Why did Drive-In's die off?

The final film played at the Sumter SC drive-in, Sky-Vue, was Pale Rider.

 

I was looking at goggle earth to see what is in the location of the drive-in that I used to take dates. It looks like the space is over grown (undeveloped). It looks like the trees follow the paths of the car park (curved like the rows of cars). So in this case it was changing consumer habits rather than redevelopment.
The other drive-in in my home town was replaced by a multi-plex movie theater, so that is a case for redevelopment for changing consumer habits.

 

They were hunted down to near extinction, with a few remaining resettling in the south, where they still show "Whte Lightning"

 

Our local drive-in is winding down its 61st season. It's open seven nights a week until autumn rolls around and now has weekends-only Halloween shows on its two screens. You can use their retro tinny speakers or tune to a stereo feed on your car radio. Digital projection? Sure. Playground and busy concession stand? Check & check. Family friendly? You know it.

Screen 1:
Hotel Transylvania
Boo2! A Madea Halloween
Beetlejuice

Screen 2: (all originals)
Halloween
Nightmare on Elm Street
Friday the 13th

 

In the early '70s I'd go to summer theater in Skowhegan, but don't recall this drive-in. Next time I'm up there...

 

like many families before them they knew how to have a good time...bless them as those wonderful days are long gone...fun is not a word in the vocabulary of the present...too many restrictions these days...

 

wow..that is so cool! where is it located?

 

Last drive-in I went to was a Nuns On The Run/Die Hard 2 double feature. I still miss them in some strange way. There's an abandoned one in nearby Rocky Point.

Rocky Point Drive-in Theater

 

Between Stephens City and Middletown, Virginia. Closest sizable city is Winchester and this drive-in draws from nearby West Virginia, too.

 

thanks!

 

I just saw a drive-in theater the other day- for the first time in several Main Eras- out west of Harrisburg PA off of I-15. A working one, playing current movies...!
Haars Drive-In

I looked down that driveway- I mean, whoa. Like the Twilight Zone.

 

Good old PA. I don't know, whenever people say there are too many people and we're threatened by overpopulation, all you have to do is leave the city and drive through a beautiful lush state like PA and know we still have a lot of fillin' in to do before we go "Soylent Green."

 

I actually saw Alien in a drive-in. But if I'm remembering right the drive-ins were all all almost gone by then.

 

My first - and only - drive-in experience took place summer 1980 in Austin, MN. We went for my grandparents' 50th anniversary, and my dad took me to a triple bill of "FM", "Buddy Holly Story" and "Let It Be".

No idea when they phased out here in the DC area...

 

I used to love going to the drive in when I was a kid. It was great for seeing Disney films, low budget horror movies, teen sex comedies and offbeat genre films. It seems that once things became more big budget and surround sound focused, the drive-in lost its appeal for a lot of films. The last time I went to the drive-in was when Terminator 2 came out and it just didn't work, IMO. Stuff like that is tailor made for multi-plexes, a half dozen really loud speakers and a couple of subwoofers. But a dusk to dawn showing of Herschell Gordon Lewis movies would certainly be the stuff of drive-in dreams. Or nightmares if you have "good" taste in movies.

 

I agree with one of the early posts that often the value of the real estate underneath the drive in is worth more for other purposes. My favorite concert venue in Columbus Ohio (Polaris Amphitheater) closed for exactly this reason. Before they added slot machines many horse racetracks and dog tracks across the country were closing for the same reason.