Brief Drive in movie theater history

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Drive in movie theaters first opened in the United States in 1921 (some websites claim as early as 1915). Drive in movie theaters were really popular between the 1940’s and 1960’s. By 1958 there were over 4,000 drive in movie theaters in the United States. As on the year 2019 less than 300 drive in movie theaters existed in the United States. The picture and sound quality is better in a professional indoor movie theater when compared to a drive in movie theater. People started noticing that indoor movie theaters are better in the 1970’s-1990’s, especially with surround sound at indoor movie theaters, and especially when compared to high quality modern day IMAX and Dolby Cinema theaters in the 21st Century. In the 1970’s and 1980’s when away from home around 40-60% of all my movie watching was at a drive in movie theater with family members and the rest of my movie watching was at an indoor commercial movie theater. Many people in the United States did not have access to cable TV service until around the year 1986, and most Americans in the 1970’s and 1980’s only had a few local NTSC TV channels that they could pull in with their broadcast TV antenna like NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS. So going to the local indoor or outdoor movie theater was common in the 1970’s and 1980’s since many people did not have cable TV service yet and many people did not own a 1978 Laserdisc player, 1975 Betamax, or 1977 VHS machine yet.

I remember my drive-in movie experience in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The big negative was the picture and sound quality. If the windshield of the car was dirty it effected the movie experience, if it rained it effected the movie experience since one had to run the windshield wipers while watching a movie. In the early days of drive in movie theaters there was a big speaker behind or mounted on the outdoor movie screen and everyone rolled down their window of the car to listen to the sound in 1.0 mono sound. However, in the 1970’s and 1980’s I remember all my drive-in theater experiences being 90% of the time an individual speaker that hung from the window of each car to offer the 1.0 mono sound. However, one negative about this system is that some people would forget to remove the speaker hung from the window of the car and would end up driving away and tearing the speaker cord out of the pedestal outside or it would break the car window (sometimes both). But that was somewhat rare experience since most people remembered to place the speaker hung on the window back on the outdoor pedestal. In later years I remember some drive-in movie theaters started using AM radio transmitters that allowed people to use their car AM radio to listen to the movie in 1.0 mono sound. Then later on when FM radios became more common in modern cars the movie theaters started broadcasting using FM radio but it was 100% mono 1.0 sound since they were not using true stereo. I have never personally seen it, but it is my understanding that some modern day 21st Century drive in movie theaters are using true analog FM stereo transmitters so that people can hear the movie in true stereo from their car radio. Also some drive in movie theaters are using WI-FI technology so that people can use their Smartphones and tablet PC’s to listen to the movie at a drive in movie theater. However, the fact still remains that even if one can get true stereo sound from the FM radio or WI-FI transmission at a drive-in movie theater, car radios, Smartphones, and tablets are only able to offer 2.0 stereo sound and not true surround sound. A indoor movie theater can offer 13.1 DTS X pro or 13.1 Dolby Atmos surround sound along with 4K digital projection in 2-D or 3-D quality. Most people going to a drive-in movie theater do not care too much about picture and sound quality. And as far as I am aware 3D movies have never been offered at a drive-in movie theaters because the quality would be poor.

Some of the advantages to a drive-in movie theater: Is that one can bring special food and drinks that the drive in movie theater does not offer. Also, one has greater privacy at a drive-in movie theater with a less chance to catch a cold or virus. In modern days drive in movie theaters are starting to make a come back in some areas of the United States because of the COVID-19 issue, since people prefer to remain in their car or home instead of going to a commercial indoor movie theater. However, since many movie studios are experimenting with streaming in theater at home movies the same day as they are released in movie theaters, many consumers are bypassing both drive in movie theaters and indoor movie theaters for both convenience and to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in the 21st Century there are a lot more people with large flat panel screens and projectors in their home, and people are chosen to stay at home and watch movies on high bit rate 4K Blu-ray with lossless audio, streaming, cable TV, satellite, etc.