Drive-In Theater: Difference between revisions

[[File:Drive-In_TheaterIn Theater.jpg|frame|An iconic image from the drive-in's heyday. The movie is ''[[The Ten Commandments]]''.]]

'''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]] for their movie fix, or hitting up the then-new concept of the multiplex theater. 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]]. (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. 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. Therefore, many drive-ins were forced to close between [[The Seventies]] and the [[Turn of the Millennium]]. In many cases, the land was even turned over to build a shiny new multiplex theater. 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 current 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. 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|intermissionsintermission]]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].