News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Despite easing social distancing requirements, the Sparta Drive-IN is struggling with revenue.
Sparta Drive-In Owner William Brown said one of the reasons is they have to replay old movies.
“Well people like Disney, like the Disney corporation, they’re not releasing nothing,” Brown said. “There’s no new movies coming out till maybe the end of July or August. It’s the movie companies, they’re not working. That’s the reason why your theaters, like inside theaters, are not running because they can’t get no movies.”
Another contributing factor is the drive-in’s closure during April. Brown said he hasn’t calculated the revenue loss, but he expects the rest of the year to be difficult.
Advertising has been wiped out in addition, and social distancing has limited the amount of people entering by half.
“We’re having to do more to keep people safe at a distance,” Brown said. “We used to could park two cars by a post, but now we can only park one post. We used to take about 300 cars, but now we can only do 150 cars.”
Despite these set backs, Brown said customers are happy to return to the drive-in.
“This weekend we’ve got a fifty-cent night,” Brown said. “Amazon is putting on a deal with us for fifty-cents to come in and watch two movies. They’re supporting that and doing that, so maybe [more will come] this weekend.”
Some action summer movie release dates have postponed, other movies are available to stream.
The drive-In has been in operation for over 70 years.
