This Is the Summer of the Drive-In Theater...THEIR MAKING A COMEBACK

Attendees arrive to watch the movie Grease at a pop-up drive-in theatre at Bucktown Marina Park on May 22, 2020, in Metairie, Louisiana

This Is the Summer of the Drive-In Theater

 From longtime establishments to pop-up venues, this 20th-century attraction is providing a safe, socially distanced activity

Over 70 years ago, the polio pandemic changed day-to-day life in America. Prior to Jonas Salk’s 1955 vaccine, outbreaks led to public health officials imposing quarantine restrictions across the country. Travel and commerce ceased between strongly impacted cities, and fearful parents kept their children indoors to prevent the spread of this paralyzing disease. Additional precautions involved shutting down public venues such as pools and movie theaters. Yet one source of entertainment remained open during summer months—the drive-in movie theater.

“In the 1950s, when theaters closed, drive-ins were still available and people were trying to avoid congregating in much of the same way,” says Michael Kilgore, creator of Carload, a website on American drive-in movie theaters.

Now 20 years into the next century, COVID-19 has brought about similar public health precautions. Again, theaters have been among the closed public buildings, leaving movie-goers wondering, where is the nearest drive-in?

While the concept of showing movies outdoors goes back to silent films, the first patented drive-in movie theater was opened on June 6, 1933, in Camden, New Jersey. Following World War II, the growth in car ownership and suburban living added to the appeal of drive-in theaters as a family-friendly outing. Their popularity peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the 1970s, interest in drive-ins waned as cable TV, VCRs and video store rentals were on the rise. Many theaters, Kilgore explains, folded as a result of their aging owners-managers cashing out and their land being sold for development. But some stalwarts survived the turn of the century, and are still screening films today.

According to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, as of October 2019, there were 305 theater locations in the United States and 549 total screens. Now, adding to the mix of classic drive-ins surviving the test of time are pop-up drive-in theaters, operating in open spaces from farms to diner parking lots.

Deanza Land & Leisure Corporation operates six drive-in theaters, including the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre in Montclair, California.

Frank Huttinger, chairman and CEO of the Deanza Land & Leisure Corporation, which operates six drive-in theaters across the country, notes that in March and April before his company had to close most of their theaters, they were operating at full capacity. “And we were turning away customers,” he adds.

“Since then, we have reopened gradually, with limited capacity, as proscribed within COVID-19 restrictions, and remain very popular,” says Huttinger. Attendance levels at these drive-ins, which include Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre in Montclair, California; South Bay Drive-In Theatre in San Diego; Van Buren Drive-In Theatre and Rubidoux Drive-In Theatre both in Riverside, California, was comparable to those of three previous years even though there have been no new “tentpole” releases from the major movie studios in 2020. In fact, thanks to screenings at drive-in across the country, Jurassic Park was number one in the box office last weekend, Jaws was number two, and ET the Extra-Terrestrial was just a bit further down the list, ranking seventh.

“You might say that people just wanted to get out of the house, for entertainment, in a naturally safe place,” says Huttinger.

Here are a handful of drive-in theaters—traditional and pop-up—that are operating across the country this summer.

Bel Aire Diner

A child watches a movie from the sunroof of a car during a screening of a drive-in movie at the Bel Aire Diner in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

Bel Aire Diner, in the Astoria section of Queens, New York, has become a hot ticket by turning a parking lot into a drive-in theater. Since early May, the pop-up theater has been accommodating about 40 cars per showing. “It was a way to bring people together safely and a way to help drive business to the diner while we were basically closed,” says Kalergis Dellaportas, the diner’s general manager.

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Drive-in movies are popping up across N.J. Here’s where you can find them.

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