{"id":104777,"date":"2020-11-03T22:50:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T19:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/sunset-falls-on-a-historic-season-for-the-drive-in\/"},"modified":"2020-11-03T22:50:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T19:50:41","slug":"sunset-falls-on-a-historic-season-for-the-drive-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sunset-falls-on-a-historic-season-for-the-drive-in\/","title":{"rendered":"#Sunset falls on a historic season for the drive-in"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Sunset falls on a historic season for the drive-in<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n NEW YORK \u2014 Julia Wiggin was still shivering after running out to hang up the weekend\u2019s marquee \u2014 \u201cGhostbusters,\u201d \u201cTexas Chainsaw Massacre\u201d \u2014 at her Northfield Drive-in near Hinsdale, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cold,\u201d Wiggin said on a bitter, wet morning. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely time we closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a historic season, winter is coming at the drive-in. Summer and early fall have seen their simple, old-fashioned lots transformed into a surprisingly elastic omnibus of pandemic-era gathering. It has hosted concerts and comedy shows, business conferences and Sunday services, graduations and weddings. Dodger fans watched their team win the World Series<\/a> from a drive-in in their stadium\u2019s parking lot. Red-carpet premieres that would normally consume Lincoln Center uprooted to drive-ins. (At one, Bill Murray joked that he\u2019d visit every car.) Even the campaign trail joined the trend, leading to the first ever presidential race that included a mini-referendum on the drive-in. \u201cYou know, people in cars. I don\u2019t get it,\u201d said Donald Trump after Joe Biden\u2019s Atlanta drive-in rally.<\/p>\n

Yet the drive-in has undeniably saved a small slice of 2020, offering social<\/a>ly-distanced salvation at a time when most large gatherings are off the table because of the pandemic. But, well, it\u2019s starting to get pretty cold \u2014 at least in much of the country. Drive-ins in Texas, California and Florida can keep humming all year but most of the US\u2019s roughly 300 drive-ins are seasonal. They aren\u2019t built for the cold and they\u2019re definitely not built for the snow.<\/p>\n

With temperatures dropping \u2014 and even some flurries this past weekend \u2014 one of the pandemic\u2019s few bright spots is running low on time. But many drive-ins are staying open well beyond normal closing, stretching a season that might usually end around Labor Day much later. Some are selling a lot of hot chocolate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people mind the cold,\u201d says Wiggin. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people bring sleeping bags and, like, a tarp. They\u2019re die-hards. Well, OK, if you\u2019re willing to come out, I\u2019m willing to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Filmgoers
Filmgoers attend the \u201cNomadland\u201d screening at the Queens Drive-In at the New York Hall of Science<\/a> during the 58th New York Film Festival in New York on Sept. 26, 2020.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Northfield Drive-in went over by two months before its Halloween-weekend finale. That\u2019s mainly because the drive-in has turned into what Wiggin calls \u201ca major community service project,\u201d hosting graduations for everyone from fifth-graders to doctors of internal medicine. On Sunday, a Shakespeare theater group was on the schedule.<\/p>\n

John Vincent, president of the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, estimates more than 200 drive-ins were still operating through Sunday. Showing movies is only part of it, especially since Hollywood studios aren\u2019t releasing their big films. Marcella Snyder who runs the Tibbs Drive-in in Indianapolis, usually hosts one or two private events a year. This year, she hosted 50. The requests are still coming for November or December.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at frost warnings but the people are still coming,\u201d says Snyder, who has seen hot chocolate sales skyrocket as temperatures have plummeted. \u201cIf it starts snowing, what am I going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Like indoor theaters, drive-ins have been operating at 50 percent capacity to space people out. So ticket sales in the summer, even during sell-outs, wasn\u2019t necessary off-the-charts for many locations. This fall, though, most are seeing much higher attendance than normal. Drive-ins like Tibbs have adapted to not just online ticketing and concession ordering by app<\/a> but have rethought what the drive-in \u2014 so unchanged by time \u2014 can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built our whole business on nostalgia and it\u2019s nice that we\u2019ve turned a corner. We\u2019ve kind of brought it into the 21st century,\u201d says Snyder. \u201cIt\u2019s been crazy and wild but we\u2019ve loved every minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s made drive-ins want to keep rolling as far into the cold as they can. But how long can they hold on? For Jude DeLeonardis, owner of the 700-car Delsea Drive-in, New Jersey\u2019s last remaining drive-in, the limit is \u201cstupid cold.\u201d Before the pandemic, she had planned to close around Halloween. Now she expects to go at least to Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow far into December we can go will depend on Mother Nature and turnout,\u201d says DeLeonardis. \u201cWe would keep it going all year if we knew it wasn\u2019t going to get stupid cold and snowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some drive-ins have advantages that others don\u2019t. The five-screen Ford Wyoming Drive-In<\/a> just outside Detroit never closes. Their owner also runs a construction company, so they have snowplows on site. The Ford Wyoming runs from dusk to dawn, selling tickets as late as 2:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will concede the fact that we are unusual,\u201d chuckles co-owner William Clark. He judges ticket sales this October have been twice what\u2019s typical. \u201cWe never close except with the caveat if there\u2019s a 10-inch snowstorm right before the movie goes on the screen,\u201d says Clark.<\/p>\n

Bengies Drive-In<\/a>, outside Baltimore, rents electric in-car heaters. That not only keeps moviegoers warm into November, but it prevents car engines from idling. \u201cModern America doesn\u2019t understand carbon monoxide,\u201d says Bengies owner D. Edward Vogel.<\/p>\n

Echoing other drive-in owners, Vogel emphasizes that drive-ins, even though they\u2019ve enjoyed having the spotlight this year, need indoor theaters to be open. Exhibitors indoor and outdoor need new movies to survive, yet the studios have largely given up on 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to protect what we call the theatrical window. And it doesn\u2019t exist right now, or rarely does it exist,\u201d say Vogel, whose drive-in touts the largest movie screen in the country. \u201cEven the best players who were good to us before are buying into that. It makes me wonder: What is theatrical about watching a movie on your TV or your phone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vogel will keep Bengies open as long as the weather holds and moviegoers keep turning up. Not that he couldn\u2019t use a break after a season unlike any other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen my family since February, so I could use a little rest,\u201d said Vogel, laughing. \u201cI\u2019m not sure we\u2019re going to do it, but we\u2019ve already had offers for New Year\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those drive-ins that are locking up for the season do so with the knowledge that they\u2019ve never played a more vital role in their communities. Jay Mowery, owner of the Cumberland Drive-in<\/a> in Newville, Pennsylvania, hosted his first wedding, along with drive-thru trick-or-treating, fundraisers and a creature-feature weekend rented by some horror fans. Halloween weekend was his last of the season, but Mowery \u2014 like others \u2014 has the feeling his drive-in might be called on for graduations and other socially-distanced events next spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot better than being closed and it\u2019s certainly helped the community. It\u2019s given them a place to gather,\u201d says Mowery. \u201cWe put a 44-foot-long plastic shield along the snack bar. It\u2019s just high enough that we can slide a big tub of popcorn under it. I can\u2019t wait to take this thing down but now I\u2019m thinking I might need it next year.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Sunset falls on a historic season for the drive-in” NEW YORK \u2014 Julia Wiggin was still shivering after running out to hang up the weekend\u2019s marquee \u2014 \u201cGhostbusters,\u201d \u201cTexas Chainsaw Massacre\u201d \u2014 at her Northfield Drive-in near Hinsdale, New Hampshire. \u201cIt\u2019s cold,\u201d Wiggin said on a bitter, wet morning. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely time we closed.\u201d After…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/drive-in-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[78292,1545,1361,11569],"class_list":["post-104777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-3-20","tag-coronavirus","tag-movies","tag-social-distancing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}