DURABLE DRIVE-INS
Theatres deny they’re fading to black
To Brian Allen, the choice is clear. When Canadians go to the polls on Oct. 19, they must elect an American who would have turned 125 years old this fall.
“I always make the joke that when (people ask), ‘Who are you voting for this year?’ I say, ‘Well, Dwight Eisenhower. Isn’t everybody?’” Allen said. “It’s my reference point.”
It is a reference, in Allen’s business, to a bygone era. Eisenhower was president of the United States for most of the 1950s — and that was the height of the drive-in movie industry, when more than 4,000 outdoor theatres were sprawled across America, and when Canada had more than 240.
Things have not been the same since. Today, there are just 336 outdoor theatres in the U.S. and 51 in Canada, according to DriveIns.com, an industry compendium. By the numbers, it appears to be a pastime on the ropes.
But to hear Allen — his company, Premier Theatres, operates five outdoor theatres in Ontario — and as other theatre owners tell it, their trade is not dead, or even in peril.
“As long as people are going to the regular movies — that is, the big multiplexes — drive-ins will do well. They pretty much function with the industry,” Allen said. “I think that drive-ins are pretty resilient.”
John Vincent, president of the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association and the owner of a drive-in in Massachusetts, attributed the industry’s perceived demise to “a lot of bad information out there.”
“I can tell you from all my friends that own drive-ins, and knowing the industry numbers: We’re not seeing any kind of decline, nor have we in the last 20 years.”
More than anything, any drive-in operating today is a survivor. They overcame the advent of the multiplex, and endured the throes of the 1980s when studios sent movies along months after their release date. They outlived a costly sea change to new technology, and eluded the atrophy inherent to any business — especially one that peaked six decades ago.
Today’s drive-in is fuelled by new ideas and an old-school appeal.
“A lot of them do very well, and some of them do incredibly well,” said Patrick Corcoran, vice-president of the U.S.-based National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents indoor and outdoor theatres in 82 countries. “They’ll be some of the highestgrossing theatres during the summer, particularly when the weather is good.”
Fundamentally, today’s drive-in experience is the same as it always was, said Kirk Longmire, chairman of the Valley Drive-In in Cambridge, N.S.
“The idea of why people come to a drive-in really, to me, hasn’t changed. They come for the nostalgia,” Longmire said. “Most of the people that come through our gates are there because they want to be able to take the kids and say, ‘I saw a movie at a drive-in.’ Everybody remembers the first movie they saw at a drive-in.” (Longmire’s, for instance, was King Kong.)
As moviegoers look back, some drive-ins are peering forward. Allen said modern amenities have infused new life into his theatres, from neon signs to music that blares around the concourse before shows.
“We’ve really tried to amp up the experience,” he said. “We couch it in nostalgia, we couch it in experience and in colour and in visuals. People love it. Our drive-ins have never been more successful, because I think we’ve created an oasis.”
Other drive-in theatres, according to Vincent, have started livestreaming concerts and hosting video-game competitions, experimenting with the product they put onscreen. They can do that, now, because of digital projection technology — a mass conversion that sent shock waves through the industry during the past few years.
Studios have strayed from producing 35mm film prints, presenting drive-in owners with a choice: Purchase a high-definition digital projector or lose access to new movies.
“It’s not just a trend. It’s a must. It’s something you have to do,” said Paul Geissinger, the owner of Shankweiler’s Drive-in Theatre in Orefield, Pa., an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia, and at 81 years, the longest-surviving outdoor theatre in North America.
Geissinger paid US$80,000 to switch to digital in 2013, plus US$60,000 for associated renovations. That year, just east of Regina in Wolseley, Sask., it cost the Twilite Drive-In $86,000 to upgrade to digital — a sum they managed to afford after appealing to the community.
“We thought we might raise maybe $15,000, $20,000,” said Twilite owner Don Zaba, who organized a cabaret fundraiser at the local hockey rink. “It turned out we raised about $57,000 in a night. It was incredible.”
Not everyone has been as fortunate. About 10 per cent of North America’s drive-ins closed after the digital ultimatum, according to Vincent, while a small portion has resisted the shift, only showing movies still available on film.
“They’re struggling,” Geissinger said in an interview. “I would say that this is going to be the last year that anybody could even possibly think of surviving on film.”
Survival may not even be the most attractive option. Theatre land has become increasingly coveted for commercial development, according to Allen, placing owners under immense pressure to sell.
“Drive-ins never became less popular. It was a supply-and-demand thing,” Allen said. “People never left the drive-in. The drivein left the people.”
Still, there may be hope for resurgence. Allen, for one, has no intentions to close his five theatres.
If today’s drive-ins are holding steady, they are also in flux, caught between the new economics of their trade and a raison d’être that remains the same.
It is what keeps some owners going.
“When you go to the drive-in, there is that feeling that life is sort of standing still for a minute, in a good way,” Allen said. “I hope people experience it. It’s something that’s unique and wonderful.”