DRIVE-IN DREAMS
Outdoor cinemas are waking up to a new reality in the coronavirus era. |
Drive-in movie theaters … back from the dead!
The idea itself seems like a B-movie flickering on a huge outdoor screen from decades ago, with kids asleep in the back seat and teenagers making out in the next car. But it turns out drive-ins were made for our pandemic present.
According to the owner of the Showboat, until recently the Houston area’s only drive-in theater, his business has been “off the charts” since reopening in early May — with a significant twist.
“It’s been like when you have a big summer movie like ‘Avengers’ or something like that come out,” says Andrew Thomas, “except that right now we’re playing movies that you can see at home.”
Even with such well-worn fare as “Onward,” “Trolls World Tour,” and “Knives Out,” he notes, “it’s clear that (this) particular type of moviegoing experience that we can offer is something that people are looking for.
It’s something that they feel very comfortable doing.”
At the Showboat, a twin-screen parcel of converted pastureland in Hockley, “you can drive there, be in your vehicle, never get out, enjoy the movie, and get back home without ever coming into contact with anyone,” he says.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust drive-in theaters, whose numbers have dwindled to fewer than 400 nationwide (out of a total of 40,000 movie screens overall), into a spotlight it hasn’t seen for decades. Largely written off as archaic symbols of a bygone age, these once-iconic locations