When I was a kid, in the '50s, my parents would take my brother and me to the drive-in in our station wagon. We’d run around before the movie started, and get snacks, and then change into of pjs. We’d usually fall asleep in the back before the end.
There is a drive-in in San Jose, which is free for the last movie, at midnight and my kid sometimes goes there because she loves free.
The oddest one was a drive-in in NW Philadelphia in the early 1980s, which showed softcore porn (I assume it was softcore) visible from Route 1 and from a nearby hotel. We were driving back front the in-laws one night and I went “what did I just see and too bad I can’t park on this road.”
We have several in the (San Francisco) Bay Area and my wife and I go a few times a year - either to the one in Concord or make a day trip out of it and go up to Sacramento.
Pay is per person, not per car. Almost always a double feature but for a big new release they’ll sometimes just repeat the one movie to get more screenings in.
We use it ONLY for movies that we don’t expect to be good but that might be fun in a stupid way. The drive in is where we’ve seen, for example, several entries in the Fast and Furious series.
This is because the audio quality is only as good as the sound system in your car (and we have the radio that came with the car) and the image quality will almost always be substandard due to light pollution, crappy screens, and the fact that the projector is 5 miles from the screen.
We’ve learned it is generally a good idea to avoid movies that mostly are set at night (such as Underworld which ended up mostly being a radio play with occasional flashes of light on screen). We saw that Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie flop at the drive-in last year and a fog rolled in for the last 20 minutes. But the movie sucked so radio play didn’t hurt it much.
I believe all the ones around here are now owned by some larger chain that uses the space as a farmer’s market on weekends so the quality of the facilities has improved (the Sacramento rest rooms at one point had only three working urinals out of about 15 at one point a decade ago).
So, it is fun. But we treat it as an activity in which a movie is also watched. Not so much as a way to watch a movie.
The last movie I saw at a drive-in was “A League of Their Own” at the Flea Market/Drive in/Circus in Ft. Lauderdale. The sun hadn’t quite set, or maybe it was just really bright on Sunrise Blvd., but my recollection is: I could barely see the screen because it wasn’t very dark out and I was appalled that my date didn’t want to make out in the car during the movie. He was a baseball fan, so I should have known.
ETA: That was The Swap Shop flea market/drive in/circus.
I was going to post about that one! Roosevelt drive-in - NE Philly though, not NW. It was on the way to my grandmother’s house. My mother used to yell out “close your eyes!” to us kids in the back seat when we drove past on the way home.
This drive-in is right on the edge of town here. Three screens, every show is a double feature. Their concession stand rocks; not just typical movie fare, you can get cheeseburgers, chicken strips, pizza sticks, french fries, corn dogs, funnel cakes, and everything else a growing boy needs. Between the three screens there’s a good-size playground to keep the kids busy until it’s dark enough for showtime. Last time we went, we saw Toy Story 3. We brought coolers, lawn chairs, and blankets, and had a fine old time.
The Barstow Drive In has the added attraction (?) of a collection of weird automobile sculptures across the street. The owner of the now-closed towing yard used to make all kinds of them, some static, some that he drove around. They were a big hit at Barstow parades. I got to meet the guy one time when he and his friends showed up at a nearby campground in a magnificent full-sized 4WD stagecoach.
Didn’t see if the one in Wellfleet, MA (on Cape Cod) has been mentioned yet. A lot of fun, we saw the third Ice Age movie ad the second Shrek. The best part is sitting out playing card games waiting for dark.
I am not a fan of the concept of circus in the first place because those sorts of animals should be out in the wild in their native habitats, not doing stupid pet tricks in the middle of a tacky flea market.
It also creeped me out that the circus was performed basically in the middle of the food court. So you could munch on your Sbarro pizza with the smell of elephant poo permeating every bite. Appetizing! I was always :dubious: “Do the health department code enforcement people know about this?”
On the other hand, the idea of a drive in/circus/flea market was just too weird and quirky for me not to love. I do love juxtaposition, even if the juxtaposed elements are elephant poo and Sbarro pizza. So I’m a little sorry to hear that news, but relieved for the animals and not surprised at all.
That’s ALMOST inevitable. A drive-in movie theater requires BOTH a lot of land AND a large number of people nearby with money to spend on entertainment.
Problem is, if you have a large tract of land in an area with a large, affluent population, the land is bound to become very valuable… which means the owner is likely to get an irresistible offer from a real estate developer. And even if he’d LIKE to spurn such offers, his property taxes will probably skyrocket, forcing him to sell.
There’s one in Santa Barbara that recently reopened.
As others already mentioned, the upsides: it’s cheaper (by less than half if you watch both movies), you can talk to your friends, and bring any food you want.
The downsides: The picture is not as good. They start around dusk, and the first 20 minutes or so are very washed out. Even after that, outside is brighter than a dark theater, and this drive-in didn’t have as powerful a projector as they should have for the screen size and ambient light. They are open in the summer, so dusk is around 8-8:30pm, which means that you’re probably up until 1am if you watch both movies. This one is in the airport’s flight path, so 3-4 times per night there’s an airplane flying by low overhead (depending on the wind direction). If you are in your car with everything closed up, it’s no big deal at all. If you’re outside or have the windows rolled down, it’s very loud.
The number one downside is that people can’t seem to manage to keep their damned headlights off. We watched two full movies, and I don’t think we managed longer than a 15 minute stretch at any point without some idiot turning on their headlights while pointed at the screen. This was incredibly distracting to me, so while I enjoyed the concept, I probably won’t go back much.
Tulsa is still mourning the recent loss due to fireof the Admiral Twin Drive-In. It was the same drive-in featured in the movie The Outsiders, and was long a land-mark in Tulsa. Thankfully, they’ve been working hard to rebuild.
There used to be two in my area when I was growing up–the Admiral Twin, and one that was closer to my house. I have a lot fond memories of piling up in the station wagon with a bunch of blankets, wearing pajamas. Catching fireflies in the dusk before the movie started. Playing on the swingset with a bunch of strange kids. Falling asleep in the car, waking up to be carried upstairs by my dad.
The one near our house was destroyed by a tornado years ago, and for whatever reason they didn’t rebuild. So the Admiral was all we had left, and then we lost it. I hope the rebuild is completed soon, because I want to take my own kids to have the drive-in experience!
Back in high school I used to borrow my dad’s pickup truck and haul a bunch of friends to the local drive-in. I’d park backwards and we’d sit in the bed and watch the show. Good times.
I remember seeing some cheesy werewolf movie (no idea which one) which repeatedly featured a shot of a bright full moon behind wispy clouds. In the sky above the screen was a bright full moon behind wispy clouds, nearly identical to the shot.
There was one near where I live now that closed for good about 5 years ago. I never did go there, but I’d heard in its later years it had become a hangout for the local gangs and wasn’t so family-friendly anymore. What a shame.
