As part of Honda’s fundraising there will be an online auction for tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.
The stopping of 35mm film distribution by the end of 2013 could shut down hundreds of drive-in theaters because of a costly switch needed to go to digital projection that is estimated at more than $75,000 per screen. Drive-ins first opened in 1933 to widespread popularity and reached their peak after World War II during the 1950s and 1960s when there were more than 4,000 of the make out and petting zoos across the country. There are only 368 drive-ins left across the American landscape.
Project Drive-In from Honda is a newly launched national effort to save as many drive-ins as possible by raising community awareness and supplying at least five drive-ins with digital projectors.
In a release, Honda said that giving people easy ways to get involved would ensure that drive-ins, an historic part of American cinema, car culture and sexuality, live on. At www.projectdrivein.com people can vote to determine which five drive-in theaters will receive a new digital projector from Honda.
Voting began on 9 August and ends on 9 September at 9:00 pm Pacific time. The five winning theaters will be revealed in September, and each will host a celebration that includes a special screening of Sony Pictures Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, which will be in theaters on 27 September.
“Cars and drive-in theaters go hand-in-hand, and it’s our mission to save this decades-old slice of Americana that holds such nostalgia for so many of us,” said Alicia Jones, Manager of Honda & Acura Social Marketing at American Honda Motor.
The website prompts people to share Project Drive-In with family and friends via social media, pledge to see one movie at their local drive-in, and contribute to the Honda Project Drive-In Fund to keep more drive-ins open.
As part of Honda’s fundraising efforts, there will also be an online auction that features tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Honda will launch pop-up drive-ins at Honda dealerships across the country to help raise awareness and support, with a free screening of the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film.
Spent many years running many different drive ins, and it’s sad that the later generations won’t be able to experience them like we did. I remember going to the drive in as a child with my parents, in pajamas, in the back of the station wagon with pillows and blankets. As a manager, I can recall the many times catching the “trunk riders” (clean handprints on the trunk lids were always a dead giveaway) and the young couples that showed up in the pouring rain and you just knew that there would be very little movie watching going on. Good times! Nice to see a company like Honda helping these icons survive with current technology.