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Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Where I live, in Mid-Michigan, there was one thing you could look forward to every Summer and that was a trip to the drive-in. We had two to choose from, which is a luxury in this era of mega-theaters and super-mega home systems. Neither of the drive-ins was great, they were a bit run down, a bit trashy. and were state of the art circa 1990 but it was all about atmosphere, something that movies have lost.
Sure, the resurgence of 3-D in theaters is great but it doesn't mean as much to go out to the movies anymore. Unless the film is in Imax, or 3-D, or is the rare blockbuster that matters, movies are just something you see when you see - no more and no less.
Hell, if you miss it in the theater you can see it at home in three or four months.
With drive-ins it was all about the movie, the experience, and who you experienced that movie with.
I saw my first drive-in movie when I was six and my cousin foolishly took my sister and I to see Friday the 13th and Pieces. I only remember the end of F13 (I was told to go to sleep when Pieces came on, haha) but it has always stuck with me, as has the experience. I have always loved drive-ins. It isn't a movie, it is a culture. I regret how long I went without attending one, though it can be awfully hard to find two movies you want to see playing together. It breaks my heart that our two local drive-ins are all but done. One has closed for good, National Amusements, a company that is truly abandoning Flint (this makes three theaters closed in three years) deciding it is out of that business locally and the other theater set to close at the end of the Summer season (and wanting at least five million for the land - WHAT?). While I can see the economic necessity to trim the fat, these were both established and, from I can tell, beloved businesses and it makes it even sadder to lose them.
In all honesty I think that the owners just lost interest in that business, though I also think that as new theaters opened people flocked more to them and less to the drive-in. Which I can appreciate since I did the same.
What sucks is that drive-ins are a business that could have evolved with the times to meet higher customer demands when it came to the movie going experience. It just seems as if time stood still for drive-ins and not for the sake of nostalgia but for the sake of economic laziness.
Why not make drive-ins more fun? Add some bleacher seating. Add a bigger play area for kids. Add picnic areas. Add more offerings at the concession stand - more foods and more variety in the offerings. Drive-ins are about the social aspects of movies so exploit that.
Show the old intermission movies.
Show OLD or weird movies.
Update the technology - better speakers, or broadcasting tech, and better projectors.
Add back the old arcades.
Yes, a lot of this takes investment but the thing is that every business demands that. Drive-ins are so unique, and so uniquely American I don't know why car shows are not an integral part of these experiences. It is a shame to think that we will lose this Americana without much of a fight.
I love movies, the art and exploitation of them and the overall experience of what they represent. It is a shame that we are handing over all these traditions and trading them in for our couches and curtains.
Me, I hold a hope that drive-ins won't die but will evolve, and perhaps with new blood, young blood, they can.
Only time will tell.
c
8:23 PM
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