The Showboat Drive-In Theater is one of the most popular drive-in movie theaters in Houston. Drive-In Movie Theaters in Houstonĭrive-in movie theaters offer a unique movie experience that can’t be found in indoor theaters. The theater has comfortable seating, and you can also enjoy some snacks from the concession stand. The theater also has an IMAX screen and offers 3D movies. Located at 2949 Dunvale Road, the theater has 30 screens and is one of the largest movie theaters in the city. Another classic indoor movie theater in Houston is the AMC Studio 30. The theater also hosts special events, such as sing-alongs and cult classic movie marathons. It offers an old-school movie experience, complete with vintage decorations and an organ playing before the film. Located at 2009 West Gray Street, the theater opened in 1939 and has been showing classic films ever since. The River Oaks Theatre is one of Houston’s oldest movie theaters and a historic landmark in the city. In this article, we will explore the best places to watch movies in Houston.įor a classic movie experience, indoor movie theaters in Houston are the way to go. The city offers a variety of movie theaters, from classic indoor theaters to drive-in movie theaters and outdoor movie venues. Whether you are looking for a classic night out at the movies, an outdoor movie experience, or something more unique, Houston has you covered. While the exception, there were several other drive-ins of the period that were able to serve more than 2,000 cars at a time, including Lufkin's Panther Drive-In which could take in as many as 3,000 vehicles, one of the largest in the country.Movie night is always a great idea for a fun evening. Drive-ins reached their peak in popularity between the late 1950s and mid '60s, with more than 5,000 theaters open across the country during that time period.Īlthough all drive-ins were big by necessity, since the "seating area" was essentially a large parking lot made to accommodate a few hundred cars, Copiague, New York's All-Weather Drive-In was a true Goliath at the time, featuring parking for 2,500 cars as well as an air conditioned indoor area that seated an additional 1,200 seats, with amenities like a playground and a full service restaurant. The post-war Baby Boom also drove people into the drive-ins, many of which began promoting playgrounds for young children. In 1949 Hollingshead's patent was overturned, and drive-in theaters began springing up all over the country, fueled by America's post World War II love affair with the automobile. In Texas, the Corpus Christi Drive-In opened in the spring of 1939, being the first theater to bring the drive-in phenomenon to the Lone Star State. So after experimenting with the primitive movie technology available at the time, he opened his first Park-In to great success. Hollingshead worked for his father's auto products company and decided that people would enjoy watching films in their own cars. Originally known as a Park-In Theater, it was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, who was inspired by his mother's inability to get comfortable in traditional movie theater seats. The first drive-in theater opened in 1933 in Camden, New Jersey. There's no rush to buy the theaters, and in those cases they simply stand vacant, as a reminder of a long gone era of American entertainment. It seems that most of the ones still standing are usually scattered on the outskirts of small towns where land is plentiful, and not in high demand. There's a definite ghostlike quality to those old, boarded up drive-in theaters. Those that have disappeared entirely are relegated to the memories of locals who can still remember going to see movies there, but as time goes on fewer people are around who went to movies when they were open for business. In other cases, they're simply gone, demolished so the land they sat on could be redeveloped into something more profitable. Most are lifeless husks, either abandoned and slowly being claimed by the elements, or having been repurposed into something entirely different. Scattered around America, there are many old drive-ins. Anyone taking that route between Houston and Austin will have seen the back of its single screen and a tall metal fence around the perimeter. The Starlite Drive-In Theater lies abandoned just off of Highway 290 in Brenham, looking like a dead monument to a time long gone.
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