14 Time August 17/August 24, 2020
dropped from 225 to 120. “You can eas-
ily sit from the comfort of your couch
and watch these films,” McDonald says.
Instead of waiting for new block-
busters to salvage their businesses,
many theater owners have taken ad-
vantage of other event-space closures.
“We’re trying to substitute those new
films for concerts or comedy shows so
we can bring in relatively similar rev-
enue,” says Joe Calabro, president of
the Circle Drive-In near Scranton, Pa.
The stream of a Garth Brooks show,
aired at hundreds of drive-ins across the
country, sold out. So the Circle turned
to local musicians, whose normal gigs
have been stripped away. Chris Shrive,
a singer-songwriter from Old Forge, Pa.,
opened his band’s show from the
concession- stand roof. “To overlook
450 cars; to see people barbecuing on
the tailgates of their trucks, laughing,
meeting people parked 18 ft. away—it
was awe- inspiring,” Shrive says. “This
just might be the new normal.”
Basking in the crowd was Sherry
Sakosky, who was seeing her first live
concert since the start of the pan-
demic. “There’s been a lot of built-
up frustration and animosity,” says
Sakosky, who estimates that some 95%
of the concert goers followed properBri and Lindsey LeaverTon had Their dream wedding
all planned out. In April, they were going to get married at a
century-old mansion in downtown Austin, with their guests
sipping cocktails on a veranda by the pool.
Instead, they found themselves 20 miles south of town,
tying the knot at a drive-in on a dirt road surrounded by
cows. A formation of cars blasted their horns in delight.
“When our wedding planner asked us about getting married
at a drive-in, we looked at each other and said, ‘That sounds
insane,’ ” Lindsey says.
The corona virus has upended countless minor and major
life events over the past few months. While many of these
plans were canceled, a surprising share migrated to the drive-
in movie theater, where social distancing, via cars and pickup
trucks, is the norm. These theaters have scrambled to pivot
their entire business model in the face of disappearing film
releases—and have unwittingly become catchall commu-
nal hubs across the country. “Drive-ins are being contacted
like they used to be, for everything in the community,” says
filmmaker April Wright, who directed the documentary
Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace.
“They’re hosting church services, weddings, graduations,
dance recitals, concerts, stand-up comedy.”
Shifts to events like outdoor weddings and smaller-scale
concerts serve as creative ways to stay afloat in an industry
that was unforgiving before the pandemic: the number of
drive-ins in the U.S. has continuously dwindled, especially
as home and handheld entertainment command more and
more attention. Now, increased costs, a delayed film slate
and potential competition from pop-ups —the Tribeca Film
Festival, for example, is programming drive-in experiences
at beaches, sports stadiums and even Walmart parking lots—
are making some theaters skeptical they can last through
the crisis. “A lot of us are really struggling,” says Nathan
McDonald, the owner of the 66 Drive-In in southwestern
Missouri. “If [movies] continue to be pushed, I’ll probably
close in late August.”
Some 300 independent drive-inS operate across the U.S.
They typically make most of their money during the sum-
mer, when students are on break and blockbusters roll in
every weekend. But this year’s tentpole films, from Mulan to
Wonder Woman 1984, have been repeatedly delayed, thanks
to the continued closure of major indoor- theater chains like
AMC and Cinemark. As drive-ins opened for the season, they
first turned to throwback classics like E.T. and Jaws, hoping to
capitalize on nostalgia.
Such films have produced mixed results for theaters. At the
66 Drive-In, the average number of cars on a given night has
Now playing at
the drive-in:
bands, weddings,
anything
By Andrew R. Chow
TheBrief Business
‘It’s a bit of
Americana
I’d hate to
see lost.’
DAVID FOWLER,
pastor of the First
United Methodist
Church in Carthage,
Mo., on drive-ins