Ultimate Retro Family Experience....Drive-In Theatre!

[qtlaw]

Went to a drive-in for the first time since I was smuggling in a cooler of Mickey's Big Mouth with my buddies. Wife's friend suggested we take our families to see SpyKids 4 in our two minivans (6 kids, 4 parents.) Back up into your spot on the bump, put all the seats down, open the back tailgate and lay down on the floor with blankets and pillows.

No more speakers you hook onto your window but audio through your car stereo.

What a blast! A great feeling in Summer waiting for the sun to set and walking back and forth to the snack bar. A bargain too, kids under 12 are $1!! and Adults on $6.95!

Cannot wait to do it again.

 

[Flip Wilson]

Love going to the drive-in 45 minutes down the highway from here. Prices are insanely cheap: $5 a car during the week;$10 on weekends. And take in all the food/drink/ booze you want!

 

[Bubbler]

I'd love to buy some land and start a modest drive-in. I think with some technological advances for audio people would really dig it. What's old is new again, etc.

Incidentally, when drive-ins were dying a slow death in the 80s and 90s, I recall seeing porno drive-ins once in a blue moon. I wonder if any of those are still around? My guess is no, but who knows?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Haven't been this year, but the family and I have enjoyed trips to the local drive-through. I was really surprised at the radio audio the first time I went, thinking it would be those speakers. It's a lot of fun.

 

[Huggy]

There were two drive-ins in our area back in the day (both long, long gone now). A few times a summer a buddy and I would jump in his '73 LTD with a couple of pizzas or a bucket of KFC and a case a beer and check out the dusk-to-dawn shows, four movies between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. or so (invariably falling asleep sometime during the third flick). Good times.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

A drive-in opened up in the sticks, about 45 minutes west of downtown proper here. I'd like to go at least once, and seven bucks per person for a double-feature of first runs is a good deal. But they don't let you bring in your own food and drink. Unless they plan on doing a bumper-to-bumper search of my Durango and make spot checks every 10 minutes during the movie, I have no idea how they would enforce it, but that's kind of a downer.

I've heard a few places opening drive-ins in the last few years. I don't imagine it'd ever be more than a kitchy revival as opposed to a whole-hog renaissance, but why the hell not? Maybe mini golf will make a comeback too!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We go to the drive-in all the time... They do a kid's movie first and then a regular movie last. I think it's $12 for the four of us... We've never made it past the first movie, but it's much more family friendly than the regular theater when you have little kids...

 

[Ace]

Nothing beats taking kids to the drive in on a nice summer night.

 

[txsportsscribe]

I'd love to buy some land and start a modest drive-in. I think with some technological advances for audio people would really dig it. What's old is new again, etc.

you might be surprised at how much it costs to open a drive-in from the ground up

 

[Seahawk]

The Wife and I went to a drive-in while on vacation on the Cape last summer. I believe it was in Wellfleet, MA. We saw the A-Team, and then about half of the last Shrek movie before calling it a night. Total bargain, and it was awesome getting the drive-in experience again. It had been about 25 years or so since the last time I'd done that.

 

[cranberry]

The last time I went to this drive-in was in August 1975 when I was 17. It was the first time I went as a driver (instead of a as one of the kids in the back seat) and with a date. We saw the original version of The Stepford Wives. Oh, Frank, indeed.

 

[Bob Cook]

My 14-year-old got his first experience with a drive-in recently. It was the 49er Drive-In in Valparaiso, Ind., the closest drive-in to my Chicago-area home. He loved it. One advance is that the movie audio can be fed into your car radio, so you don't have to leave the window open for the speaker and the 3 million mosquitoes that view you as their popcorn.

 

[westcoastvol]

In my hometown, there used to be a drive-in that faced both a state road and an interstate that showed porn movies. Mom always made me duck my head whenever we passed by. Bummer.

 

[westcoastvol]

In my hometown, the Woodzo drive in was the first place in town, period, that served pizza. And the owner would come in over the PA during the movie to let you know it was done. Which was awesome during the first time I saw The Empire Strikes Back:

Darth Vader: "No. I am your father."
Luke: "No. No. It's not true. That's impossible."
Darth Vader: "Search your feelings. You know it to be true."
Woodzo Owner: "Yer pizza is readdddddy..."
Luke: "Nooooooooo!!!! Noooooooo!!!!"

 

[Bob Cook]

In my hometown, there used to be a drive-in that faced both a state road and an interstate that showed porn movies. Mom always made me duck my head whenever we passed by. Bummer.

One of the most famous porn drive-ins was very active in the 1970s, not far from where my family lived at the time. It was the Hi-Vue in Durand, Mich., otherwise known as the "Durand Dirties." A guy named Harry Mohney built a multi-million-dollar empire with that drive-in as his base.

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/driveintheaters.aspx?id=230&type=1

Mohney doesn't have the drive-in anymore, but he owns strip clubs across the U.S. He's, shall we say, quite a character.

http://www.lukeisback.com/stars/stars/stars/male/harry_mohney.html

 

[steveu]

We still have a drive-in located in Muskegon, about 30-45 minutes northwest of Grand Rapids. They were thinking of closing the theater to build houses on the lot a few years ago but that fell through... traffic really picked up once word got out the place might be in its last year.

Great experience. Pay once for two movies, and often they are big movies back-to-back (like Change Up and Friends with Benefits on one bill).

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The one we went to in high school charged by the carload. I think it was $10 and I remember one time we packed nine people in my 1989 Nissan Sentra.

 

[dixiehack]

The second biggest advance is being able to get concessions delivery by cell phone.

 

[joe]

Last time I went was some place in Illinois, south (I think) of Champaign. Saw the god-awful first "Tomb Raider" movie. Despite that, a great experience.

When I was a kid in St. Charles, Mo., there was an X-Rated drive-in that played such titles as "Pinocchio: It Isn't His Nose That Grows." Yeah, they put it right there on the marquee.

 

[Ace]

Last time I went was some place in Illinois, south (I think) of Champaign. Saw the god-awful first "Tomb Raider" movie. Despite that, a great experience.

When I was a kid in St. Charles, Mo., there was an X-Rated drive-in that played such titles as "Pinocchio: It Isn't His Nose That Grows." Yeah, they put it right there on the marquee.

I'm guessing it was toenails.