Photo by The Skipping Hippy

I went to a drive-in theater once, over a decade ago in Central Pennsylvania. Since then, though, I haven’t thought much of them—there aren’t many of them left, and it seems like a somewhat antiquated way to enjoy a film.

Yesterday the New York Times published an interesting article on the fate of the country’s remaining drive-in theaters—the 368 of them that remain. As expected, while the industry is slowly dying, some drive-ins, primarily in California, still see strong business:

Drive-ins remain an extremely fragile business. Only 368 remain in the United States, and their numbers are dwindling by two or three a year, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association. But some survivors, like Mission Tiki, appear to be chugging along just fine — a few are even gaining steam — as a more affordable option to the multiplex, where ticket prices in a big city can run $12.50 or more for adults and $9.50 or more for children (not to mention an extra $3 or so for 3-D films that the drive-ins can’t show).

Mission Tiki, reflecting prices at drive-ins nationwide, charges $7 for adults and $1 for children ages 5 to 9. Younger children are admitted free.

“Don’t forget that you can also bring your own food to a drive-in, which is what we did,” said Kristy Dahlstrom, 23, a marketing assistant, as she sat in her Ford Focus with a friend at Mission Tiki awaiting the comedy “Magic Mike.” Picking up dinner at a McDonald’s drive-through on their way “got us an entire dinner for the price of a single popcorn at the regular theaters,” she said.

That, of course, got me to thinking—are there are any drive-ins locally? Yep, and it’s one that bills itself as having the biggest movie theater screen in the entire country.

Bengies Drive-In Theater, located outside of Baltimore, has been open since 1956, and currently charges between $5 and $9 for movies shown on the 52-by-120-foot screen. And while drive-ins nationally and locally have gone by the wayside—Maryland used to have 46 drive-ins, and now has but one—there seems to be a movement to preserve Bengies. In June a Baltimore jury recently awarded the theater’s owner an $838,000 victory in a suit against a convenience store whose lighted sign was interfering with his ability to screen movies.

Another less local option is the Family Drive-In Theater in Stephens City, just up I-81 from where I-66 ends in Virginia. That theater has also been open since 1956.

According to Drive-Ins.com, the region had a number of drive-ins over the years, but almost all of them have closed. Years ago, you could catch a movie in Bowie, Capitol Heights, Hyattsville, Alexandria, and Arlington, to name a few. Virginia had 132 drive-ins, nine of which remain. D.C. itself never had one, though.