Drive-in theaters

Hollywood is expected to stop producing 35-millimeter prints of movies sometime this year.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

When Hollywood makes the switch, drive-in theaters must convert to digital projection systems or risk going dark.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The Rubidioux is one of eight drive-in theaters left in Southern California.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“Gangster Squad” plays at the uncrowded Rubidoux Drive-In Theatre.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

“Gangster Squad” looms large.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Jeff Cunningham in the projection room.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Drive-ins afford amenities not found with traditional indoor theaters. For example, Jill and Jennifer Foster watch “War of the Worlds” from the back of a pickup truck on Aug. 3, 2005 at the Crossroads Drive-In near Shiner, Texas.  (Michael Stravato / For The Times)

Christina Cruz-Madrid, then the mayor of Azusa, stands in front of the shuttered Azusa Foothill Drive-In.  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

A student heads to class through the Azusa Foothill Drive-In in 2005. The drive-in served as a parking lot for Azusa Pacific.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The Azusa Foothill Drive-In celebrated a Blast to the Past on June 2, 2001.  (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

The Pacific Azusa Foothill Drive-In held a Blast to the Past celebration on June 2, 2001.   (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

The Guerilla Drive-In Theater set up under a bridge in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 2007. The theater prides itself on springing up in unexpected places.  (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

Audience members sit under a bridge as the Guerrilla Drive-In Theater screens “The Matrix” and other short films on the side of a bridge in Santa Cruz.   (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

After being all but left for dead in the 1990s, drive-in theaters made a modest comeback in the USA in the early 2000s. Hull’s Drive-In in Lexington, Va., was saved by demolition when the community bought the theater.   (Jay Paul / For The Times)

At Hull’s in Lexington, Va., a family watches “Spy Kids 3-D.”   (Jay Paul / For The Times)