(Transcriber’s Note: This article was part of the June 3, 1950 issue of BoxOffice magazine.)
With the construction of new drive-in theatres maintaining a steadily increasing pace across the country, the wise showman who plans to enter the field will check carefully the experience of those who have pioneered in building and operating these outdoor theatres.
In a long list of items to be considered in determining the size and style of drive-in you will build, it is sound logic to determine a couple of things at the outset. It is not necessarily desirable to have the largest drive-in theatre in the vicinity, but it is essential to a successful operation that your theatre be modern in design and equipment, and offer the latest patron conveniences available.
To secure some picture of the drive-in theatre as it exists in this country today, let's start at one end of the scale and work up. At the bottom is a type of operation found in some parts of the middle south. The screen tower consists of two large trees with branches lopped off on the front and in the area behind the screen. Two wire cables are strung between the trees and a canvas "screen" stretched over them.
The customary ramp area is often completely lacking and the parking area is usually covered with a thin layer of cinders to provide a bit of traction for tires on rainy nights. The booth is frequently a frame structure with port openings covered with miscellaneous scraps of tin.
Often there will be no restrooms, or perhaps rather primitive outdoor facilities "offsite." Some of the more basic "concession departments" will consist of a homemade ice chest in which bottled soft drinks are cooled and prepopped corn which is stored in the boxoffice. These items are sold by boys who pass among the cars carrying their wares in baskets.
As a rule, sound will be conveyed to the patrons either through four bi-car speakers mounted atop the booth, or through small speakers mounted on the limbs cut from "screen tower" trees.
Such is a picture of one end of the drive-in scale.
At the other end, of course, we find the ultramodern situation with its tiled restrooms, in-car speakers and perhaps heaters, concession stands that are the last word in food handling sanitation and projection and sound of the highest quality.
In addition to motion pictures, some of these units offer full meals, playground facilities, kiddielands, dance floors and other up-to-the-minute attractions. They are equipped with hard-surfaced ramps, a lighted aisle through the longitudinal center line of the theatre and "moonlight" lighting systems for patron safety. This type of operation appears at the top of the scale.
In order to enter the business, many a showman must realize the necessity for combining modernity and completeness with a construction price that he can afford to pay. The desired result may be obtained by building what you can afford today, planned so that the additional items you desire to complete your plan may be built in when earnings justify them. If your basic plan is well thought out, these additions can be made with a minimum of alteration to the original construction.
In attempting to build the "biggest" drive-in possible instead of the "best," too many new drive-in operators are prone to come up with a large operation that is little more than a parking lot. It is far better to have a 500-car drive-in filled consistently than to own a 1,000-car situation that is filled only on one or two weekend evenings.
As a rough guide to keying drive-in capacity to the size of smaller cities, experience
has proved the following comparisons to be fairly accurate ::
For cities of
In many localities of more than 35,000 population, exhibitors have attempted to eliminate effective competition by building two drive-in theatres of 400-car capacity instead of one 700-car operation. This is frequently a good business move as it creates its own competition in addition to providing the exhibitor with a better supply of product and the patrons a choice of film fare.
In designing the drive-in it is well to remember that the American people are naturally of an inventive nature and love "gadgets." We are constantly endeavoring to add our own ideas to existing orderly processes. In drive-in design such a flair on the part of many exhibitors has resulted in attempts to incorporate innovations which are untried or untested by the technical brains that deal with drive-in problems constantly.
Experience is the only reliable guide to successful design and operation and, based on
the investigation of more than 550 drive-in theatres, certain groups of problems have
proved to be practically universal. They fall roughly into nine major classifications ::
Improperly designed ramps can mean only one of two things. The theatreman will either have to resign himself to a constant stream of complaints ending in lower boxoffice receipts, or he will have to have the ramps redesigned to provide proper sight lines for each car.
Properly designed ramps permit a clear, unobstructed view of the screen from any location. To achieve this the designer must provide sufficient slope to allow sight clearance over cars ahead of each ramp. The varying height of automobiles, the position in which the car is parked on the ramp and many other items must be considered in allowing the proper grade.
The nominal fees for proper engineering of these ramp grades in advance of construction can be many times repaid in lower grading costs and better drainage after the theatre is in operation. When correctly engineered, the grading job is routine. Since all earth moving jobs are estimated by computing the number of cubic yards of material to be moved, giving your grading contractor an engineering plan makes it necessary only for him to apply his unit cost to the specified quantity of earth which needs to be moved. You may then know exactly what the operation will cost in advance, in addition to knowing that your ramp design is correct in the beginning.
In addition to working out sight lines, the engineer first figures the elevations of screen tower and back ramp to de- termine the number of cuts and fills which will be necessary. Since the cost of either "spoiling" (that is carrying away unnecessary dirt) or "borrowing" (which implies bringing in dirt from the outside) is great, the object is to make fills balance cuts.