{"id":23051,"date":"2025-10-12T06:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=23051"},"modified":"2025-10-12T06:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:04:10","slug":"quintessentially-american-drive-in-theatres-are-going-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=23051","title":{"rendered":"Quintessentially American, drive-in theatres are going dark"},"content":{"rendered":"
Film buffs sit snugly in cars watching a drive-in movie, munching popcorn on a lovely recent fall night.<\/p>\n

Michelle Hutson, 52, has been coming to the Family Drive-In since childhood, enjoying what is now a dying form of quintessentially American entertainment.<\/p>\n

With a sigh, she notes she might soon see the last picture show as the nearly 70-year-old outdoor theater \u2014\u00a0one of the few remaining drive-ins in the Washington area \u2014\u00a0is on its way out, too.<\/p>\n

“I’m about to be a grandma again for the second time. And it’s heartbreaking to know that she may not be able to experience that,” Hutson said.<\/p>\n

The owners of the land under the Family Drive-In announced a few months ago they want to sell it, asking $1.5 million, said theater owner Andrew Thomas.<\/p>\n

If he bought the land at that price, it would mean a mortgage payment three times what he pays now in rent, Thomas told AFP.<\/p>\n

“It’s just not feasible for the business.”<\/p>\n

He launched a crowd-funding drive last month to save the theater and so far has raised around $30,000.<\/p>\n

“It’s overwhelming, in such a good way, that people care that much. Even in times of economic uncertainty, it means that this is a thing for them that’s worth saving, and I agree with them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have an opportunity to preserve a piece of history,” said the 40-year-old.<\/p>\n

Drive-in theaters are a throwback to another era in a country where cars are king. In their heyday in the 1950s there were more than 4,000 in America — but now only 300 or so remain, said Gary Rhodes, a movie historian.<\/p>\n

They have died off because more people watch television at home and urban development has made the land needed for a drive-in theater very expensive, Rhodes said.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film buffs sit snugly in cars watching a drive-in movie, munching popcorn on a lovely recent fall night. Michelle Hutson, 52, has been coming to the Family Drive-In since childhood, enjoying what is now a dying form of quintessentially American entertainment. With a sigh, she notes she might soon see the last picture show as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}