San Juan Capistrano : Mission Drive-In Slated for Closure Next Month

Area residents will not be able to view the latest “Rambo” movie from the privacy of their cars after next month, when the Mission Drive-In Theater is scheduled to close after nearly 20 years.

Ted Storschein, whose family owns the seven-acre site, said the drive-in will close during the first week of September and is slated for demolition at year’s end.

In its place, Storschein Properties plans to erect a 75,000-square-foot to 80,000-square-foot shopping center that would include several retail shops. Storschein, who plans to submit site plans for city approval within 60 days, said construction of the center, which he estimates will cost “a few million,” can get under way in January

Overall, 18 acres, including the theater property, are slated for commercial construction--but no plans now call for a theater to be built on the site.

Closure of the drive-in, noted for its giant mural of the San Juan mission, will leave five drive-in theaters in the county. Last year, the Fountain Valley Drive-In was closed to make way for development.

Although Pacific Theaters, which operates the drive-in, was willing to close shop, Storschein said, the firm didn’t want to open a walk-in theater at the center and no deals are in the works with other theater operators.

“The other developers and myself have been trying to get a walk-in theater down here, but so far there’s been no luck,” he said.