For about ten years now we’ve been going to a local drive-in many times during the summer.
We usually bring some food and snacks with us but always get the delicious French fries they sell as well. They sell all sorts of snacks and have an ice-cream stand as well.
We always try to arrive right when the gates open, which is 60-90 minutes before the first film. Time passes reading or playing phone games as we listen to the endlessly repeating tape of 1980s radio that they’ve been using as their intro forever.
It costs $10/person for two movies and for the low price we frequently see movies we’d never go and see at the cinema. They do a decent job of pairing films by genre/rating and nights with children’s or Marvel films always the most popular.
Originally the picture was a little fuzzier and darker than a normal cinema but they upgraded to a digital projector a few years ago and now it’s sharp and bright. The audio is broadcast on FM radio and is super-clear and perfectly synced. It’s obviously not as fancy as a cinema, but it’s perfectly adequate for all but the most special films.
Of course it’s outdoors, which means the weather sometimes gets in the way. I love when it rains (KLS doesn’t!) but we’ve had a few gigantic thunderstorms over the years that made it seem like we were watching a movie underwater! But the best was the evening with fog so thick we could barely see the screen. It was funny, but we left early 🙂
Last week I noticed that I’d never blogged the drive-in despite a decade of attendance. We attend so frequently now we almost prefer it to the normal cinema and may even buy the season pass in future years. If you’ve still got a drive-in near you, why not go and enjoy seeing a movie under the stars!