Social Distancing Brings Resurgence for Drive-In Theaters
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIt’s been over a month since we’ve has been able to go into a movie theater to watch the latest releases on the silver screen. Hollywood is projecting losses of nearly $20 billion due to the global shutdown of movie theaters around the world. But the big screen isn’t totally dead. In fact, many Hoosiers are stepping back in time to enjoy one of the 20th century’s largely forgotten treasures.
“I do believe that drive ins may in fact see a new renaissance in the coming months,” said Joe Gaudin, co-owner of The Skyline Drive-In in Shelbyville. “The drive-in is the ultimate social distancing experience. Because most drive ins like us are first off we’re basically like a big park or grass or trees we’re outside and we typically have a lot of space. We have nine acres.”
The last few weekends The Skyline Drive-In, which opened in Shelbyville in 1950, has seen sell-out crowds. And Gaudin tells me he and his team have taken extra measures to ensure maximum safety for all of their customers.
“We limit the capacity to 150 cars, which seems like a lot, but our normal capacity is 300. So we have about 15 feet between every car. We have a mobile ordering app. They sit. They watch the movie while we fix their food.”
With the FanFood app, moviegoers can use their smartphones to order food from the comfort of their car. Then, when it’s ready they get an alert to pick it up at the concession takeout window. No long lines. And social distance maintained.
“FanFood offers two way communication right through the mobile app with the customer. It’s really like almost like a combination of a carry out food business that happens to show movies out in the parking lot.”
There are a total of 19 drive-in theaters in the state of Indiana and just over 300 drive-ins still open in the U.S. During their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, there were 4,000.
And Gaudin is convinced drive-ins may become the “new normal” moving forward.
“Attendance this year so far has been up. But I think it’s going to get even further up because I think that people are going to be thinking a little bit more about their environment when they go out for activities in a post COVID environment, so they’re going to be thinking, why do I want to sit seven inches from a stranger and watch a movie? Hmm, maybe not. That being said, I hope that the movie theater industry is able to recuperate from this, but I think drive-ins are going to take the lead for a while.”
“Drive-ins are going to become a part of the safety precaution because we’ve been doing this for 70 years and it’s always been a social distancing business.”