Yeah. I saw Tora, Tora, Tora when I was 6 at a drivein - my 4 year old brother slept all the way through, with no need for a sitter.
I seem to recall sitting on the roof of the car sometimes, too - best seats in the house.
You didn’t have to stay in your car. Many people brought lawn chairs to sit in.
Whether in the car or out, Unless you were parked very far back, the screen was much bigger than your (probably black & white) TV at home.
In the drive-in I used to frequent they had a playground just below the screen. If the kids didn’t want to watch the movie, they could use the playground.
And the (bench) front seat was much more convenient for making out than a living room couch at home, where parents might be a severely inhibiting factor.
Or sitting on the hood and reclining against the windshield.
This. Hard to even remember how big cars were on the inside.
I remember that. One night, a large group of us were up north at a friend’s cottage, and Andy and Betty said they were going to the drive-in tonight, and would anybody like to come along? They hoped to get no answer, but Chris and I wanted to see the feature. So we threw a couple of lawn chairs in the trunk, and Chris and I set them up outside the car, with (of course) a cooler of beer between us. End result? Andy and Betty got to steam up the car windows, Chris and I got to see the movie and get loaded; and everybody was happy.
And at least half the kids in the playground would be in their pyjamas.
While it was before my time, from what I understand, if you lived in a rural area a drive-in might have been your only place to see movies. IIRC that’s how they started – in rural communities that didn’t have a proper theater some people got the idea of putting up a screen in a field and showing second/third run movies. And if you’re watching a movie in a field, instead of just sitting on a picnic blanket, why not sit in your car where you’re sheltered from the weather?
Yup. I took my kids to their first and only drive in movie a few years ago. They were showing Jurassic Park. We brought our own popcorn, candy, and drinks. It was fun.
I liked bringing my own snacks and soda to the drive in. My friends and I could talk and laugh at scenes in the movie. My friends and I did our own version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
There were downsides. Hot in the summer. Mosquitoes.
But I’d go to another drive in if there were any close to me.
Yes! That was always great fun, especially the part where you thumped on the trunk and asked “You okay back there?” before driving up to the ticket booth. And your buddy would thump back to show everything was okay. It was a thrill, like smuggling refugees through a checkpoint in East Berlin.
There was usually a tall fence marking the edge of the drive-in too, often with a ditch in front of it. If you tried hard, you could always find a way through or over the fence and hook up with your buddies once they were inside. Another clandestine operation!
Yeah - I was in a rural area. Drive-in 20 minutes away, indoor theatre over an hour away.
I saw Star Wars, Tron, Last Starfighter and many another movie at the drivein.
For a long time after that drivein was turned into a car dealership, the screen stayed up, because it was too expensive to bother bringing down
Some drive-ins showed movies other theaters wouldn’t dare to, such as Blackford County Drive-In on Highway Threeee…
(anyone from central Indiana knows the commercial)
I don’t know about yours, but my windshield is clear and not that hard to see through.
Modern drive-in theaters broadcast the sound on an FM frequency that you can listen to on your car’s radio. Back in the days of the “little metal tin thing,” the sound wasn’t great, but probably about equivalent to TV speakers in those days.
Yeah, when I was a kid we’d go to the drive in on the 3rd or 4th of July because they’d have a fireworks display between the movies.
I’d say that it was about equivalent to the sound provided by your car’s AM radio. Definitely not a high-fidelity system like you might have at home, but if you could enjoy a station on the AM band as you drove in your 1969 Chevy, it wasn’t much different from that. The little metal tin things did the job anyway, and not knowing anything different, nobody seemed to mind.
My experience with drive ins was during the pandemic. A local restaurant would set up a screen on the side of their building. Because it was a restaurant showing the movie; the food was a lot better than the typical nachos and hot dogs at a multiplex. For the most part the movies were classics from the 80s and 90s. Home Alone, Caddyshack, and Dirty Dancing were some of the more memorable movies. I did prefer going in the fall and winter rather than summer. Having to wait until 9 for the movie to start meant getting home around midnight. A 7 PM start time was a lot better for this middle aged guy who had to get up early the next day.
Also, a drive-in is a great place to get your Delorean up to 88 mph.
Well! I must admit that this discussion was most enlightening.
I learned a lot from everyone’s contributions. I realize now that there was a whole experience around going to a drive-in, that it served a wider purpose than just watching a movie, and that you could take lawn chairs and watch the film from outside - or from the roof of your car. All quite different from how I have always imagined it.
I recall the back row of the drive-in was all vans and pickups parked with the back facing the screen. Vans opened their back doors, and pickup beds were full of folks under blankets and cushions. Drive-in and chill.
Thanks for starting this thread. I’ve gotten a big kick out of reading everyone’s experiences, and I remember drive-ins quite well.
And how unusual for an OP to come back and post such a gracious comment! 
As an adult, I took my first two kids to the only remaining drive-in (I think) in California. I think it was in Thousand Oaks, and it was showing Peter Pan. That would have been in about 1975. My son was only four, but still remembers it.
Interestingly enough, this is the movie I wanted to mention as one of the ones I saw in a drive-in, maybe even the same year (+/-).
My parents car had a fold-down arm rest, which I could sit on as a 5-year-old, and watch the movie. We had the really big Tupperware full of popcorn, which my mom popped at home, and probably some beverages, but I only remember the popcorn.
Eventually I would fall asleep and my parents could continue watching the movie, without having to worry about staying out past my bedtime. They also saved the cost of a babysitter for me, so the entire event was relatively cheap.
The reason they’re mostly gone of course can be gleaned from the comments above: The rise of DVD’s (and later 4K streaming) and near-theater quality home setups.
You don’t quite have the making-out ability yet front-seats with center consoles and bucket instead of bench seats make that difficult and back are too small.
And real estate vs economics. At least on Long Island they could maybe get two showings per screen per night in the summer. I don’t recall per-carload paying when I was older. Maybe kids under 12 got in free but I do recall seeing people popping out of trunks once the cars were parked up on those wavy hills. Walmart and subdivision builders had no problem flattening out those wavy hills and if they still had the old poles where the speakers were attached they were only there to delineate spots to build whatever.
In the UK and Ireland I don’t reckon there were ever any drive-ins. Cars were too small, families too big and in the summer you could only perhaps squeeze in one showing after it gets dark around 11PM (If either country had a July 4th instead of skipping right from the 3rd to 5th fireworks would go off around midnight).
There still are parks both in the US, RoI and UK where during the good weather months you can bring a lawnchair, blankets and a cooler and watch what usually is some old classic movie like Labyrinth for free; so it’s something of a similar outdoor experience but not the same.