Even though it has space for 350 cars and covers 25,000 square meters and is very near to Madrid’s central Paseo de la Castellana, Autocine Madrid Race is now Spain's largest drive-in theatre with a screen that measures 250 square meters. With a bar and food trucks reminiscent of U.S. drive-ins from the 1950s, Autocine Madrid Race opened in February – perhaps appropriately – with a screening of the musical Grease.
Fresh Air Flicks founder/owner Glen Sanders spotted the trend of outdoor cinema early on as it gained traction in Brooklyn and other communities. Starting out in 2004, Sanders and Fresh Air Flicks were providing giant inflatable screens for events like Movies with a View that would bring as many as 8,000 people out for an evening to watch films in the park beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
Thanks, in part, to digital cinema technology, drive-in theatres are on the rise. According to the United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association, as of this month there are 324 drive-in theatres in the United States, 299 of which are digital, with a total of 595 screens. Though the numbers will likely never be as high as they were in the 1950s when the nation had more than four thousand drive-ins, the association says the drive-in business seems to be on an upswing. Coyote Theatres is a case in point
The oldest drive-in movie theatre in the United States Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre in Pennsylvania, has selected GDC Technology’s SX-2000AR server with Barco’s DP2K-32B projector and Ballantyne Strong for its digital conversion.
Christie Digital Systems has announced a wide range of technology that it plans to showcase at this year’s ShowEast. The demonstrations will include Christie and Dolby 4K laser projection and audio technology, Christie’s prototype 4K-laser projector fronted by a RealD XL Cinema System and accompanied by Christie Vive Audio speakers and amplifiers configured for Dolby Atmos.
Four more drive-in theatres have received Christie digital cinema projectors as part of Honda’s ongoing program to help them make the transition from film to digital.
Based on the overwhelming response from fans and communities across the country for Project Drive-In, Honda is adding four more digital cinema projectors to its national effort to save drive-ins facing closure due to the end of 35mm film distribution.
