Johnny Rockets at the Local Drive-In?
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This is an interesting nostalgic concept that I read about on Daily Finance and Business Week. And anyone who knows me is quite aware that I’m into 50s and 60s collector cars and old music and old everything since I’m old. So of course I would notice this.
The first drive-in theaters appeared around 80 years ago at the height of the great depression. The high point was around 1958 with 4.063 drive-in theaters operating throughout the United States. The fad started to crash in the late 70s and early 80s with over 1,000 disappearing that decade. The total number now is 393 as of August 2014.
Reasons are many with many original mom and pop type owners wanting to retire, land values, advent of the VCR and later DVD, difficulty in getting distributors to provide them with first run movies, etc.
Fast forward to today and what’s old becomes new again. Retail fast casual restaurant Johnny Rockets is teaming up with USA Drive-Ins, who is building 200 new drive-in movie locations by 2018 and many will feature fast causal restaurateur Johnny Rockets as concessionaire.
The locations will present family friendly movies plus a nostalgic 50s and 60s American experience according to a Johnny Rockets press release.
I can see it now with Bullet, Vanishing Point, French Connection, Gone in 60 Seconds and other possibly car theme classics. Plus of course the painful reality of Fast and Furious 1 through 20.
“Drive-ins aren’t just about the movie, they’re about the whole experience,” Johnny Rockets Chief Development Officer James Walker told Bloomberg Business Week. “You’re able to interact with each other more than you would in an enclosed theater.” Plus, a drive-in movie can have a captive audience of between 1,200 to 2,000 people. That’s a lot of people waiting to hear, “Do you want fries with that?”
We had one here that was open for over 50 years and did well until land values didn’t make much sense given how much land this was sitting on.
http://www.forgottenoh.com/DriveIns/kingman.html
Absolutely I’d be interested in this concept given that I’m a commercial broker plus I’m the organizer of the largest car hangout in Columbus and Central Ohio at the net leased retail center of Polaris Fashion Center at Polaris and Gemini on Friday and Saturday nights, weather permitting, behind the Sonic, Red Robin and Roosters.
Anyone else interested? If so you can contact me, Scott Harris at 614-905-6614 or 310-473-4789
