Are drive-ins in our future?

According to the New York Times, and they should know, there are 305 drive-in theaters in the United States. The Motor Vu Twin Drive-In of Imperial is not an active one. In fact, the land will be sold in the future for retail and warehouses.

Our local drive-in was declared officially closed in April 2013 to a very disappointed Valley. But I’ve been curious about the potential of drive-ins to trump regular movie theaters or walk-ins as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drive ins are naturally dispositioned for social distancing. Each vehicle acts as its own quarantine. But what about snacks and the usual junk food available at drive-ins? The solution that new drive-ins are using is familiar. You call ahead for the popcorn and hot dogs. When you arrive, you recall and a server comes out in mask and maybe gloves bringing the food to your car or pickup. Your receipt is texted to your phone so you can show that, through a closed window, to the server.

But drive-ins can be expensive to run as technology has advanced. One of the reasons for the demise of our local Motor Vu was the change from 35-mm celluloid film to digital movies and equipment. One approach might be to seek out distributors of 35-mm films, although many of these have disappeared. If you can find 35-mm films, the problem is that you wouldn’t be seeing any new releases, and this could be a turn off for some audiences.

I can remember my first trip to a drive-in theater. It was during a very memorable trip from Brooklyn to Garden City, Long Island, N.Y. I was a young kid and had never been to a drive-in. It would have been awkward, in any case, since my folks didn’t have a car at that time. A car was unnecessary in the city, but this trip took me out to stay with friends in a new development on Long Island. A family friend took me on the Long Island Rail Road to the brand new house his family had bought “on the Island.”

The movie we saw was “Gone With the Wind,” as classic as it gets. In later years I found driveins a distraction from the actual movie, but as a kid I was riveted to my first drive-in experience. Maybe the screen seemed larger, or the audio better, but I was part of the Civil War. The film was almost too intense especially when a guy’s leg was cut off in a field hospital tent and without anesthesia. Holy cow.

I’m not much of a blockbuster movie fan so a drive-in that showed classics would be fine by me. I’ve noticed that contemporary driveins provide the film’s audio via FM radio. You can get it over your phone or a portable FM radio.

We used to get together with Valley friends at local movie theaters. Walk-ins. This was fun especially if it was a monster movie where scale is very important. My problem is laughing too loud when the dinosaur eats the lawyer or the big game hunter.

Watching movies at home became incredibly easy with Netflix. We don’t have an XBOX 360. We have the post office. Clever people at Netflix designed a mailer that ships and returns. Plus, the DVD selection is huge. I’m into French noir classics and samurai movies, and Netflix delivers.

Yet, I could envision a trip to the local drive-in with my sweetie to see the next installment of Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs would be running all over the Motor Vu.