Drive In Movie Theater History

In the article “Drive-Ins: The Last Great Picture Show by Melissa Shaw-Smith” the author talks about why people prefer Drive-Ins. Some of the reasons why is because you have your own little place so you can do anything in the car, the prices are lower, and you can get children.

Movies were becoming one of the biggest businesses during the 1920s and most people would spend their leisure time going to the theatre to watch the silent films. They were becoming huge in the popular culture and Hollywood was the place to be. Roughly by 1922, 40 million people a year in attendance over the entire country for the movie theatres and in 1930 over 100 million people would attend the movies every year. By 1927, the movie industry became the fourth largest industry in the country. “The Great Train Robbery” which was released in 1903 was the beginning of the film industry and would eventually change everything. “Jazz Singer” was the first movie that had synchronized sounds throughout the entire film. The popular genres during this decade were western,

The first place to look when you are looking into the history of film is the 1900s. The 1900s to 1910 is when the very first film machine was invented and used for the first time. The early technology of film was invented by and demonstrated by Raoul Gromain-sanson. Raoul presented his Cineorama system in the early 1900s. “Cineorama featured an enormous panoramic screen, onto which were projected ten simultaneous images side

Thomas Lincoln Tally, proprietor of arcades and phonograph parlors, opened his Electric Theatre in Los Angeles during the spring of 1902. The actual date of the theater’s opening varies among sources, the most often cited being April 2nd, 6th, and 16th. Before Tally’s Electric Theatre, motion pictures were often exhibited in existing storefronts or vaudeville theaters. Tally’s was the first building constructed for the sole purpose of showing movies. The theater was open from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm in the beginning, but Tally added matinee showtimes to accommodate its many customers. Screenings were often sold out, no matter the time or day. Tally’s initial success spurred on the wave of construction of more movie theaters, about 3,000 in the U.S. by 1907 and 10,000 by 1910. It is also worth noting that Tally’s Electric Theatre was not a nickelodeon. Though the term is sometimes used loosely today, by definition it only applies to movie theaters that charged five cents (a nickel) for admission. Tally’s charged ten cents as mentioned in an early advertisement:

The story of the drive-in movie theater begins with one man. That man was Richard Milton Hollingshead, Jr., born on February 25, 1900, the "father" of the drive-in.

Ticket sales for movie theaters are at their lowest point since 1996. With the core demographic group expected to grow slower than the US population and with technological advances growing at speeds faster than the industry can keep up, ticket sales will continue to decline if the current business strategy continues to be followed.

Revised: August 28, 2002 In April 2001, Matt Heyman, co-founder of Cinemex, the largest chain of movie theaters in Mexico City, looked out the window of his office and pondered the future of his company. In just seven years, Heyman and his partners had nurtured Cinemex from a student idea into the largest theater chain in Mexico City, but they faced new challenges every day. Many of these challenges came from competitors. For years competitors ran old, poorly-maintained theaters, but in recent months they had begun to imitate Cinemex’s top-of-the-line exhibition venues. Their latest tactic: offering two tickets for the price of one on Wednesdays. Heyman wondered whether Cinemex should

In cinema’s early days, the film industry was based in New York, the nation’s theatrical center. Most movies were being filmed in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Florida. However, by the 1920’s, southern California had become the leading film capital due to its cheap land and labor. Films gained their popularity after Vaudeville actors striked in 1901. This left theaters scrambling for acts and films became the main event. Silent films were widely popular in the early 1920’s and were usually accompanied by live piano or organ music. Talking-pictures were first introduced in 1923, but did not become popular until 1927.

One thing that movie entertainment fulfilled was attracting people to the big screen. For example, I can introduce this quote: “In just eight years, from 1922 to 1930, weekly U.S. movie attendance soared from about forty percent to over ninety percent of the population” (americainclass). This shows how in just eight years movie popularity spiked, where as about 40 million Americans went to motion picture theatres on a weekly basis. As the brink of silent films came to society and the evolution of the industry had risen, going to the movie theatre became a weekly event. This transition in entertainment, from stand-up comedy/plays to movies, was remarkable. The huge trend and liking for going to the movies impacted America in the way it had reshaped entertainment. Movie companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros made a lot of money and success. The industry became very rich. Going to the movie theatre in the 20s was classy, fashionable, and it became a

Since all theater had the same films, they focused on the quality of the theater as a form of differentiation (bigger and better screens, carpeting, emergency lights on floors, attractive marquees), while this was standard in the USA, this was new to Mexico

Modern technology isn't disappearing and the need for movie theaters will continuously decline. If movie theater owners take the time to examine several of these options they will certainly find one that functions for them and begin to earn a revenue that is truly theirs.

In 1927 new technology emerged in sound, people started going back to the theatres to watch films,

Competition between theaters often comes down to distance from home, convenience of parking and proximity of restaurants. Innovations by one theater chain are quickly adopted by others. The differing approaches of the theater chain companies are reflected in their cost of fixed assets per screen.

The modern film industry was born around the beginning of the twentieth century. On April 23rd 1896 Thomas Edition showed the first publicly-projected motion picture at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. From there the film industry had an explosive growth rate. In fact,

There is a broad variety of types of theaters available- conventional theaters, IMAX and drive in’s. Going