Drive-in theaters face uncertainty amid epidemic

• By Megan Tomasic/Tribune-Review

(Moon Township) — Drive-in theaters appear tailor-made for social distancing: Expansive fields of grass let vehicles park more than six feet apart, providing families with a safe night out in relative isolation.

Yet drive-ins are subject to the conditions facing most businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Local drive-ins have sat empty since Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all non-life-sustaining businesses to close last month. It’s the grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, beer distributors, bakeries and auto parts stores that are among those permitted to stay open.

“Until this all hit, we had a great year last year. It looked like this year would have been a great year and a great spring,” said Rick Glaus, owner of Dependable Drive-In in Moon. “It’s all gone now.”

Still, drive-in owners have tried to salvage the season as best as possible by hosting church services and high school graduations, events that would not be otherwise held.

Riverside Drive-In in North Vandergrift hosted an Easter service for Harvest Baptist Church in Natrona Heights, drawing about 1,800 people over six viewings.

“We did it on the fact that the church got permission to do it,” said Riverside Drive-In owner Todd Ament. “We, as the drive-in, could not approach the governor’s office to ask for permission to have church services because we would have been told, ‘No.’”

At Starlight Drive-In in Butler, an inquiry into the governor’s office prohibited the theater from hosting religious services or graduations because of their status as a non-life-sustaining business, according to a post on their Facebook page.

“People are sick,” the post reads. “People have lost their lives. People have lost their livelihood. People are afraid not knowing how they will take care of their families. These are very real facts. With the ‘Stay at Home Order’ put into place to flatten the curve … we will not question this response now.”

According to the post, further inquiries into reopening the theater will be made once restrictions are lifted.

Schools are also hoping to give their seniors a graduation ceremony with the help of drive-ins.

Garden Drive-In in Hunlock Township, Luzerne County, is hosting a high school graduation June 4 for the Hanover Area School District, according to a post on the district’s Facebook page. According to the post, students will be with their families inside their vehicles. They will then receive a diploma and have their picture shown on the drive-in screen.

Similar inquiries have been made at Dependable Drive-In, Glaus said, although plans to host graduation ceremonies have not been finalized.

Uncontrollable factors

Dependable’s season was thrown to a grinding halt March 20 when the governor’s orders went into effect.

The theater, which remains open most of the year, was taking precautions in the weeks leading up to the closure. The weekend prior to the announcement, Glaus decided to close the concession stand to limit public interaction, although food could still be ordered by phone.

Others, such as Evergreen Drive-In in Mt. Pleasant, have not been able to open for the 2020 season.

Joe Warren, owner of the theater, said the opening date was slated for April 3. Now, he doesn’t know when they will be able to open.

“If it goes into June or July like they’re saying, worst case scenario is we don’t get to open,” he said. “Then it will be a struggle.”

April, according to Warren, is when the theater typically opens, although movies are only shown on the weekends. He noted he uses the time to work out kinks before the season really kicks off.

The same goes for Riverside, Ament said.

Originally slated to open March 20, the theater has sat empty over fears people could contract the virus through interactions at the concession stand and in bathrooms.

Ament said he plans on reopening when restaurants, which are offering takeout and delivery only, are able to serve dine-in meals.

But even if drive-ins were permitted to open during the pandemic, owners would be limited as to which movies they could show.

New movies such as the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Part II” were pushed back once the virus started sweeping across the country. Specific dates have not been released for several films, although many have been pushed for release in the fall or winter.

The release of those movies, Glaus said, would have made for popular weekends at the drive-in.

“The next week would have been ‘A Quiet Place,’ so it would have been big,” Glaus said about a weekend in March. “The way the weather has been, it would have been a great April into March. You’re never going to get that back. It’s lost, and that’s it.”

Other factors, such as the process for which movies are released online, have changed. In March, Universal Pictures announced it would release films to streaming services such as Netflix, bypassing an exclusive 90-day period for theaters to show the movie, The New York Times reported.

Despite facing adversity, Ament is looking for the good in the situation, including a lower electricity bill because of Riverside being closed.

“We’re not sinking terribly into debt,” he said. “We aren’t open, so we didn’t have our normal amount of inventory bills that needed paid and we’re not using a lot of utilities right now. We’re in a really conservative mode right now. … It’s not like we’re going to fold up.”

Across the country, only a handful of drive-in theaters remain open, including Lake Worth and Ocala in Florida, King Drive-In in Alabama, Galaxy Drive-In in Texas and Mission Tiki in California.

Warren, who is not considering options such as church services and graduation ceremonies at his theater, said he will reopen once health officials deem it safe.

“All we know is our location is 100% safe because we are closed,” Warren said.