SW Michigan drive-ins face digital conversion costs

Ticket booth at the Capri Drive-In

Ticket booth at the Capri Drive-In.
Photo by All Things Michigan.

The MLive Media Group, which includes a bunch of newspapers in Michigan, published a set of stories over the weekend about the state of southwest Michigan drive-ins. Glenda and Neal Edwards own two of them, the 5 Mile of Dowagiac and the Sunset in Hartford, and they’re hoping to get films for the rest of this summer while they save to convert at least one of their drive-ins to digital projection. “We’ll do it for as long as we can hold on, as long as we can get prints,” Glenda Edwards said. They say it’s possible that they’ll have to close one or both drive-ins.

Meanwhile, the Capri of Coldwater made the change just a week or two ago, according to The Daily Reporter. Its owners, Susan and Tom Magocs, wanted to let their patrons know that “the Capri will still be here.” MLive reports that the cost to convert the two projectors was $144,000, and those funds came from selling their lake house.

MLive also has a five-photo slide show of the three drive-ins, so you probably really ought to go read it!