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By the end of the 1980's, the number of drive-in theaters operating in the United States had dropped to under 1,000.

It was all downhill after that, though, with a steady decline during the 1960s and '70s. The real boom came in the '50s, though, and by 1958 the number of theaters nationwide had surpassed 4,000. The first drive-in theater opened in June 1933, also in New Jersey, and by 1948 there were 820 of them nationwide. Like conventional drive-ins, Brown's fly-in included a concession stand (where the real money was made), restrooms and plenty of privacy for, umm, watching the movie.īrown's theater was a novelty in a larger industry that was already enjoying a growth spurt. When the evening's feature ended, a jeep was provided to tow the planes back to the airfield. Planes would land at the field, then taxi over to the theater and fan out behind the cars. He opened his fly-in theater on some land near Wall Township, New Jersey, which included an adjoining airfield.

The drive-in movie theater itself was still something of a novelty when Brown hit on the idea in 1948 of accommodating moviegoers arriving by private plane, another relatively new phenomenon in American life. There's room for 500 cars and 25 small planes. Interesting Idea, But Did It Fly? Ed Brown Jr., a former Navy pilot, opens the first drive-in, fly-in movie theater.