After chalking last week’s trial run up as a success, Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre will operate its pop-up drive-in movie theater again this weekend.
Like independent theaters across the country, the Plaza has been staring down an uncertain future amid the coronavirus outbreak.
But in the last couple weeks, the 80-year-old theater has transformed its parking lot to add a screen and projector to serve as a drive-in theater with a projector.
The Plaza Theatre on Ponce has been a constant in Atlanta's art scene for decades. But like all small businesses, the coronavirus outbreak has presented the Plaza with various challenges and hard decisions recently.
But the theater’s owner Christopher Escobar has been creative in finding ways to keep money coming in.
Anything to "buy some more time," Escobar told the AJC. That includes the drive-in option, which will operate this weekend, both at the Plaza and Dad's Garage.
This weekend, the lineup includes “Jurassic Park,” “The Dark Crystal” and “Clue.”
Tickets for the showings, some of which are already sold out, start at $15 for a one-person car. It will cost you $28 for a two-person car, $39 for three, $48 for four and $50 for five or more people in a vehicle.
Tickets can be purchased online here.
“I know that our model works, because we've been able to do such a good job,” Escobar previously told the AJC about the future of the theater, which he has owned since 2017. “So I know we have the ability to make this work as long as we have the opportunity to do it.”
Other ways to support the theater amid the coronavirus outbreak include its new online store, private screenings and a GoFundMe campaign.
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