Corona pandemic: the rebirth of drive-in cinema

In Quentin Tarantino's (57) current film "Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood", his homage to the dream factory, Brad Pitt (56) lives in a trailer near the "Van Nuys Drive-In". There are scenes that seem almost strange, the drive-in institution seems so far away. Back then there were over 4,000 units in the USA, today there are only around 300. Its popularity in the 1950s and 60s was particularly high among teenagers who joined B in the last car series, the "Love Lane" -Movies – the operators mostly couldn't afford the big productions – amused.

These so-called "drive-in movies", mostly from the horror genre, primarily shaped the drive-in experience with all their little stories. There were later testimonies of the cuddle and smooch cinemas in the open air in films such as "American Graffiti" (1973) or "Grease" (1978) – drive-in cinema, so to speak. The trend spilled from America to Germany in the 1960s. The first German drive-in cinema was opened in Gravenbruch on March 31, 1960. And right there, in a district of Neu-Isenburg in Hesse, the drive-in cinema is exemplarily experiencing a resurrection in the times of Corona.

Drive-in revival in the small town

Places like these are anything but the navel of the world, and yet – or precisely because of this – small towns like Gravenbruch or Aschheim suddenly, with their original settings, suddenly somehow become cultural metropolises, as the center of current film happenings. Because in big cities, where festivals and national premieres usually take place, the cinemas are almost completely empty. In Berlin and Co. you have to upgrade first.

No cinema without a car

The "Carrona" at the Olympiastadion in Charlottenburg is to open in Berlin on June 6, a project of the Zoo-Palast and the media agency "Pixelpitch Media Concept". In Munich, plans for a car event location on Theresienwiese with film, concert and theater events have already been made to offer an alternative to the vacant space this year. However, there is a crucial catch with the drive-in cinemas in the big cities: Those who live there usually do not need or need a car and only then will probably not buy a new one.

Drive-in cinema as a logical answer to social distancing?

The drive-in celebrates an unexpected renaissance as a nostalgic experience with a two-meter safety distance. The requirement of social distancing fulfills the car perfectly as its own isolation bastion in public and offers both the older generation the perfect compromise to traditional cinema visits and the Netflix audience a varied alternative to monotonous sofa streaming. The number of new pop-up drive-in cinemas is also growing, even if current films are currently in short supply.

Since there is only one screen, the operators tend to adapt to the wide public taste or fall back on classics, which gives the whole thing additional charm. Everyone watches the film together and yet everyone sees it for themselves. The car as an intimate retreat in company. In these times, the drive-in cinema is a romantic flare of an old relic that deserves to stay. Even beyond the summer when the cinemas will resume normal operation at some point.