Drive-In Theater: Difference between revisions

'''The Beginning:''' The drive-in theater was created in 1933 by chemical company magnate Richard M. Hollingshead Jr., who opened the first one in Pennsauken Township, [[Joisey|New Jersey]]. It was popular enough that [[Follow the Leader|similar theaters began to open around the country]]. The drive-in became known as a place where a family could enjoy watching movies from the privacy of their car.

'''The Fall:''' Drive-ins gradually declined for a number of reasons. The real estate they used became too valuable to "waste" on a business which could operate for only a few hours a day, a few months a year, and even then was subject to bad weather. Meanwhile, audiences began turning to cable TV and [[Home Video Tropes|home video]], cable or satellite TV for their movie fix, or hitting up the then-new concept of the multiplex theatercinema. North American motorcars had become smaller (and less comfortable) due to the various energy crises in [[The Seventies]]; the re-introduction of Daylight Savings Time as a conservation measure shifted the start time of every film an hour later. Some drive-ins responded by changing their emphasis from family fare to the [[Darker and Edgier|increasingly violent and sexually explicit]] exploitation and [[Horror Tropes|horror]] films that were, ironically, the successors to the 1950s [[B-Movie|B Movies]]s. (A few drive-ins even showed outright pornography.) Another common tactic was for drive-ins to add multiple screens. Some rented their land during the day to other businesses, such as flea markets—ormarkets — or managed such businesses themselves. A few operated amusement parks or other attractions to which the cinepark became merely a sideline. Especially in urban areas, the vast expanses of land necessary for a drive-in became too expensive to maintain, and the land was sold for redevelopment because it just wasn't financially feasible to keep it open. ThereforeThe same pressures with land costs were killing independent motels in favour of economy limited service hotel chains, manywhile the drive-in "car hop" restaurant was supplanted by the drive-through format. Most drive-ins were forced to close between [[The Seventies]] and the [[Turn of the Millennium]], with additional closures in the twenty-first century as studios refused to continue distributing content as reels of photographic film; the six-figure expense of new digital projectors (as the feature now arrived on computer hard drives) was often difficult to justify for a small, purely-seasonal business which was already struggling. In many cases, the land was even turned over to build a shiny new multiplex theatercinema. It seemed that the drive-in was headed for extinction—or was it?

'''The Resurgence:''' In the 2000s and 2010s, drive-ins have enjoyed a [[Revival]]; a few new theaters have even opened in the last few years. Some of this is due to Baby Boomer nostalgia, although many current21st-century drive-in visitors are too young to remember the medium's heyday. Also, a "guerrilla drive-in" movement has developed to show films in parks, parking lots and other open urban spaces. Drive-ins received an additional popularity bump during the 2020 pandemic: people could go to see a movie on a big screen ''and'' maintain physical distance from everybody else at the same time. Although it's unlikely that drive-ins will ever again be as numerous as they were during [[The Fifties]], it seems that they're here to stay—atstay — at least for the foreseeable future.

During [[intermission]]s, drive-ins traditionally show [[Advertising Tropes|advertisements]] for the snack bar, as well as [[Public Service Announcement|public service announcements]], ads for local merchants, safety messages and reminders of when the next movie is going to start ("10 minutes to showtime!"). These peppy, often animated ads have a following of their own; many are available on DVD compilations and in the Internet Archive's [http://www.archive.org/details/DriveInMovieAds Moving Image Archive].

They've also changed as technology improved. Originally, Drive-ins had physical speakers, attached by wire to a post, which you removed from the post, rolled down your window, placed the speaker inside, then rolled up the window. This often caused people to forget they had the speaker attached, causing them to drive off, usually ripping the speaker off the post and possibly breaking the window. (Some very small ones just had a single, large speaker.) Today, drive ins have low-power broadcast transmitters, that send the audio to your car radio. Some drive-ins even have digital sound (usually the DTS format, since they are the only company that does installations for digital sound in drive-ins). This also means, if the car has good stereo, that the sound can be as good as that in a high-quality walk-in theater. Some drive-ins run AM as well as FM signals for the few people who don't have FM radio.

* Sean from ''[[The Monster Squad]]'' lives near one, and he sometimes sits on his roof to catch free movies with his dad (don't remember if they had a radio with them, but they could hear the movie).

* The ending of ''[[Pee Wee-wee's Big Adventure|Pee Wees Big Adventure]]''.

* ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]'': The characters are watching parodies of other [[Pixar]] films at the end of the movie; since they're all vehicles of some sort, [[Captain Obvious|of course it's a drive-in theatre]].

* The killer gets chased to a drive-in by angry bikers in ''[[New YearsYear's Evil]]''. He escapes by knifing one of them and hijacking a car.

* The ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' episode "The Psychic" begins with Briggs receiving his assignment at a drive-in.

* An episode of ''[[Family Matters]]'' took place at a drive-in and focused on the dates of Laura, Steve, and Waldo. The latter of which didn't even come in a car, rather Maxine and he just walk in with folding chairs and coolers.

** In another episode, Apu reveals that he sometimes gets up on the roof of the Kwik-E-Mart so he can watch movies at the drive in across the street for free.

{{quote|:''Thank you for reading the Drive-In Theater page! [[TV Tropes]]Allthetropes.org appreciates your patronage. Please remember to replace the speaker on the post when you leave the theater, and have a pleasant evening.''}}