it sounds fun. Maybe one day.

My grandmother's third husband owned a drive-in theater. She would take my mom and when the movie started Herb would slip into the back seat with grandma. They had to be sneaky because Herb's wife also worked at the theater.

[quote]are movies in the park only something you see in the movies or do they actually do that?

At the beach they do.

They're trying to reopen them in Utah. But there's going to be a bunch of rules. Like you have to stay in your car. No getting out with lawn chairs and stuff.

When we were little, my mom let my brother and I take our (small) cat with us to the drive in. We sat in the way back of our station wagon (a sky blue Plymouth Volare) and just left the tailgate closed. Cupcake loved it.

*me (damn it)

[quote] They're trying to reopen them in Utah. But there's going to be a bunch of rules. Like you have to stay in your car. No getting out with lawn chairs and stuff.

That's so dumb. As long as you're six feet away from the next car, what in the fuck does it matter?

Because that's not what people do, R42. A blanket policy of keeping people in their cars is the easiest way for the Drive-In to ensure its customers that they can expect for themselves and their family members the protection of social distancing.

Once the attendees get out of the car and set up their individual camps, the management has something unwieldy to police and enforce. They don't have the resources or the training to do that. Don't even get me started on the correlation between the people who refuse to social distance and those who don't go out of their homes unarmed.

The need to go is a big barrier to going out. Why public bathrooms are a stumbling block for reopening.

The drive-in near me has a flea market four days a week and still shows movies at night. I don’t know if it’s every night and if it is still double features, but it used to be.

Yep, nothin' like sittin in your car when it's 90 degrees outside, with 90% humidity and mosquitoes biting you. Can't wait to return to the good ole days.

The sparkling drinks are just dandy, the chocolate bars and the candy....

I remember the food being surprisingly good. Like old-fashioned malt shop/lunch counter food. Burgers, fries, grilled cheese and shakes.

You just made me hungry for drive-in food, R48!

Damn, that sounds good.

Drive-in movie eats...

We are going to this one in couple weeks. (Buena Vista, Colorado)

R51, does it have a snack bar?

It also looks like they still use those horrible metal speakers.

There are not enough DITs left for them to make a comeback. There are only 330 left in the whole of the USA.

No one will want to go. Get real folks. People will go for a novelty experience or two but it is not a glam activity and there’s a damn good reason they all folded and closed up shop.

Movie theaters in general are in a huge tailspin (coronavirus insanity exacerbating it notwithstanding) and they offer heat and A/C, full reclining lay-down seats, in-house food attendants (personally hate this), 3D/surround, and seat selection.

No one wants to pay to run down their battery, deal with the drama of parking and traffic, and then have to obey the social distancing Laws of Karen when it comes to bathrooms. All this for a roll of the dice on your view of the screen and your car is LESS comfortable than the movie theaters are today!

Best to just stay home at that point.

R13 is probably right.

There is a drive-in movie theater about 10 miles from my house in rural Alabama.

In an unincorporated area outside a small town of less than 2350 people the cost of the land alone was about a quarter of $1 million.

It made national news when the owners refused to show the 2017 live action version of “The Beauty and the Beast” because one of the characters was gay.

All but the most conservative locals disliked how the owners handled the situation. They could’ve just not shown the film and the vast majority of people wouldn’t have realized it but they had to hold a press conference with local newspapers and TV news from some of the larger surrounding cities.

The majority of the locals including most of the conservatives saw that as a desperate form of attention seeking.

Of course the owners started a gofundme page because “The liberal media ran us out of business” but in reality they had been losing money before that because they would only show “Family films”.

By that I mean only G rated films and films with religious overtones, such as the “Left Behind” films.

Their business dropped off substantially after that and they were forced to sell the business.

The new owners began showing standard blockbuster fare but by then the damage was done and the locals that made a habit of going before the controversy stopped going.

Drive-Ins have been replaced by services like HBO and Netflix and Disney Channel.

The Drive-In provided an extremely economical entertainment for the family. Mom and Dad could put the kids to sleep in the back of a car and see a movie. They didn't pay first-run prices for admission. They didn't pay a baby sitter. They could keep the kids under their supervision. They could buy food there, too. Drive-Ins added playgrounds for the kids. It was cheap and manageable and built to accommodate families.

Now they can just sit on their fat asses and click through a wide variety of streaming services while they ignore their kids entirely. How can a Drive-In compare with that?

There’s still one near me in bumfuck MA and people still go.

I'm 6'4" tall. The last thing that I want to do is sit in a car for one minute longer than I absolutely have to.

[quote] All this for a roll of the dice on your view of the screen

HA!

I had completely forgotten about the dreaded "front row."

No stalls left, meant that you had to drive, and drive, and drive until you found an empty stall. Most likely at the very front of the lot, where you would have to stare directly up at the screen.

I also forgot how distracting it was, when people would come late, and drive through the lot with their headlights on while the movie was running.

Yes, r52. They have a nice concessions booth. Audio is through a hyper-localized FM band. We bring a small boombox. They rotate movies every week. We're hoping to get something good.

I suspect that drive-ins would have a certain nostalgia appeal for eldergays like me who remember them from childhood, but limited appeal for others, given all of today's options for seeing movies.