As the night grew darker, a cold wind whipped across the asphalt expanse of the vintage Rubidoux Drive-In Theatre in Riverside. A howling gust banged open the door to the snack bar, where hot dogs glistened on metal spits and the black-and-white linoleum floor gleamed.<\/p>\n
Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” flickered to life on the colossal screen \u2014 for an audience of eight cars.<\/p>\n
This time of year is always slow at drive-in theaters, which have been struggling with declining attendance for decades. But it’s not just cold weather that has made this a winter of discontent. The digital revolution is here, and that could mean lights out for many of the nation’s 368 surviving drive-ins.<\/p>\n
Hollywood is expected to stop distributing 35-millimeter film prints to all U.S. theaters later this year. The vast majority of indoor theaters \u2014 hardtops, in drive-in lingo \u2014 have already converted to digital projectors, but 90% of drive-ins have not, according to an industry trade group. Conversion costs of $70,000 or more per screen could be too expensive for many drive-ins.<\/p>\n
The Rubidoux plans to convert to digital projection, but its owner says the switch will be a struggle for many others.<\/p>\n
“There’s been panic, definitely,” Frank Huttinger said. “Ma and pop outfits, second- or third-generation places, are hesitant to put up all that money.”<\/p>\n
The drive-in market today is a shell of what it was in the late 1950s, when teens and big families in big cars found drive-ins a fun alternative to indoor theaters. At their peak, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins, accounting for 25% of the nation’s movie screens. Today, that’s down to 1.5%.<\/p>\n
By the late 1980s, more than three-quarters of American drive-ins had closed as multiplexes proliferated. Urban sprawl and soaring land values led many to be bulldozed to make way for malls and other commercial developments.<\/p>\n
The drive-ins that survived have been doing better in the last decade, spurred partly by cost-conscious families who can see double features or first-run movies at half the price of the hardtops, said National Assn. of Theatre Owners spokesman Patrick Corcoran.<\/p>\n
For younger audiences, there’s the chance to travel back in time.<\/p>\n
“My car’s pretty roomy, and it’s chill to sit there together,” said Casey Welch, 19, who was at the Rubidoux Drive-In with girlfriend Jonnie Byrd.<\/p>\n
In most of the country, drive-ins close for the winter. Some may not reopen this spring because of the high cost of digital conversion, said John Vincent Jr., the president of the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Assn. He declined to speculate on the number that may close.<\/p>\n
None of the eight operating drive-in theaters in Southern California have yet converted to digital.<\/p>\n
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Vincent said. He plans to spend $75,000 to convert the drive-in he owns on Cape Cod.<\/p>\n
More than a decade ago, Hollywood created a financing plan to help traditional indoor theaters with the digital transition. Each time a cinema shows a digital movie, the studios give them a so-called digital print fee funded by the nearly $1,300 that the studios save on making and shipping a 35-mm print, said Chris McGurk, the chairman and chief executive of Cinedigm, a digital equipment provider for theaters.<\/p>\n
But there is no such plan for drive-ins. Cinedigm and NATO officials said they are negotiating with the studios for a virtual print fee for drive-ins, but neither they nor studio officials could give details of the plan or say when it would be introduced.<\/p>\n
The Rubidoux is owned by Los Angeles-based DeAnza Land & Leisure Corp. Huttinger, De Anza’s chief executive, said converting 21 screens at all six of his company’s drive-ins would cost nearly $2 million.<\/p>\n
Drive-ins have unique projection needs. The booth typically sits more than a football field away from the screen, so the projector needs a much more powerful bulb to carry the image. Booths with a digital projector also need to be retrofitted with special glass, more vents, stronger air-conditioning and an Internet connection. Projectionists who used to put film onto reels will instead insert a jump-drive into a server the size of a refrigerator.<\/p>\n
Jeff Kohlberg, the owner of the Cascade Drive-In in West Chicago, created a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign to help pay for his $100,000 conversion. He raised $1,200. Because getting film this summer seems “wishy-washy at best,” he’s forging ahead, using extra profits from this year and some money from his landlord.<\/p>\n
But some proprietors aren’t so fortunate.<\/p>\n
The family of Gerry Herringer, owner of the Cottage View Drive-In in Cottage Grove, Minn., once owned 21 theaters in the Twin Cities. Converting his only remaining theater would cost Herringer about $75,000. Instead, he’s selling the land to Wal-Mart.<\/p>\n
“It’s really kind of a stab in the heart to lose it,” said Herringer, pausing to clear his throat. “It’s a part of our family.”<\/p>\n
There are also small chains. West Wind, a seven-theater circuit based in San Rafael, Calif., does plan to convert all its screens in California, with company spokesman Tony Maniscalco saying revenue rose 43% over the last three years.<\/p>\n
The first U.S. drive-in opened in Camden, N.J., in 1933. A year later, California’s first drive-in opened at the corner of Pico and Westwood boulevards in Los Angeles, a city built for the car.<\/p>\n
Juan Gonzales took his first drive-in job in 1974. As drive-ins slowly succumbed to changing tastes and became sites for retailers, Gonzales began moving from theater to theater as each shut down. He worked at the Sundown in Whittier, now a Home Depot; the Rosecrans in Paramount, now an El Pollo Loco and a Wendy’s; and the Sepulveda, the 101 and the Van Nuys, all now gone.<\/p>\n
“It was like a culture that began to disappear,” Gonzales said. “A piece that is missing in the heart of California.”<\/p>\n
Some drive-ins remain as sites for concerts and swap meets, but the only drive-in left in Los Angeles and Orange counties that shows movies is the Vineland Drive-In off Interstate 10 in the City of Industry, which Gonzales manages. Renovating all four screens would cost more than $320,000, he said. Management is considering renting digital projectors as a stopgap for the next few years.<\/p>\n
“We know it has to be done before the summer,” Gonzales said. “We don’t get digital, we don’t get movies, we don’t get business.”<\/p>\n
For drive-in fans, the cocoon of a car is again a novelty, and a blessing for those who want to text during movies, run to the snack bar multiple times or pay lower ticket prices. The theaters attract baby boomers who remember the drive-in era and young couples who’ve heard their parents reminisce about it.<\/p>\n
Melanie Medina, 20, and her boyfriend Jesse Gaeta, 19, both from Highland Park, first visited the Vineland after hearing Medina’s mother talk about going to the drive-in as a child. They’ve been back five times. They were sharing a hot dog and nachos at the snack bar before “Sinister” came on, a movie that had already left theaters.<\/p>\n
“We like it because you can get out of your car and smoke and not miss anything,” Gaeta said.