Is this the year of the drive-in?
When the Circle Drive- In opened in April of 1951 on California’s Pacific Coast Highway, the full- page advertisement in the local paper listed all the benefits of attending. “Come as you are!” it crowed. “Enjoy smoking! No baby sitter problem!” And then this: “Be flu and polio protected!”
California was in the midst of a polio outbreak that would spread across the United States the following year, killing more than 3,000 people and disabling more than 21,000 others. A vaccine wouldn’t be announced until 1955, so until then the only way to avoid infection was to stay away from others. To do that and still take in a movie, drive- ins were the way to go.
Almost 70 years later, in the grip of the COVID- 19 pandemic, North Americans are again discovering the joys of drive- in movies. While traditional cinemas remain shuttered for the foreseeable future — even in full- steam- ahead Georgia, theatre giant AMC says it will keep its nationwide chain dark for now — driveins are experiencing what can only be classified as a renaissance.
This, in spite of the fact that there are no new major releases to show on their screens. So many blockbusters have delayed their openings.
The James Bond thriller No Time to Die, originally set to open in April, is now a November release. Disney’s Artemis Fowl keeps its May 29 release, but now moves to the studio’s streaming service. Wonder Woman 1984 has been pushed from June 5 to Aug. 14, while fellow female superhero Black Widow went from May 1 to Nov. 6. And Pixar’s Soul, originally slated to open June 19, now comes out Nov. 20, coincidentally on the 25th anniversary of the release of the studio’s first feature, Toy Story.
The next big feature on the calendar — at least for now — is Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated Tenet, a science- fiction thriller with a time-travel twist. It’s set to open July 17, followed a week later by the delayed release of Disney’s Mulan.
So, drive-in audiences are racing to see older movies on the big screen. The Showboat Drive- In in Hockley, Texas, recently saw a 95 per cent increase in sales in the second week that it showed
Pixar’s Onward and the horror film The Invisible Man, even though both titles are available online.
It’s the same story across the U. S. The Swan Drive- In in Blue Ridge, Ga., is showing Trolls World Tour and I Still Believe this weekend. In Ocala, Fla., it’s Trolls World Tour followed by Back to the Future on one screen, and The True History of the Kelly Gang and Resistance on the other. The Swingin’ Midway in Athens, Tenn., has Sonic the Hedgehog and I Still Believe. And out in Sacramento, Calif., the West Wind’s six screens include a Will Smith double feature of Bad Boys for Life and Gemini Man, and the recent DC movies Joker and Birds of Prey.
Canada, with its cooler climate and more stringent lockdown laws, would seem to be behind the curve on the drive-in front. But on March 18, the small town of Redcliff in southern Alberta hosted an outdoor movie night in the parking lot of the local aquatic centre, with Jumanji: The Next Level on an inflatable screen, followed by the First World War movie 1917.
Town councillor and local businessman Chris Czember says he copied the idea from the nearby town of Brooks, which unfortunately had to cancel its plans after the COVID-19 outbreak worsened there. ( Brooks, home to a meat- packing plant, has at least 500 confirmed cases of the virus in a population of just 15,000.)
He’s quick to note that he would have cancelled too if there had been any safety concerns. “The idea was to have a COVID- friendly event,” he says. “If it’s rampant, then a Covid-friendly event is staying home.”
Redcliff ’s event had no concessions, no bathrooms, no cost, no open windows and no one sharing vehicles except family members who were already living together. “In my mind I’m making it more safe than a big- box parking lot,” says Czember. He estimates they had about 350 cars for the first feature, and an additional 50 or so for the second — this in a town of just 5,600 people.
While drive- ins might seem ready- made for social distancing, Redcliff ’s event highlights some concerns. The website for the Starlight Drive- In in Enderby, B. C., has a long page of frequently asked questions related to COVID-19, with answers that range from practical to cheeky.
Most of them have to do with the reduction in capacity, which gives each vehicle six metres of space, leaving about four metres between each car. There are also reduced concession options, and social distancing at the restrooms.
And in reference to a question about the time- honoured method of sneaking extra people in free of charge: “During this time of social distancing having people in the trunk is just a bad idea.”
In Ontario, which this week announced a somewhat vague, no- dates- attached plan for a return to normalcy, Brian Allen is excited to get his drive- ins back to business. He’s president of Premier Operating, which runs drive-in theatres in London, Barrie, Newmarket, Hamilton and Oakville, along with one traditional cinema — he calls it a “hard top” — up in Yellowknife.
“Such a great irony here,” he says of the resurgence of interest in the drive- in as a way to see movies. “Everyone always talks about the demise of the drive- in. I’ve always thought they were relevant. Last year was one of our best years.”
His 2020 season lasted exactly one day before the provincial lockdown forced him to close. “But there’s a good chance that the driveins will open before the indoor theatres,” he says of the reopening plan, noting that in Saskatchewan, phase one of reopening on May 4 includes golf courses, while phase three lists eateries. “Drive- ins are somewhere between a golf course and a restaurant,” Allen notes.
He’s already thinking of possible programming, given that there won’t be any new blockbuster releases until midsummer at the earliest. “Every year I do the double bill of E.T. and Back to the Future,” he says.
“We’re also going to try to bring back a lot of the John Hughes movies.”
And this third-generation exhibitor — his great- uncles Jay and Jules Allen founded a theatre chain 100 years ago that included what is now Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall — has strong ideas about what works and what doesn’t at the drive- in. “I’m better off playing Austin Powers than Harry Potter,” he says, noting that anything within the comedy- familyaction triangle is gold, whereas titles that are too literary or “too sci-fi” don’t play as well. “Our best movies are the John Wicks.”
Movie tastes may vary — Czember from Redcliff isn’t keen on Back to the Future — but it’s also hard to please everyone in a time when some people have all but vanished into their homes, while others take to the streets to demand that governments move forward with reopening plans. A survey of U. S. drive- ins finds some almost defiantly open, others apologetically shut, and a few that opened briefly only to close down again.
Then there was V Pizza in Cary, N.C., which set up a portable screen in its parking lot but had to shut down after local police said it contravened the rules of what constituted an essential business.
In Canada, Quebec City is looking into the possibility of opening up to three not- forprofit drive-ins by the end of
June. “I assure the population there will be popcorn,” Mayor Régis Labeaume said of the idea.
Toronto’s last drive- in at The Docks closed in 2018, but the facility is still in place, and the Toronto International Film Festival could potentially rent it as a place to show festival fare.
And in Prince George in central British Columbia, the Park Drive- in is planning to limit screenings to one per night to reduce the number of attendees and the need for bathroom breaks. They’re showing recent Oscar- winner Parasite on May 1, the 1956 sci- fi Invasion of the Body Snatchers on May 2, and the original Trolls on May 3.
“This is the year of the drive- in,” Park co- owner Nina Keba told the CBC in a recent interview. “I think we’re going back.”
She might be overstating things just a little. Drive- ins reached their peak in the 1950s, when the U. S. was home to about 4,000 such theatres. Those numbers have since fallen to a little more than 300. Canada, with the second- largest number of drive-ins in the world, has fewer than 40.
And despite keeping its patrons flu- and poliofree for decades, the Circle Drive- In of California finally succumbed to the rise of television and VHS rentals in 1985. It went dark on Jan. 31 of that year. Its last screening was a low-budget, made- in- Italy science- fiction adventure called 2019: The Fall of New York. It’s tempting to imagine that the Circle’s final words were a warning to the future, a reminder of what the drivein could offer, and of what their disappearance might mean.
SUCH A GREAT IRONY HERE. EVERYONE ALWAYS TALKS ABOUT THE DEMISE OF THE DRIVE-IN. I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY WERE RELEVANT. LAST YEAR WAS ONE OF OUR BEST YEARS. — BRIAN ALLEN, PRESIDENT OF PREMIER OPERATING