Old is Gold. The worlds drive-ins, once relics of a bygone era, now the featured attraction. From California to Ocala, Florida. The big screen behind you. Some drive-ins reporting a 60% jump in business. I think it’s very cool. I’ve never been to a drive-in, from UK to the USA, to Sudan the wave of Drive-in cinemas is rising!
The first drive-in cinema was opened up in 1933, Camden, New Jersey. Richard Hollingshead came up with this idea as his mother used to find cinema chairs uncomfortable and hence, started this new trend. It cost around $30,000 back then to set up the cinema which converts to $594,916 as of today.
The fee structure was such that it cost, 25 cents per car and 25 cents per passenger compared to today’s ticket cost which almost reaches $10 today. The cinemas also used to have snacks service delivered right into your car all at your ease!
Also one important piece of information, they weren’t called Drive-in cinemas, they were rather referred to as “Park in Theatres”. It is estimated by the end of WW2 the U.S had around 4000 such cinemas.
The most popular of such cinemas was in Manhattan, it was the largest at the time having a capacity of 2500 vehicles at a time, it featured a fancy restaurant along with a children’s play area, remember these were big things back then!
There were fly-in cinemas too, huge enough to accommodate 25 planes and 500 cars at a time. You could land your Fokker plane and get to the screen from the back entrance.
With the gaining popularity of drive-in cinemas, Lighthouse 5 in Florida will be the world’s biggest drive-in cinema. At the moment, it has not been announced when it will open up but seems like it will probably open this year only.
People watch a screening of the Sudanese European Film Festival at an outdoor, drive-through cinema for visitors, in Khartoum, Sudan February 28, 2021. (REUTERS)
The drive-in is the perfect runaway from the realities of coronavirus. I’ve had three friends who passed away from this. One of two family members who also succumbed to covid-19 and we both are from — just two hours away. We came up here to getaway. Driveaway our worries.
Drive-ins in America dates back to the 1930s, this one built-in 1948 in Ocala, Florida was totally ruined until being revamped 10 years back. It was in his blood, his father and his grandfather were both projectionists. A lot of people have been in also trapped inside their houses.
What would I do without Netflix, what is it that the drive-in has changed? Well, it gives us the opportunity to get out of our house. To take a road trip, to speak and spend hours with our families, watching movies in the safety of our own vehicle as if we were in our homes, but yet out in the fresh air and enjoying something blissful.
In the 1950s. they had a similar probably, back then it was polio when they eventually had a vaccine, they even gave moviegoers a shot when they came to the drive-in. In a nod to nostalgia, the $6 per person double features are always preceded by this. The show starts in nine minutes. But in a sign of the times, folks are kept apart by ordering snacks on an app. When was the last time you went to a drive-in? almost 40 years ago.
For others, this is a new experience. I like it because you get to chill in your car. something different? Yes. A night at the movies in the age of coronavirus.
Now playing at a drive-in those lockdown starting the ease, the movies have gone back to the future. In the midst of a pandemic, moviegoers eagerly streamed into the drive-in theater in orange county, New York. the movie didn’t even start and we are having a good time.
Don’t worry, we will get back to the party in a minute, after 2 months of quarantine, a night out at the movies was long overdue. I’ve been bored in the house for a very long time.
Drive-ins are now to open in New York and New Jersey this weekend, the first wave of nonessential businesses now allowed to resume operations.
Drive-ins have the obvious benefit of being outdoors with social distancing built then. It is a family event, a lot of families, start to feel normal.
Since their heyday in the 1950s and 60s had drive-in movies been so appealing and with coronavirus possibly here for the long haul, other business owners see an opportunity. This Belaire diner in queens transformed its parking lot into a pop-up drive-in theater for 40 cars, selling up a lot a few nights a week for classic hits like grease and dirty dancing.
They are grateful to escape the house. Long-time customers say I get to park next to my neighbor who lives next door and I’ve not seen them in eight weeks. I was like wow you know, she was almost on the verge of tears. Pop up drive-in’s plan for new jersey, a company called, back to the movies is playing pop-up screens at parks and parking lots across the state. The owners of the Ramsey theater downtown hope to move operations from the indoor location to a yet to be determined parking lot.
Tatton Park
