After ‘tremendous amount of thought,’ drive-in theater remains open during COVID-19

Richard Boaz remembered the worst-attended night at The Monetta Drive-In Theater: a double feature of the Powerpuff Girls Movie and Blue Crush. Only 30 families in their cars braved the rain as Hurricane Kyle made its way to South Carolina.

While walking to each of the three projection towers to fire up the machines Friday, Boaz was worried that he was about to see a new record low, thanks to the coronavirus and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance to not congregate in groups larger than 10 people.

All week Boaz said he had gone back and forth on whether he wanted to open the theater this weekend.

“We gave it a tremendous amount of thought this weekend about even being open,” he said. “We made changes. From the knowledge we have now, it is safe enough to open the drive-in if people stayed in their cars and maintained the social distancing everyone is talking about now.”

On Tuesday Boaz posted his self-described “manifesto” on Facebook, describing how the theater would help with social distancing. The theater would only use single occupancy bathrooms, close the concessions stand and operate at half capacity so cars could park farther away from one another.

Once the projectors and FM transmitters were set up and ready to show the films, Boaz walked to the ticket booth. He looked relieved when he saw cars in a line extending well onto Columbia Highway North.

While waiting for the sun to set, some families had set up lawn chairs and tables in front of their cars. With the playgrounds closed, children ran in between cars, all while keeping a safe distance. At the concessions stand, families waited to make an order at the walk-up window, closer than six feet away from one another.

During the film, moviegoers were either in their cars isolated with their families or clustered in front of them. More than 150 cars were parked in the three fields to see the three double features.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision,” Boaz said. “Obviously a lot of people voted by attending tonight; (they were) saying that it was worthwhile and something they wanted to do.”

The next few months of the drive-in are still uncertain: Boaz said that studios are delaying the most profitable films for later in the year, meaning he won’t have much to show during the coming weeks. Even if there were popular films, public safety and his gut feeling may prompt him to close early. The fear of providing a place for a person without symptoms to infect another weighs on him.

“There’s a side of me that would feel relieved if Hollywood said ‘no more movies,’” Boaz said.

He said that one of the films showing Friday night was an apt metaphor for the coronavirus.

“Its sort of like ‘The Invisible Man.,’” Boaz said. “You’ve got this invisible force all around you (and) you don’t know what way it’s going to act.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 4:19 PM.