What Happened to the Drive-In Movie Theater?

Part II

At their peak in 1958, more than 4,000 drive-in movie theaters ooperated across the United States.  Today, only a few hundred remain.

For decades, the drive-in was one of the most affordable and flexible ways for American famillies to spend a summer evening.  You pulled in before sunset, clipped the speaker to your car window, watched the concession slides flicker across the screen and stayed as long as you wanted.  Kids fell asleep in the back seat.  Teenagers stayed for the second feature.  Nobody rushed you out.  

Some of the real reasons drive-in theaters declined were rising land values, the arrival of HBO in 1972, the spread of the VCR in the late 1970s and the rise of the indoor movie theater. Yet with the rise of television in the 1950s, indoor movie theaters faced competition.  The single-screen palace declined replaced by multiplexes which were single venues holding multiple screens which boomed in the 1980s.