The Rise and Fall of Drive-In Theaters

The year 1933 brought the world’s first drive-in theater. Since that moment, it’s become one of those iconic American-style exports of entertainment. Today it’s a nostalgic experience, still done at several hundred spots around the country and perhaps others around the world but much less than at its peak. The story of the rise and fall of the drive-in theater is a fascinating one.

The fall, in particular, is blamed on the rising price of oil and a lack of green space due to rapidly developing suburbs. In a classic case of chicken and egg for which came first, there’s another explanation that I kept thinking about while reading this quirky history. With safety advances for cars in the 1970s, airbags and crumple zones meant front bench seats quickly became outdated. Without a front seat that mimics your couch at home, the romance and intimacy of the drive-in experience was lost. There continue to be some isolated reports of carmakers experimenting with bringing the bench seat back in some models. If they do, given the rise on nostalgic experiences in other spaces, will the drive-in theater trend make a comeback?