The theater reopens this weekend with a double feature after the owners say attendance improved last year following improvemenets to their equipment.
The fight to survive has been a difficult one. During the 1950s — at the start of the Baby Boom and when more cars were being purchased after World War II — there were an estimated 4,100 drive-ins operating in the U.S. The theaters proved to be the perfect entertainment option for young parents: They could bring their children, often wearing pajamas, to the drive-in, spend time together as a family without the expense of baby-sitters.
Beginning in the late 1960s, drive-in attendance began to decline as home entertainment options improved from color television to cable TV, VCRs and video rental.
Then multiplex theaters opened in retail locations and the large property used by drive-ins became too valuable to support the business.
So drive-ins started closing. Just 25 years ago, there were 593 drive-ins in the U.S., and last year there were 321 operating in the U.S. and 24 in Ohio, according to DriveInMovie.com.
They immediately invested in the theater by improving the quality of the picture and audio and hiring “the right people,” said Chaney, who formerly worked in operations management for Disney and brought that business model to the drive-in.
Seven years ago, the owners upgraded to digital projection that “greatly improved the whole experience” and allowed them to show older movies, he said.
Those upgrades have paid off at the box office, Chaney said. Last season, the 72-year-old theater attracted about 60,000 moviegoers, the highest since 66,000 in 2016, he said.
The theater, located at 1816 Old Oxford Road in Hamilton, will be open Friday and Saturday and show Onward at 7:15 p.m. and The Call of the Wild at 9 p.m. The theater opens at 6:15 p.m.
Adult admission are $9.25, children 4-11 are $5.50 and children under 3 are free.
Holiday Auto will show movies every Friday and Saturday until Sunday is added to the weekend schedule in April. Then the theater will be open every day from Memorial Day until the middle of August, then the schedule will be scaled back as kids return to school.
Chaney said the theater attracts students from Miami University, and because it’s been open for 72 years, sometimes has three generations of moviegoers in the same car.
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