2 Drive-Ins Will Reopen at End of Winter, Chain Says

Two Orange County drive-in theaters have closed for the winter for the first time, citing declining attendance. The Times erroneously reported last week that screens in La Habra and Buena Park owned by Pacific Theatre & Drive-Ins had closed permanently, along with a third Pacific drive-in in Orange, which remains open. A spokesman for the chain, which is based in Los Angeles, said the overhead of running the county theaters over the winter has not been offset by attendance, but he said the La Habra and Buena Park theaters will reopen in the spring.

The county closings are part of a larger cutback in the Los Angeles area by the chain and by at least one independent owner. The number of drive-ins continues to shrink, with the loss last week, at least temporarily, of a dozen screens.

Pacific last week permanently closed five Los Angeles-area drive-ins with seven screens, in addition to the two Orange County theaters, which have four screens. An independently owned drive-in in Santa Fe Springs has closed for the winter, also for the first time, citing a lack of business.

However, a theater marketing executive insists that the closings are “definitely not a death knell” for open-air viewing.

Milton Moritz, Pacific’s vice president for marketing, said because drive-ins “present an alternative way of seeing motion pictures that is conducive to the life style of many people,” they will survive.

“Don’t say death knell, “ Moritz said. “Nothing is permanent in this business.”

Pacific owns 20 other drive-ins that remain open in the area, “and a lot of them are doing quite well,” Moritz said.

The problem with those that have closed, he said, is that “a lot of these areas have changed, and their styles were not compatible for multiscreen theaters.”

Moritz said he agrees with industry observers who say that the multiscreen drive-in is the economic model of the future.

Nonetheless, he said, the chain plans to stay with the La Habra theater, which has a single screen. “The theater definitely has a neighborhood following,” he said.

After the weather warms up again, “we’ll keep it open as long as it makes (economic) sense.”

In the past, Moritz added, attendance at the La Habra and the Buena Park theaters dropped off sharply after Labor Day, when the school year begins.

The Pacific drive-ins that have closed permanently include two in San Bernardino, one in Ventura, one in Lakewood and one in Burbank. Some of the sites are leased by the chain, Moritz said, while others are owned.

In 1985, Pacific closed its Mission Drive-In, in San Juan Capistrano, which became the site of a shopping center. For the last four years, the number of drive-ins in the county has dwindled.