Drive-in Theaters: Drive-in Movies

The drive-in made its debut in Camden, New Jersey. In its heyday in the 1950s, families nationwide enjoyed the opportunity to view movies in the great outdoors. Today, however, drive-ins are tougher to find because the economics of property values have driven many of these treasures out of business. Economics, ironically, is also what is behind the current drive-in revival: families are not as willing to pay $8.50 per seat at a multiplex theater as they are to spend $6.00 a carload at a drive-in.

To accompany this revival, drive-in fan web sites have emerged across the World Wide Web. Now, if someone wants to find a drive-in near his or her home, he or she need simply get on the Internet to find an index of still-operating drive-ins organized by state. Likewise, many drive-in fans are fascinated by the history of this venue. Sites offer historical information, broken down by decade starting from the 1930s, which summarizes major trends. Other web sites feature collections of old movie newspaper advertisements, allowing fans to experience what moviegoers of yesteryear felt.

Other online resources can link fans to a variety of regional fan clubs, theater guides, and movie review sites. For those of you that want to know what it is like to own a drive-in theater, a site sells a documentary offering a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to keep one up and running. Whatever your reason for wanting to research drive-in theaters, be it enjoy a family night out or to rekindle your childhood enthusiasm for drive-ins, the Internet is an excellent resource for finding all the information you need.