Why did Drive-In's die off?

This. Theaters killed Drive Ins at the end of the 70s, a good 20 some odd years before the internet even existed for the masses.

Theaters killed Drive Ins because:
Better comfort
Better picture
Better sound
More flexibility/More showings/More movies

Drive Ins had one thing going for them - nostalgia. They were not a great way to watch films.

 

Why did Drive-In's die off?

 

Yep. I feel like, "Why were drive-ins ever a thing in the first place?," is a better question.

 

I think this needs to be in this thread.



Someone else can post a link to the intermission film.

 

Yeah, if not the millennials, it gotta be those damn baby boomers . . .

 

I never went to the drive in to watch the movie.

 

when I was a youngster we went every week...I can still remember how much fun it was! remember burning a mosquito repellent called PIC.

 

What I remember most about being a kid in the early 70s and the drive in, was being in the back seat, with this front and center:



Good times.

 

As others have said, land value skyrocketed and also much better options became available for consumers.

 

Real Estate value killed off the Yucca Drive-In in Santa Fe, NM in the 90's. When it closed it was still doing a brisk business. A newspaper article at the time stated that the land was owned by an out of state party who thought they could make more money selling the land rather than continuing to lease it out to a Drive-In.

 

There used to be one in Atlanta during '90s when I was a student, off of I-85. The North 85 Twin maybe? Here's a photo I took while watching "Batman & Robin" there in 1997.

 

Good explanation on Wikipedia:

The shift in content of drive-ins was less of a problem than competition from home entertainment, from color television to VCRs and video rentals. This, along with the 1970s energy crisis led to a sharp decline of attendance as well to the widespread adoption of daylight saving time (which made the shows start an hour later), making it harder for drive-ins to operate successfully. Also, the 1980s real estate interest rate hikes made the large property areas increasingly expensive, and thus far too valuable for businesses such as drive-ins, which in many cases were summer-only. Drive-ins were also subject to the whim of nature as inclement weather often caused poor attendance or cancellations. Less than two hundred drive-ins were in operation in the U.S. and Canada by the late 1980s. Since the 1990s they have lapsed into a quasi-novelty status with the remaining handful catering to a generally nostalgic audience, with many drive-ins continuing to successfully operate in some areas, mostly on the West Coast. Newer theaters opened during this time, as well as a handful of them reopened. By 2013, drive-ins comprised only 1.5 percent of movie screens in the United States, with 389 theaters in operation. At the industry's height, about 25 percent of the nation's movie screens had been in a drive-in.

Drive-in theater - Wikipedia

I think the truth is that pop culture kind of thought drive-in theaters were kind of cool and fun in the 1960s, but they became less fun, not cool, and kind of run-down and sleazy by the 1970s. Sunlight, bad picture quality, bad sound quality, and other factors made drive-ins problematic.

But they were fun when you were a kid, and for a time it was a great place to take a date and make-out in your car, for those of a certain age.

 

Me , too HOWEVER I had no car and did not drive SO my date and I always claimed the sweet spot in the backseat while various motorvatin' buddies and their teen queens had to hormonize in front.

 

Ours doubled as a day-time swap n' shop/car boot sale here for a long time until the land got sold to a mall developer. I remember I could see the screen from one window at my grandparents' and would watch Woody Woodpecker and Chilli Willi without sound, no idea why that seemed neat but it did. Once when I was a little older I got in free by hiding under a blanket in a station-wagon.

Now vehicles themselves come with multiple monitor screens and audiophile stereo systems.

 

We have one a little less than an hour away and my son did their web site. Starlite Drive-In of Bloomington They have some fun stuff coming up for kicking off Halloween this weekend.

 

There still a "nostalgia drive-in" a few cities up from Santa Barbara I took the kids a couple years ago. It's a miserable way to see a movie. I mean they're fun to go to but, the quality is Horrible.

 

I can remember plenty of people who would roll down the top of the convertible and watch that way, sitting on the back. Or even people who'd bring lawn chairs and watch in those. We kids ran around carousing most of the time. Those are lost days now.

Another huge problem is that they had to put a ton of light behind the print in order to get any kind of reasonable picture on the screen. They were frying those prints with really, really bright carbon arc light sources. Trying to match those brightness levels with digital today is not cheap and is not easy.

 

Once a summer for the last 2 years, I took my girlfriend to the closest one to me in Long Island, two hours north. Unlike the ones we used to have here, which were in paved lots, this one is on a hilly field. Unfortunately, my problem wasn't with the drive in but with the fact that modern movies really suck IMO. The experience was nostalgic but the films sucked.

 

Most drive ins also hosted swap-and-shop events which were a big revenue generator and when Craigslist and eBay cut into that this also cut off a revenue stream.

Finally, at most of them, the concession stands were definite health hazards. As were the restrooms, usually extremely filthy.

 

We spent more time drinking than watching the movie.

Party time.

 

Yeah, I think open container laws killed drive-ins more than anything.

 

Amazon.com: Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-In Movie: Roger Corman, April Wright, Brion Hambel, Donavon Thomas: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Think it is this one.

 

I'm in Poughkeepsie, NY with TWO Drive-Ins in fairly close proximity. Haven't been to either in a few years but they both do well and are in no danger of closing anytime soon. I saw Inglorious Basterds at one when it came out and remember it having the quality of an old fashioned 'in theater videotaped' bootleg but it was a good time regardless

 

Sound quality improved when they went to an FM sound transmission, so you could tune in on your car stereo.

The only big one we had was in Franklin Wisc, The 41 Twin, actually had 2 gigantic screens and 2 smaller ones.

41 Twin Outdoor Theatre in Franklin, WI - Cinema Treasures


About 15 years ago it sold out all the land to an insurance company who built a massive complex on the land, so the land cost, short viewing season, home video, all killed it.

Don't take this wrong, but I did notice an odd phenomenon the last 2 times I was there about 15 years back, near all the clientele were Hispanic with all their kids there, they would come early, grill out, play ball, it was a family thing for them, perhaps us white folks had already lost that family night thing? Just a thought.