The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • Page D4

Product: MGMBrd PubDate: 09-25-2013 Zone: Advertiser Edition: 1 Page: Local-C User: parmstrong Time: 09-25-2013 00:17 Color: Kl 4D WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER Photos of the Week Ik The sun sets at Bryant-Denny Stadium during the AlabamaColorado State game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. PHOTOS BY MICKEY WELSHADVERTISER MONTGOMERY 2340 East South Blvd. Mon thru Sat 7am to 6pm, Sunday 10AM to 6PM PRATTVILLE 987 S. Memorial Dr. (Skyline Shopping Center) Mon thru Sat 9am to 8pm, Sun 10am to 6pm WETUMPKA 412 Main St.

(Across from Fire Dept.) Mon thru Sat 8am to 6pm, Sun 10am to 5pm ALEX CITY 625 Alex City Shopping Center Mon thru Sat 8AM to 8PM, Sun 10AM to 5PM Donations welcome at all locations or call 334-262-6024 Please help, donate online at ONLINE See more photos of the week at montgomeryadvertiser.com rtllllUdl Tent 1 Warehouse Ik Christmas Items Gifts Home Decor Seasonal Items Patio Furniture more! Like Us On facebook caffco Floral Outlet 334.272.2140 Digital transition threatens Amazing savings direct from the manufacturer. Shop the TentWarehouse in air conditioned comfort at the old Caffco Floral Outlet building and the Elm Warehouse. Follow the signs. By Peggy Ussery The Dothan Eagle WICKSBURG Megan Tamez brings her daughters, Graice, 7, and Isabella, 5, to the Continental Drive-In a couple times a month. Standing near the concession stand recently, the girls ran circles around their mother.

"On cool nights we can sit outside," Tamez said. "We can make noise and we're not interrupting anyone. They like to talk." It's the perfect movie-viewing experience for the family, who had come to see "Planes." And at $7 Brian and Aaron Jackson of Daleville take in a movie at Continental Drive-In in Wicksburg. DANNY TINDELLTHE DOTHAN EAGLEAP SrHTTFKRK HOIKS DAHDBHS 334.277.6746 southern om esandg ardens com Hyw 231 (Wetumpka Hwy) Montgomery Anderson pause while they Fort Toulouse in Wetumpka on drive ins compared to most that have one or two screens converted to digital picture and sound in 2011. But Chase Taylor said it saddens him that so many other drive-in theaters around the country may be forced to close.

Exactly how many drive-in theaters have converted to digital is unclear. Some estimates have it as low as 60 while others put the number higher. Kipp Sherer, co-founder of the website said tracking drive-in theater numbers is difficult because there's not a lot of information available. Sherer said of the ones the website has information on in the U.S., only 90 have either converted or are in the process of converting. "But that still leaves roughly 250 to 260 that either haven't converted yet and need to pretty quickly or they're either going to close down after this season and not convert," said Sherer, who has been tracking data on drive-in theaters since 1999.

"Out of those, it's just really not known how many will stay open after this season." Sherer knows of half a dozen drive-in theaters that have already closed because they're not converting or will close within the week. Some, he said, closed last year rather than converting. Nobody is suggesting that drive-in theaters will return to their 1950s glory, but there are many who want to at least save the ones that remain. The American Honda Co. has pledged to help nine drive-in theaters convert to digital through its Project Drive-In contest, allowing the public to vote for their favorite drive-in.

The film industry has also tried to help through a program originally created to help indoor theaters convert to digital. For the past decade, studios have paid what are called virtual print fees to theaters each time a theater shows a digital movie. The fees come out of the money the studio saved by making and distributing a digital movie vs. a 35-mm film. But the program was not extended to cover drive-in theaters until earlier this year.

"If somebody hasn't gone to a drive-in recently, they really should because they really may disappear more quickly than people anticipate," Sherer said. "And once they're gone, they don't come back too often." Jeff and Brenda ride bicycles at Sunday. of Troy University. In 1998, the father and son opened the five-screen indoor Continental Cinema in Troy. The Taylors bought the 16-acre property in Wicksburg as a way to expand into the Dothan and Enterprise markets.

Continental Drive-In opened in April 2005 with four outdoor screens named to honor the drive-ins that once populated the Wire-grass the Skyview, the Starlight, the Dixieland and the Goober. Continental is one of nine drive-in theaters operating in Alabama. Drive-in theaters had their heyday as the quintessential teen hangout in the 1950s. The number of drive-in theaters began to drop in the 1970s and 1980s. Everything from increasing land prices to daylight savings time and video rentals can be blamed.

Now, drive-in theaters and even small independent indoor theaters face yet another challenge the conversion by the film industry from 35-mm film to digital format. It didn't happen overnight, the film industry has been slowly converting to digital for years. It's reached a point, however, that drive-in theaters must convert or they won't be able to secure new movies. Gone are the canisters of film fed into projectors. Nowadays, movies arrive on a digital hard drive or even downloaded directly from satellite.

It's a sizable investment to convert to digital projectors $70,000 or more per screen. Many drive-in theaters just can't afford the expense. Continental Drive-In in Wicksburg a large drive-in with four screens 3035 ask for Accounting Dept. for a double feature for adults and $4 for children, it's cheaper than an indoor theater. They're the same reasons many patrons, especially families, choose drive-in theaters.

For others, it's the nostalgia for a by-gone era. But a drive-in theater is not as easy to come by today as it was in the late 1950s, when drive-in theaters numbered about 4,000 in the United States. No, today, there are only about 350 drive-in theaters around the country, and that number is likely to get even smaller as drive-ins face the cost of converting to digital technology. On a recent Saturday night, customers pulled their vehicles into the Continental Drive-In on U.S. 84 between Dothan and Enterprise, parked in their chosen spots in front of one of four screens and tuned their radios to the proper FM station.

Some pulled out folding chairs to sit outside. Others piled blankets in truck beds. Screens flickered to life as sunset turned to darkness. "It's just a little bit more of a personal experience," said Chase Taylor, vice president of Continental Cinemas which owns the Continental Drive-in. "We have people who drive from ridiculous distances coming here to see a movie God bless their hearts, I'm glad they come.

I've had someone come as far as Jacksonville, to come watch a movie here. Our regulars more enjoy the family part of it, the prices making it affordable for families to go to the movies." Taylor developed a love for movies by helping his father, Jeff Taylor, run movies on the campus You bring the funky. Well bring the chicken. Enter to win an all-inclusive day at the fair for 20 people! Total value over $1000! Call 1-877-578-2719 and register today. Call for a chance to win a day at the Alabama National Fair for you and 20 of your friends! The party is on us! 20 admission tickets, 20 wrist bands and $15 in Fair Bucks for 20 guests! Plus, a cameo appearance by DealChicken.

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