Welcome to the Drive-In! Check Out the History and Comeback of an American Treasure

Stars on a big screen, stars in the night sky—the nostalgic staple of American entertainment is experiencing a most welcome comeback.

“I believe the drive-in theater is as much of a great American pastime as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie,” says Denny Pine, 51, a drive-in superfan who has been to more than 120 of them across North America, “with many more to go.”

It’s the combination of the outdoor screens and art deco marquees that has him hooked. He’s a member of the Drive-in Movie Theater Fan Club, keeps a running list of the locations he’s visited and has a growing collection of memorabilia that includes everything from defunct drive-in speakers to article clippings about grand openings.

And he’s not alone. Whether it’s the memory of seeing your first film from the back seat as a kid, the setting of an unforgettable first date or weaving your way through cars to get to the snack bar during intermission, drive-ins hold a special place in many Americans’ hearts. They’ve been the background for music videos, including Jimmy Buffett’s “Take Another Road,” and featured in iconic scenes in dozens of movies, like Grease,That Darn Cat! and, more recently, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where Brad Pitt’s character lives in a trailer behind the Van Nuys Drive-In.

For Grease star Olivia Newton John, 71, filming the movie’s memorable drive-in scene was one of her favorite moments. “It reminded me of being a young girl when I used to love going to the drive-in. There was such a great energy of all the families in cars, with kids in their pajamas—including me!” she says.

“There is not one thing that I don’t love about a drive-in,” says Paul Reubens, 67, whose 1985 comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure featured a drive-in. “I grew up going to drive-ins. The first movie I ever saw, Dumbo, was at a drive-in.”

“There’s an underlying quality of Americanism” to the drive-in theater concept, says Philip Hallman, film studies librarian at the University of Michigan. “It’s this combination of our love of automobiles and movies. And it’s this experience, which is both public and private simultaneously, that lets us see a film in a community setting but also control the environment in our cars.”

In recent months, thanks to COVID-19, drive-ins have seen even more activity, repurposed as the site of weddings, high school graduations, dances, concerts and more. Many have been re-opening with infection control in mind. Aut-O-Rama Twin Drive-In Theatre in North Ridgeville, Ohio, cut down on the number of cars that could enter and added 10 portable toilets to supplement existing stalls. But as its marquee facing the highway reads, Aut-O-Rama has been “Social Distancing Since 1965.”

Related: 10 Movies That Feature Scenes With a Drive-In Theater

A Retro Revival

That social distancing aspect has certainly helped put drive-ins back on the pop-culture radar as some studios have turned to outdoor theaters as a means of distributing new releases as indoor cinemas shut down. The 2020 rendition of Valley Girl, a new musical adaptation of the 1983 movie, was released in May digitally and to drive-ins. The Wretched debuted on demand and at select drive-in theaters and its maker was thrilled to help people “engage in a movie-going tradition that seemed inconceivable a few months ago,” says Arianna Bocco of IFC Films.

Non-movie activities like “No Parking on the Dance Floor,” a drive-in dance music experience from electro-music promoter Disco Donnie, launched in Hockley, Texas, near Houston, at the Showboat Drive-In in May, with a lineup of live musical acts, strict social-distancing guidelines for fans—and plans for possibly even global event expansion.

In April, country star Blake Shelton, 44, who shot the video for his country-rockin’ remake of the Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” at a drive-in in 2011, made this forecast: “When this virus is through, I could see drive-in theaters having an even bigger resurgence. Being in your truck or car forces the six-foot rule, and you can watch a movie with your family and be entertained. Maybe this is a new way to do concerts too!”

Country superstar Keith Urban did just that recently, staging a free live private concert at the Stardust Drive-In in Watertown, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, for about 200 front-line health care workers—packed into some 125 vehicles—from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Cameras broadcast the show, with lights and sound—streamed into the vehicles from FM transmitters usually used for movies, as well as from a full concert PA system—onto the big screen. The audience “applauded” by flashing their headlights and honking their horns. Country superstar Garth Brooks reached out to his fans during the pandemic too, with a special one-night-only concert simulcast to some 300 different drive-ins across America.

Mark Manuel, CEO of Kilburn Live, which produces events like The Dr. Seuss Experience, teamed with North American movie theaters to create pop-up drive-in versions of their cinemas to ease people back into the movie-going experience. At these Cinema Pop-Ups, which take place on an indoor theater’s parking lot, cars are stationed 8 feet apart and everything from ticket sales to Bluetooth audio is controlled by an app for a contactless experience.

Related: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's Live Coronavirus Concert Broke Facebook—See Why!

The Modern Drive-In

Throughout the years, drive-ins have undergone many changes. They started out with loudspeakers mounted on top of the screen; then adapted to speaker poles and individual speakers that hung from car windows. Eventually they transitioned to radio frequencies. “To compete with indoor multiplexes, many drive-ins added additional screens starting in the ’70s and ’80s,” says filmmaker April Wright. And in the 2010s, they made the switch from 35mm to digital, which UDTOA president John Vincent Jr. says cost owners around $75,000 per screen. And as developers snatched up their highly coveted land, drive-ins shrunk in size. “Back in the day, there were some [that could hold] 3,000 cars. The typical drive-in today might fit 500 to 700,” says Wright.

Although many drive-ins have closed over the years, new locations are opening. Filmmaker Spencer Folmar is gearing up to debut a new drive-in in Eustis, Florida, in the summer of 2022. It will serve as the country’s biggest drive-in—he’s registered with the Guinness World Records—and will feature five 64-feet-high by 120-feet-wide screens, with three dedicated to first-run movies. “And we’re going to have a screen dedicated to showing classics like Wizard of Oz,” Folmar says. And Jeff and Jenny Karls are hoping to launch the Quasar Drive-in in Omaha, Nebraska, in July 2020. “Our dream is to bring that little piece of Americana back for families to share,” he says.

Drive-in enthusiasts hope these beloved establishments continue to attract fans for years to come. But there are a few hurdles. Further exploring this has inspired Wright to pursue a new drive-in documentary that follows the struggles that today’s owners encounter. “Drive-ins take a tremendous amount of work,” she says. For one, there’s the modern car. “Most of our soundtracks are FM radio transmissions, and you can’t get the radios [on many modern automobiles] to stay on for more than 20 minutes” without automatically cycling off to preserve battery life, says Vincent. He and his colleagues are trying to get vehicle manufacturers to revert back to having the radio—or “sound system”—stay on indefinitely. And if the battery dies, owners are always around to offer end-of-the-night jumps. “We do at least two to three a night,” Vincent says.

Related: How to Find a Drive-In Movie Theater Near You 

Drive-Ins, From Coast to Coast

There are 305 operating drive-ins and 549 total screens currently in the America, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association. Countries like Canada and Australia have embraced the concept too, although drive-ins haven’t taken off globally the way they have in the United States. “No country is married to the cars like America,” says Joe Bob Briggs, host of the Shudder network’s The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs. “We are a country of big cars and trucks,” while other nations favor more compact, fuel-efficient vehicles not as conducive to in-car movie watching.

Pennsylvania’s Shankweiler’s Drive-In, which opened in 1934, currently stands as the country’s oldest. Owner Paul Geissinger says people from all over the world pop by to pay his establishment a visit, and many locals attend frequently. “I can get here at 6 o’clock for a 9 o’clock movie and I’ve got my regular customers lined up outside,” he says, noting that they are adamant about getting “their spots.”

A hallmark of a drive-in was always the double feature, where guests pay one price and stay for two films. Today, this format remains, with some, like Bengies in Middle River, Maryland, offering three movies in a row on certain nights. The lineup is typically a first-run film paired with something owner-curated. “The drive-ins are the last places where the local guy is the programmer,” says Briggs. It’s not like AMC theaters, where one guy’s deciding what’s on 1,500 screens. It’s one guy deciding what the showing is now.”

In fact, a drive-in remains a local treasure to the residents of its hometown. And part of the appeal, says Briggs, is “they’re all mom-and-pop operations so each one has its own personality.” At Bengies, “the owner is part of the show,” says Wright. “He will get on the microphone when they’re playing trailers and be like, ‘What do you guys think about that movie?’” Many drive-ins, like the 99W Drive-In in Newberg, Oregon, are family businesses. Owner Brian Francis point out that his theater was built by his grandfather in 1953 and is now in its 67th season. “It’s a lifestyle. I work there every night it’s open,” he says.

Pennsylvania’s Mahoning Drive-In has its original screen, marquee, concession lobby and projection equipment. “We run the same original 1947 Simplex E7 twin projectors that were there on our opening day in ’49,” says Virgil Cardamone, partner and curator. The theater only shows 35mm films and opens each season with The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Here are a few of our other favorite spots.

• The Spud in Driggs, Idaho, attracts passersby with its clever sign: a 1946 Chevy truck toting a two-ton “potato.”
• Amenia, New York’s Four Brothers Drive-In Theater, founded in 2013, markets itself as the “drive-in of the future” with Bluetooth streaming systems, free electric car charging, wine milkshakes and a fire pit with speakers.
• The Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre, in Montclair, California, is decorated with Easter Island Heads and tropical foliage.
• Becky’s Drive-In in Walnutport, Pennsylvania, hosts special events like a “Dusk ’Til Dawn Marathon” Labor Day weekend.
• After Gibson City, Illinois’ Harvest Moon Drive-In was hit by a tornado in the 1970s, in 2009 the owners installed wind turbines to make it partially wind powered.
• The Greenville Drive-In in New York has an onsite biergarten, live music, and shows an eclectic line-up of “retro, independent and filmmaker-direct offerings.”
• Tulsa’s Admiral Twin Drive-in boasts the notoriety of being in the movie The Outsiders. On the Oklahoma theater’s 50th anniversary, owner Blake Smith played The Outsiders “and the city of Tulsa made a resolution that that day was Admiral Twin Day!” he says.

Related: Our Favorite Drive-Ins From All 50 States (and Puerto Rico!)

Backyard Beginnings

The first patented U.S. drive-in was created by Richard Hollingshead as a means of providing his mother—who was too large to sit comfortably in a movie theater—with a different way to watch films. He experimented with hanging a sheet up between trees and putting a projector on the hood of a car in his driveway before opening a drive-in in Camden, New Jersey, in 1933. Admission was 25 cents a carload.

By 1942, there were around 100 drive-ins in the country, and after World War II the concept really took off. Couples moved to the suburbs, purchased cars and had babies, all of which added to the appeal of watching a movie from automobiles. At indoor movie theaters, people felt more compelled to dress up; but at the drive-in, you could “leave your girdle at home,” toss the kids in the back seat and enjoy a cozy family night out, says Hallman.