Honda’s Project Drive-In Saving a Part of American Culture

A few weeks ago I was thinking about how much fun it was to go to the drive-in as a kid. My parents owned a yellow VW Bus (which ended up being my first car), and my brother and I would sit in the back, in our pajamas, with our bag of popcorn so excited to watch the movie we could hardly contain ourselves! Going to the drive-ins was such a wonderful childhood experience that I wanted to see about taking my daughter to a local drive-in. Little did I know that the only drive-in left in California is located in the top of the state, hundreds of miles away. The drive-in’s peak popularity came in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in rural areas, with some 4,000 drive-ins spread across the United States. Among its advantages was the fact that a family with a baby could take care of their child while watching a movie, while teenagers with access to autos found drive-ins ideal for dates. By 2013, drive-ins comprised only 1.5 percent of movie screens in the United States. At the industry’s height, 25 percent of the nation’s movie screens had been in a drive-in. (Source: Wikipedia.com).

What has been a part of American culture is now on the brink of extinction due to the end of 35 mm film distribution by the end of 2013. The reason is that film companies are switching over to digital projection and the estimated cost per screen to replace is estimated around 75,000 per screen. This is a huge amount of money for many of the family-owned drive-ins.

Honda’s Project Drive-In:

In comes Honda with their sponsorship of Project Drive-In to help save as many drive-ins as possible and raising community awareness across the nation. They plan to supply at least five winning theaters with digital projectors. People across the country can vote for which drive-in they would like to Honda to provide the projector to and ensure that this part of American cinema and car culture lives on.

How You Can Help:

At www.projectdrivein.com, you can vote to determine which five drive-in theaters will receive a new digital projector from Honda. Voting began on Aug. 9 and ends on Sept. 9 at 9:00 pm PT. The five winning theaters will be revealed in September, and each will host a celebration that includes a special screening of Sony Pictures Animation’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, in theaters everywhere on September 27.

“Cars and drive-in theaters go hand-in-hand, and it’s our mission to save this decades-old slice of Americana that holds such nostalgia for so many of us,” said Alicia Jones, Manager of Honda & Acura Social Marketing at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Drive-ins first opened in 1933 to mass popularity and reached their peak after World War II during the 1950s and ’60s when there were more than 4,000 across the country. Jones continued, “We’re committed to helping the remaining drive-in theaters flourish with the move to digital projection.”

The website encourages people to share Project Drive-In with family and friends via social media, pledge to see one movie at their local drive-in and contribute to the Honda Project Drive-In Fund to keep more drive-ins in business. As part of Honda’s fundraising efforts, there will also be an online auction that features tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 as well as additional film-related merchandise. Honda will launch pop-up drive-ins at Honda dealerships across the country to help raise awareness and build a groundswell of support, featuring a free screening of the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film. (Source: Honda Press Release).

Please place your vote at: www.projectdrivein.com

Photo courtesy of Flickr:

References:

Wikipedia.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-in_theater