A Vanishing American Icon, the Drive-In Theater
 

Across America, drive-in theaters are vanishing. Economics have been the main reason. Attendance has been down. Urban sprall have made the property too valuable for them to continue operation. Large parcels of land are easily converted to shopping centers and office complexes. And, there are a host of other issues.

One more problem for them has arisen. The studios are requiring all theaters to convert from film to digital media. The conversion costs several thousand dollars that many can't afford and they will have to cease operation. A little more of classic Americana dies.

Honda & Sony Pictures are going to rescue a few. At the end of this post is a link that takes you to a site, where you can vote on which theater you wish to be saved. Not all drive-in's are listed, as a few (my local one) has converted to digital projection already.
This is a piece of the car culture that I don't want to disappear.

Project Drive-In | Honda

I hope you save some, I've never been, even when I've been over there so I feel like I missed out.

We still have one here in Vegas... :p:

In the 30+ yrs I have lived in the Chicago area, I have seen 6 theaters die. There is only one left. But, it seems like it will be around for a while.

Lounge?

They all died here about 20 years ago..

They seem to still be around on the East Coast, my uncle owned one and I have many fond memories of going there as a kid. There is one near my parents house here in Texas but they don't do to well since during the summer it is still 90+ after dark.

Still got one in my tiny Ohio hometown. It'd probably have an easier time staying solvent if kids stopped sneaking in in the trunk.

apparently the tree hugging hippies in CA killed all of them off already

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Either that, or they have already converted to digital projection.

http://www.drive-ins.com/srchdest.ht...x=8&search.y=7

Best Drive-In Theaters In South Florida « CBS Miami
South Florida

Coyote Drive in is located in Fort Worth... Pretty damn nice, not gonna lie. Just went there yesterday for a movie an it's nice. 3 screens showing 2 different films, back to back for $8 a ticket/person... Was converted to digital... Sound FM frequency worked really well... Food was good, was a nice evening, beautiful sunset with fireflies... Was pretty dope... I don't think there's a better way for us car guys to watch a movie in...

Is everybody voting for their local theater on the link in first post?

That map is not accurate; I still know three active Drive-Ins in SoCal. One in Twentynine Palms; it's a small town in the boonies but most of their customers are single Marines and Sailors, not to mention those dependents. A very active one in Baldwin Park (City of Industry), and Montclaire's Mission Tiki has four active screenings all at once. But not sure if they have converted to digital as mentioned above, that's probably why it didn't pop in the map.

As I posted earlier, some have already converted to digital projection. The idea of the website is to chose five theaters that will be upgraded for free.
As a matter of fact, there are 18 theaters in California according to this link. http://www.drive-ins.com/srchdest.ht...x=8&search.y=7