If you can, think back to thel last movie you saw at a drive-in theater. I think my last one was Sister Act, to give you an idea of how long it’s been. In fact, my neighborhood’s poor drive-in was knocked down several years ago to make room for the Los Altos Center on Bellflower Boulevard.
Yes, times have indeed changed and sadly, not entirely for the better. Sure, we love our air-conditioned theaters with surround-sound, all the snacks you can stuff your face with and comfy chairs complete with cup holders. But unlike the good old drive-ins, we frequently have to deal with outrageous ticket prices, a barrage of artery-clogging snacks, and did I mention disrespectful customers?
See, back in the day, you only had to fork up around five bucks to enter the drive-in gate and find a cozy spot next to a little speaker box in the parking lot. Once you were all hooked up with the speakers, you could cuddle up with your hot date and not be disturbed by the cars next to you. Heck, your neighbors could be making a mess with their food, throwing their feet up on the dash, chatting with their friends or even making out. But you wouldn’t know or care because you had a whole car’s space (and then some) between the two of you to filter it all out. It was like we all had our own private screening rooms.
But today we’ve been largely robbed of this luxury. Now, no matter what kind of discount you can scrounge up, we all pay an average of ten bucks just to get through the doors of a crowded theater and deal with noisy, messy and basically, ill-mannered patrons. Cell phones ring off the hook, feet kick you in the back of the seat, mindless chatter continues even after the “silence, please” messages and who can ignore the huge mess left behind for the poor janitorial staff to clean up? Don’t tell me people just casually “forget” to throw out their trash. If we were still watching the movies from our cars, I’m sure there would be more concern for cleanliness.
Oh, and let’s not forget another lovely gem of today’s movie experience: fattening snacks around every corner.
At the drive-in, you had to walk a bit out in the cold to reach the stand, but in theaters, buttery popcorn taunts us from its bubbling vats of oil right as we enter the building, and colorful boxes of candy are bursting from the stands to satisfy our relentless movie theater sweet tooth. Even the thirst-quenching sodas are jumbo-sized to attract attention.
There goes another five to ten bucks down the drain. So much for a quiet, clean, relatively cheap evening at the theater.
So the next time you think about taking a drive to the theater, make sure you’re willing to chuck ten to twenty bucks on a movie filled with rude and messy neighbors. In fact, I’d suggest just waiting until the movie comes out on Pay-Per-View or Netflix. At least then you can save your money on tickets and snacks, and better yet, you can cozy up with your hot date and totally avoid the public arena altogether. You can still achieve a prime movie theater experience without the annoying public interference.
Rachel Brown is a junior liberal studies major.
