A Home Digital Movie Projector |
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One year ago, this pillar detailed how urban sprawl and home video ended America's longtime love affair with drive-in theaters. But there are other reasons why the number of U.S. drive-ins peaked at 4,063 in 1958, with only slightly more than 400 remaining today. This column addresses some of the other reasons for the decline and downfall of the drive-in. It also reveals one idea that drive-in aficionados hope may save the outdoor movie experience from extinction. Once a premier example of 20th Century Americana, the drive-in movie theater has been on the endangered list for thirty years.
Urban sprawl and home video notwithstanding, one reason for the decline of drive-ins is outdated picture and sound quality. Technological advances continued to improve motion picture sound and picture quality throughout the decades at indoor movies, but most drive-in theaters continued to use the same antiquated equipment they were using in their 1950s' heyday. A prime example: At the Wellfleet Drive-In, still touting itself as "Cape Cod's Premiere Entertainment Center since 1957," the original projector from 1957 is still used nightly.
Even as indoor theaters continued to improve and refine their elaborate stereo sound systems, the drive-ins have lagged behind in sound delivery technology. Many of today's remaining ozoners, as VARIETY long ago dubbed drive-in theaters, 
Queing up to use restrooms at Transit Frive-In |
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deliver sound through their patrons' car radios. But this is more a financial choice than an innovation to provide customers with better sound quality. Drive-in theaters long ago realized that it was less expensive to deliver sound through car radios than it was to restore their decaying individual speaker systems.
Some mature Match Flickers may hold fond drive-in memories of 10-cent Cokes and popcorn, cheesy, but fun, B-grade movies, and steaming up the windows of their parents' 1969 Corvair. But you'd be hard-pressed to find movie-goers who recall fondly the sub standard picture and sound that went hand in hand with the cheap eats and thrills.
Drive-in patrons may never hear anything at their favorite ozoner to rival the multiplex's THX sound, but they may soon see a much better picture. Drive-ins have always had a hard time achieving a bright image on their screens. For one thing, if the projector's bulb is too bright, it burns through the film.
However, the insufficient brightness on screen may soon be a thing of the past. In May, about 100 members of the United Drive-In Theaters Owners Association gathered at the Transit Drive-In, in Lockport, New York, for what is believed to be the first demonstration of digital projection at a drive-in theater.
Digital distribution of motion pictures is the way of the future. Studios will save millions in 
1950s' Drive-In Speaker |
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distribution costs each year, but it requires theaters to install a digital projector and other pricey digital gear in the projection booth. Until the May Transit test, the technology has only been tested and installed in indoor theaters. Film prints will most likely be unavailable in the near future. If drive-ins want to survive, they must eventually jump aboard the digital bandwagon. Paying for the pricey equipment is another story.
For now, if you're fortunate enough to have a drive-in theater within a reasonable distance from you, then please get out and enjoy this wonderful retro American adventure. There's nothing quite like it for a hot summer date. But don't expect to see SUPERMAN RETURNS in IMAX 3D when you pull into your local ozoner. Though you can probably listen to The Man of Steel through your car radio, and not some tinny individual theater speaker. Chances are, for the time being, your nearest drive-in is still using the same equipment that once-upon-a-time projected a youthful Paul Newman and Robert Redford onto the screen, when your parents, then high school sweethearts, went to this very same drive-in to steam their windows, enjoy inexpensive concessions, and kind of watch BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, in-between kissing and fondling.
Yes, if not at the multiplex, at America's remaining drive-in theaters, raindrops keep falling on your head.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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