Digital Projection Clouds the Picture for Drive-in Movie Theaters
Hollywood is expected to stop distributing 35-millimeter film prints to all U.S. theaters later this year. The vast majority of indoor theaters — hardtops, in drive-in lingo — have already converted to digital projectors, but 90% of drive-ins have not, according to an industry trade group. Conversion costs of $70,000 or more per screen could be too expensive for many drive-ins.
The Rubidoux plans to convert to digital projection, but its owner says the switch will be a struggle for many others.
“There’s been panic, definitely,” Frank Huttinger said. “Ma and pop outfits, second- or third-generation places, are hesitant to put up all that money.”
The drive-in market today is a shell of what it was in the late 1950s, when teens and big families in big cars found drive-ins a fun alternative to indoor theaters. At their peak, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins, accounting for 25% of the nation’s movie screens. Today, that’s down to 1.5%.
By the late 1980s, more than three-quarters of American drive-ins had closed as multiplexes proliferated. Urban sprawl and soaring land values led many to be bulldozed to make way for malls and other commercial developments.
The drive-ins that survived have been doing better in the last decade, spurred partly by cost-conscious families who can see double features or first-run movies at half the price of the hardtops, said National Assn. of Theatre Owners spokesman Patrick Corcoran.
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