Sunday, October 14, 2012

Jesup Drive-in Theater

Jesup, Georgia

I think you can tell right away this isn't in New England, or the West Coast.

Jesup, Georgia

4 comments:

lyle said...

This one looks successful. Carl, as your comment suggests, it is pretty easy to see differences in the look of the DI's from one locale to another. Are they all pretty much working on the same economic model, do they all pretty much face the same problems - value of land v. profit from the theatre, distribution of movies, digital v. film base rentals, etc. Have you found one area that strongly supports DI's, another area where they are rapidly disappearing?

DerekL said...

Heh, my people (at least the paternal line) hail from Jesup. And yeah, at least to a Southern boy - those pines are immediately recognizable.

Carl Weese said...

Derek, yes it's the pines I was counting on to identify and "place" the theater's locale.

Lyle, the business model is quite stable, and will take quite a bit of treatment in the eventual book to discuss. My observation is that rising property values were the greatest threat prior to the need for digital conversion, and probably the greatest boon to survival is to be near a tourist/vacation destination. The Jesup is old, but with a recent new owner. I got to talk with the grandson of the theater's original owner/builder, back in 1947, who is involved in promoting the theater. The new owner bit the bullet and made the digital conversion on the main screen (of two).

DerekL said...

Sadly, none of my older relatives who might have gone to this theater are still with us.