The Kansas City (MO) Business Journal ran a nice long article yesterday talking about the drive-in theater situation in the KC metropolitan area. Business is booming at all three surviving drive-ins, but two of them are facing the decision on whether to go digital or close when film runs out. Those two, Kansas City’s I-70 and the Twin in Independence MO, are both owned by Darryl Smith.

The article doesn’t mention this, but before Smith’s time, the I-70 was one of the first drive-ins to carve up its lot to add extra screens to give patrons more choices. Now they’re seeing the downside of having so many projectors; to replace the four at the I-70 plus the pair at the Twin will cost the better part of a half million dollars.

That decision would be easy if business was drying up, but instead, “July sales for the I-70 Drive-In were close to twice what they’d averaged over the last five years.” But will that be enough to cover such a huge expense? Smith is hoping that Honda’s Project Drive-In will tip the answer his way; the I-70 is one of the drive-ins competing for votes to win a new digital projector.

The KC Business Journal story included a fun side note about the Boulevard across the border in Kansas City KS. Not only was it an early converter to digital, the Boulevard claims to be the first drive-in to install a 4K projector. Since it was installed over a year ago, “attendance has shot through the roof, similar to the figures drive-in theaters reached in the 1960s. … The projector has more than paid for itself, even though the theater operates only Thursday through Sunday from April to October.” Let’s hope that Smith reads that part of the story and finds the cash to keep his drive-ins running for decades to come.

photo by Terry Shuck, used by permission

KCTV, Kansas City MO’s news leader, ran a loving tribute to the Boulevard Drive-In, across the border in Kansas City KS. The occasion was the presentation of a plaque commemorating the Boulevard’s 60th year; it opened in 1954.

A particularly interesting sidenote is that, according to the article, Kansas City “is the only city in the country to have three” living drive-in theaters. Actually, that author must be referring to the metro area, since the Twin (Independence MO) and the I-70 (Kansas City MO) are really in different cities. That triggers all sort of memories for me, since that’s the metro area where I was born and raised. I’ve attended all three of these, and I also remember some drive-ins that are long gone, sitting in the back of a borrowed van at the 63rd Street, seeing Blazing Saddles at the Leawood, and watching Star Trek 5 with my dear wife at the State. I wonder what has made the KC area such fertile ground for drive-ins. My guess would be that land prices haven’t skyrocketed the way they have elsewhere.

Oh yes, back to the KCTV article. It includes a bounty of quotes from Wes Neal, a part of the Boulevard since 1954. For example, one of the Boulevard’s distinguishing characteristics is that it kept its speakers even as many drive-ins have gone FM-only. “We want to keep it like the original drive-in, and we keep every one of the speakers working perfectly all the time, so every week we have to check every speaker and repair them as necessary,” he said.

The article also points out another distinguishing point – the Boulevard was the first drive-in to go digital, early in 2012. I saw Men In Black 3 there during a visit last year, and it looked great. But maybe I should stop rambling about my Kansas City drive-in roots and just let you go read it!