![]() There were over 4,000 drive-ins in the United States at one point, and now I think the number is below 400. We don't know what the future holds, but we plan to stay in business for decades to come They'd play videos of the kids walking across the stage, and the families would honk for their students. It was really sweet. We have great customers who like to have a good time.ĭuring COVID when everyone had to shut down, we let about 13 different high schools use our lot for their graduations. People come out in Pink Lady costumes or Poodle skirts. When we have a Marvel movie, there's a local group that dresses up as the Avengers - for " Black Widow," 10 or 12 of them dressed up as the different characters.Ĭustomers sometimes dress up for Marvel movies and our 'Grease' and 'Footloose' showings.Ĭourtesy of Michelle Heart, Townsquare MediaĪ couple of years ago, on Halloween we played the original " Halloween" movie, and someone dressed up as Michael Myers showed up and scared a few customers and my girls working the snack bar. In the last three years, I've played the original " Grease" and " Footloose" films as a combo. People love to dress up for their favorites The drive-in really brings the community together. That was the funniest thing I've seen so far. We once had customers tow a flatbed trailer into the drive-in with a huge sofa, so they could sit on the sofa and watch the movie. A lot of people like to sit in the back of their pickups to watch the film. With any drive-in theater, weather is the biggest determinant of turnout. We're out in rural Idaho, so we're situated near cornfields, there are a lot of weeds to maintain, and the wind takes a toll on the fence. My biggest thing is keeping the grounds looking nice. That comes with any business - but we're only open in the nighttime hours, so scheduling repairs can be a pain. That's when we'll see that the freezer went down, or the Coke machines sprung a leak. Our business heavily relies on concession purchases.Įach week, we come in after being away for four days because we only run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. We have to plan on something malfunctioning or breaking down, and just roll with it - whether it's the projection equipment, the 70-year-old popcorn machine, or the freezers. The challenges aren't that different from other businessesįor our specific drive-in, there are always repairs. I don't often get to see a lot of movies in their entirety when you're working at a theater, you end up seeing the same scene night after night. When " Top Gun: Maverick'' was released, Paramount unlocked the digital print for us to pre-screen the night before opening, which was a lot of fun. We're allowed to pre-screen if there's a big movie coming out. If it comes down to more of a family-friendly film versus a more adult one, I always go with the family-friendly one. I watch previews and look at reviews to see what people are anticipating - I use IMDb, Screendollars, and Box Office Mojo - and also ask friends and family which films they think will attract the most people. I communicate with the studios every week and lay out our calendar. We only have one 60-foot screen, so I have to be really selective about what we play and choose the ones I think will bring the biggest crowd, which can be really difficult. Some people assume we just pop in a videotape or a DVD, but we have play-date agreements and contacts at each of the major studios: Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, and Disney. I didn't ever think that I would come back and be the one running it.īringing new films to the screen is definitely not as simple as people might think. My parents had sold their indoor theaters over the years, so the drive-in was the last one my mom was still operating. When I was younger I never imagined I'd run my family's drive-in theater one day - but I couldn't let my mom sell it ![]() ![]() I worked in restaurant management and then I switched to working sales at trade shows, so that I could work for myself. Soon after that, I went off to college and moved out of state for about 22 years. As a teenager I worked at one of our indoor theaters, so I didn't spend much time at the drive-in at that point. Of course when you're young, you don't realize how special something like our drive-in really is.īy the time I was 10 years old, I was in the cleanup crew, picking up trash and doing the recycling. My parents owned two indoor theaters and the drive-in. I was involved in our indoor theater businesses quite a bit as a kid. I grew up 20 miles from Parma in Caldwell, Idaho. That makes me the third generation owner-operator as of 2019 - so I'm new to the scene. My grandfather built the drive-in, Parma Motor Vu, in 1953, and in 1976 my parents took over operations and ownership. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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