Many shopping centers have lost their prime “retail-tainment” foot traffic with movie theaters experiencing numerous months of mandated closings and family-fun venues such as Dave & Buster’s and Round One Bowling being continuously shut down. One loophole to these restrictions is to move entertainment into an outdoor setting, while maintaining proper social distance protocols. Throughout the country, there has been a trend in which owners of malls, restaurants, family-entertainment centers and movie theaters have turned their parking lots into drive-in movie venues to much success. Look for more retail business owners to follow suit and start coming up with similar creative ways to bring foot traffic back into their centers.
Brookfield Properties has signed a month-to-month lease for tenant Kilburn Live (a component of Kilburn Media), which is utilizing the parking lot space for its outdoor drive-in movies. The concept has taken hold at five of its malls throughout the country: Lone Tree, Colo., Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis and Woodbridge, N.J. Count on Brookfield to do the same at many of its other malls. Kilburn will also work with other venue owners to hopefully open up to 20 more of these cinema pop-ups.
Kilburn provides various screen sizes based on parking lot allowance; one of its screens can accommodate 75 cars, and another can accommodate 250 cars. The tenant has a smartphone app that allows mall food concession stand ordering, and the movie’s audio can also be streamed via the smartphone. In the coming months, Kilburn expects its entertainment options to expand beyond movies, and possibly include live performance acts.
Other malls are jumping on this trend. The Easton Town Center shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio, has coordinated with its movie theater tenant, AMC, to charge $10/car for its own “Sunset Drive-In Theater” concept in its parking lot. Proceeds will go to support local nonprofits via the Easton Community Foundation. Even after quarantine restrictions are lifted, the mall expects to continue the trend next summer due to its popularity.
The Lark Theater in Corte Madera, Calif., worked with Macerich to show outdoor movies at The Village of Corte Madera mall’s parking lot on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for $40/car. The drive-in will be located across the street from Nordstrom and the restaurants at the mall such as Cheesecake Factory and Boudin have instituted take-out menus for the movie-goers. In August, Lark Theater will be doing the drive-in movie concept at the Bon Air in Greenbrae, Calif., outdoor strip mall’s parking lot, also featuring box dinners from the mall’s restaurants including Subway, Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Gott’s Roadside.
In Florida, the Epic Theatres chain has embarked on the pop-up drive-in movie concept at three of its locations in the cities of Clermont, St. Augustine and Deltona. Epic hired a company, Entertainment Supply & Technologies, to help convert its theaters into drive-ins. Elsewhere, the Water Gardens Cinema in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and the Aspen Cinemas in Evanston, Wyo., both also opened drive-in conversions during quarantine.
Restaurants have also agreed to use their parking lot space for drive-in movies. BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Mingus, Texas, and Ajo Al’s Mexican Cafe chain in Arizona have both introduced the concept, with BJ’s providing car-hop service.
The Bel-Aire Restaurant & Diner in Astoria, N.Y., also successfully installed a drive-in movie in its parking lot, utilizing the services of the company, LI Movie Nights, to set up projector/sound system logistics and handle movie licensing from selections at Criterion Pictures and Swank Motion Pictures.
Indoor entertainment venues affected by coronavirus shutdowns are also an option for showing outdoor drive-in movies. The Dezerland Park indoor family-fun venue in Miami partnered with Carflix Cinemas to set up movie screens in its parking lot.
Up to 160 Walmart Supercenters will be temporarily converting its parking lots into drive-in movie theaters from August to October. The retailer is partnering with Tribeca Partners, and will provide guest appearances from celebrities and filmmakers. Walmart will allow online pre-ordering for meals and snacks, available for curbside pickup upon entrance into the parking lot.
