Thanks to a nice article in the Abilene (TX) Reporter-News, we now know that the Tower Drive-In of nearby Rule has begun a Kickstarter fundraiser to pay for its digital conversion. Be sure to watch the nice little video they made to support the project. It really makes you feel like you’ve visited the Tower, and it’s embedded just to the right of these words.

What makes this conversion fundraiser a little different is that Tower owner Deon Gordon says she has a quote on a used digital projector for less than $39,000. That makes it about half the price of most drive-in digital conversion projects.

It’s a good long article with a long conversation with Gordon. I learned, for example, why drive-ins seem to be staying away from 3D. “There is a requirement from the studios for you to charge a premium and they get the premium,” Gordon said. “I charge six dollars for both movies and if I had to put a $3 premium on it, then any week or two-week period where I’ve got a 3D movie I’d price a lot of my customers out of being able to come.”

According to the article, Gordon already advertises on nearby radio stations to pull in patrons from a wide area, since the Tower is the only movie theater for 50 miles. I hope that means that a lot of civic-minded, forward-thinking north Texas residents will realize that they all need to chip in to keep their nearby source of entertainment alive. We’ll see!