The Drive-In

[Guydowood]

Now I'm not that old to have experienced the heyday of watching a movie at the local drive-in, but I did catch a few in the early to mid 80's before they would shut down completely in favor of stadium seating and the full surround sound experience. But of the few I do remember seeing, either first run or the re-run, I rather enjoyed what I saw......here is a brief list of what I did see on the long ago drive-in theatre....

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Smokey and the Bandit II
and
E.T.

what's your's?????

[HDnBoonies]

We actually had a drive-in near us up until 2 years back. I was able to take my oldest daughter and sister in law ( who had never been to one ) and we saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars with The Dark Knight. A really fun time, picking up chinese food sitting out in the back of the truck watching the movies under the stars.

Movies I remember seeing at a drive-in when I was younger:
Porky's
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Heavy Metal
Clash of the Titans
Gates of Hell
Return of the Living Dead
Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams
Police Academy
and a ton of others, we went almost EVERY weekend!

[madlost1]

There is still a drive in in my area and I don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Still young so the only things I remember seeing there are:
Salt
The Other Guys
Spy Kids 3-D

there are of course more but I can't remember right now.

[unionsilver]

Good Lord! What movie didn't I see at the drive-in? I'm old, so going to the drive-in in the 80's was more common than going to a walk-in.

Boulevard Nights
Grizzly Adams
In Search of Noah's Ark
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Rocky III
Greystoke
Superman III
Cobra
Friday the 13th Part VI
Commando
Aliens
Lethal Weapon
Over the Top
La Bamba
Robocop
The Lost Boys
The Running Man
Coming to America
Die Hard
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Batman
Lethal Weapon 2
Ghost
Total Recall

...just to name a few!

[MykeHavoc]

I have sadly never gotten to go to a drive in. It's a shame, since it's right up my alley and would've loved to have experienced it. But being born in the mid-80's didn't give me many opportunities to do so.

[remake]

Originally Posted by madlost1

There is still a drive in in my area and I don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Same here. But the one here is only open in the summer because of weather. I haven't been there in YEARSSSS though. I prefer giant curved screen with stadium seating and surround sound.

[HoonieHoon]

There is one about 35-40 minutes away from me but I haven't been there in the longest time. Being born in the 80's I also missed they hayday of them, but The most fun I had at a drive in was catching Back to the Future and Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back while munching on some fast food with good friends

[darkpoet25]

I think I've only been to a Drive-In once as a kid to go see The Gremlins. It was with my sister, her friend and my brother. Don't remember much about it, other than getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Here in Indy, on the west side of town we still have a Drive-In on Tibbs Ave. Haven't been there though, as it's a good 30+ minute drive from me.

[Parula]

My parents took us to the drive-in all the time as kids. I saw many of the classic Disney movies there such as Peter Pan, Cinderella, Marry Poppins, and Old Yeller. There's only one of these left in RI. It's called The Rustic Drive-in. I last went about 10 years ago. It's a fun evening. They used to have transmitters that you'd hang onto your partially opened car window. Now you just tune to a certain radio frequency for audio.

[Col. Zombie]

I vaguely remember going with my parents to see Jaws in a drive-in. I can recall my mother telling me to get my head down, and not "don't look" while I was in the backseat during a some of the more violent scenes.

Lubbock, TX still has a rather popular and very much operational drive-in. I saw a few movies there while I was attending school.

[Britnasty]

We have about 20 drive ins here in Wisconsin, two within 25 minutes of me.

My youngest memories are seeing Twister and Batman & Robin there, not the same time obviously

[fatediesel]

The drive-in in my town closed in around 2000 to build some apartments. I went to the drive-in quite a bit when I was a child though. I probably saw 40 movies at the drive-in, but here are the movies I remember seeing there:
Batman
Batman Returns (opened on my 10th birthday and I had my birthday party there)
Addams Family Values
Lethal Weapon 3
Batman Forever
Batman & Robin
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

[Guydowood]

Very nice memories, thanks for sharing thus far. I pretty much knew that some areas across the States still have active drive-in's, but for the most part are limited to seasonal operations. Certainly I'm not sure if the UK ever had a big drive-in era or still have any active ones, but I've often wondered and with some of your responses kinda proves the love affair with the drive-in still exists with us movie lovers. If I ever had the opportunity to open one, using today's tech to run it, but also provide what I would list as "The Vintage Experience" it could prove successful. plus toss in the Ladies in the trunk free night would also be a hoot for those of us who's parents/grandparents grew up in the heyday of the drive-in experience...

[smooththaboss]

there's a drive-in about 10 minutes from me. I've been 3 times this year and it's making a comeback in popularity here. I remember the first movie I saw there as a kid was cliffhanger.

[Movie Man Don]

Lol..I've been going to drive-ins since the 1950's. I even managed a huge drive-in during the late 70's for several years so I couldn't even begin to list the titles I've seen at a drive-in. I rarely saw an entire movie because of the work schedule, however.
I can tell you the most memorable drive-in experience of my life. It happened when I got out of the Navy in 1969. I went back to college and moved into a small house across from a cemetery. Some of the neighbors wanted to go watch a "horror" movie at the Broadway Drive-In in Hattiesburg, Ms. so I went along for the ride. As it turned out the movie on the screen that night was George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". After returning back to my house across from the cemetery, I remember looking out the windows until the wee hours of the morning. Scary stuff!!

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Guydowood

what's your's?????

Oh, just a beer, thanks.

The corporate drive-in seems to have vanished from our area of the country, but there have been some independently owned and operated ones out in the country--
Last time we lived within a half-hour's drive of one, about ten years ago, they had it set up in a sort of camping/picnic area in the woods, with huge billboards. Now that that iconic tinny speaker is gone, and sound comes over the short-distance FM car radio, there's no longer any need for the old iconic 50's sea-of-cement.

We used to have one of the Old School theaters in our neighborhood, growing up in the 70's, but I was too young for our family to go see more than two of them.
The "picnic area" one, though had more of the open-air feeling of families sitting out on the grass with blankets, picnic snacks, and portable radios to watch Disney's "Tarzan" (drive-in's don't show "drive-in movies" any more, you see, since only families come nowadays to save money), until the mosquitos sent us back into our cars.

[TheZoof]

I am lucky that we have 2 drive-in theaters within an hour of my house. One of them just got a nice new digital projector and I was blown away on the quality. I saw a 3 movie night not too long ago... it had 'Madagaskar 3' and I was blown away at quality of picture. I will go again soon when movies line up for what I haven't seen.

I have seen a ton of drive-in movies but the one that I remember most fondly was probably an all niter with my entire family.

We saw on Aug 2nd 1987---

The Lost Boys
Space Balls
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdrome
Little Shop of Horrors

I did not stay awake for Little Shop of Horrors being only 8 years old!