Streaming may be convenient and multiplexes more high tech, but neither recreates the charm of a drive-in movie on a summer night.
With the number of drive-ins dwindling across the nation over the decades, John Watzke, owner of the Ocala Drive-In, said the twin-screen cinematic space ensures people experience a tradition that transcends generations.
“I tell people all the time, ‘A walk-in theater is a very expensive way to watch a movie; the drive-in becomes a memory,” he said. “The thing about a drive-in is you have the comfort of your own vehicle — your own space. You can come dressed as you are, you don’t have to pay a babysitter to watch your children and you don’t have to mortgage your house or save all year to go to the movies. Here you get two movies for half the price of one at a walk-in theater.”
Open seven days a week rain or shine, each of the two movie screens offers a double feature at the pet-friendly theater, 4850 S Pine Ave, Ocala.
Admission costs — which also require every vehicle to purchase a concession voucher — is $6 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 to 12 and free for children under 5 years old. Concession vouchers cost $5 for one person and $10 for two people.
For Watzke, who purchased and renovated the local landmark in 2011, working in the film and entertainment industry is a generational rite of passage.
“My first job was at a drive-in theater in New Orleans when I was 14 years old repairing the speakers,” he said. “My family has been working in the theaters going back to 1913. My grandfather was a projectionist. My dad was a projectionist in New Orleans. My brother and I were projectionists and our sons are projectionists.
“You have to have a passion for the drive-in,” he said. “I’m holding onto the one part of history I have a little bit of control over. It’s a way to hold onto a part of our childhood — an era that we grew up in that we really enjoyed. I’m going to hold onto it as long as I can.”
With children playing together in the grass or playing games in the games room, and adults making conversation with each other before the movie starts, Watzke said the community connection the drive-in patrons create is one of his favorite things to witness.
“Once they come through the gate, the only time you really see a phone in somebody’s hand is when they’re taking a picture,” he said. “The whole time people are here they actually spend quality time together. People just seem to revert back in time.”
The Ocala Drive-In has existed for 78 years and is one of four drive-in’s left in Florida, including the Silver Moon Drive-In Theatre in Lakeland, the Ruskin Family Drive-In Theatre in Ruskin and the Joy-Lan Drive-In Theatre in Dade City.
There are nearly 250 drive-in theaters left in the U.S., compared to the more than 4,000 that existed during their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Drive-Ins America and the New York Film Academy.
The summer season is typically the busiest time of the year for the local drive-in.
During summer weekends when showing a family movie, the theater can attract a crowd size of about 700 to 1,000 people. Watzke said winter crowds and crowds for movies rated higher than PG-13 tend to be a bit smaller.
“We are part of a dying breed,” Watzke said. “The thing is, you don’t make a fortune running a drive-in. We are offering two movies for a fraction of what you get at a walk-in theater. Every season when drive-ins up north close for the winter, you’ll hear of a few that announce they are no longer going to reopen for the next season. Even when we took over there were nine drive-in’s operating in Florida and we’re down to four.”
Cameron Rutter, of Lake City, has been going to the Ocala Drive-In for at least 10 years.
On July 1, he took his wife, Ava, to the drive-in for her first experience in celebration of their three-year anniversary.
“We drove a little over an hour to be here,” Cameron said. “We love movies and this place is a piece of American history I grew up seeing. I think it’s awesome that young adults and kids can come here. It feels nostalgic in a way, though, I didn’t get to experience the peak of drive-ins. We’ll continue to support this drive-in to keep this experience around.”
Watzke stresses that with the majority of ticket sales going back to the film companies, the only thing that keeps the drive-in in operation is sales from the concession. He said it’s a win-win for everyone.
“If you go to the movies here, you don’t have to stop and get dinner someplace,” he said. “You can eat a complete meal here whether you eat in your car, at the picnic tables, the patio area — it’s up to you.”
Along with the typical concession items such as candy, popcorn, nachos and pretzels, the menu features meals like pizza, burgers and fries, hot dogs and chicken.
Paying homage to his New Orleans roots, Watzke also offers a complete New Orleans-style menu featuring: a Cajun catfish platter, a seafood platter, New Orleans-style roast beef po’boy, a catfish po’boy, a shrimp po’boy and a muffuletta, the signature sandwich of New Orleans.
“New Orleans is known for the food more than anything,” Watzke said. “To make sure that my food is authentic, I have my bread shipped in from New Orleans from Gambino’s Bakery. A New Orleans sandwich is on French bread, not a hoagie. It’s a bread that you can’t even get down here. I’ve tried getting it down here and there’s nothing equal to it.”
Dalton Hensley said he remembers feeling the comfort that comes from the Ocala Drive-In experience while coming with his family over the past seven years.
Now, as a new employee of the concessions at the theater, Hensley gets to play a role in creating the magic he said makes this a unique way to watch a movie.
“This is a fun place that has a combination of things to do,” he said. “It’s a really unique way to watch a movie. It’s a bit more comfortable in your car. When my mom and I came for the first time, we watched “Toy Story 4” when it first came out. Being in the car I was more comfortable to be a bit more emotionally vulnerable than if I was at the movies.”
Watzke said owning the drive-in is a dream come true, adding that he’s “seen them fade away to where now there are several generations that have never seen a drive-in in their life.”
“My own children thought I was crazy considering something like this at the time because of the new theaters and auditorium experience,” he said. “They thought I was crazy up until the night I opened and my son and grandson saw the response of the people. My generation was really into drive-ins, so I said, ‘If I open this, our generation could bring in the next generation to see what we really loved about them. They are going to love it as much as we did and it will continue.’”
Movies currently showing at the theater are “Toy Story 5,” “Minions and Monsters,” “Disclosure Day” and “Masters of The Universe.”
For more information about the Ocala Drive-In and what time movies are playing, visit Ocaladrivein.info.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
