My First Drive-In Movie.

I’ve saved $8215 in movie theater popcorn by switching to COVID. 

But on Saturday, enough was enough. I saw Tenet at The Paramount Drive-In Theater. It was a great experience I waited way too long to have. 

The Paramount staff has it down to a science. They patiently guide a long line of cars onto the lot. (And very quickly out after the movie ends.) They can squeeze 800 vehicles in, and with two screens running simultaneously – and two screenings per night – the place can rake in over $40,000 daily. During Coronavirus, their ship has come in. 

On top of that, they profit from the snack bar, located in a building between the two screens. The line moved pretty quickly, but the food was nothing special. Stale popcorn/soft pretzels. (We saw one theater-goer run off the property to pick up a pizza down the street. Hero.) Plus they don’t pump the movie’s sound into the building while you wait, which would be such an easy thing to make happen. They do sell beer, which is odd because just about every customer is driving home, but who are we to judge? 

Making the evening extra cool: The Paramount was the shooting location for Brad Pitt’s drive-in-adjacent trailer home in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It doubled as the now defunct Van Nuys Drive-In. 

Novice me learned the lot is filled with rows of small concrete hills, so you can park in a way that allows everyone in your car to look up to the screen. I remember hills like this from the cool drive-in scene in Heat, but thought it was just warped pavement:

  

That was shot at the Centinela Drive-In, by the way, one year before it became an apartment complex.

Do yourself a huge favor and find a drive-in near you. Many are popping up temporarily, often in regular theater parking lots accompanied by food trucks. Doesn’t get much better than that. Get out of the house, keep your windows up, smuggle in the kids. I highly recommend.