One of the last remaining drive-in theatres in south-east Queensland has closed down, citing cost issues and declining attendance numbers.<\/p>\n
The Tivoli Drive-In opened in 1976 in the Ipswich suburb of Chuwar and ran until 2000 when it first closed down.<\/p>\n
Three years later, the property was bought by the Rivers of Life Christian Church, who reopened the cinema in 2008 with a focus on low-cost family entertainment.<\/p>\n
But Pastor Fred Muys said the cost of running the cinema, as well as looming maintenance and upgrade expenses of almost $1 million, meant the economics “just aren\u2019t there anymore.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Tivoli is the latest drive-in theatre to close down in Queensland. (Supplied: Tivoli Drive In Theatre)<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately over the last five years, the drive-in cinemas and cinema industry have gone backwards with the advance of streaming movies,” he said.<\/p>\n
Pastor Muys said the number of families visiting the drive-in had dropped in recent years.<\/p>\n
“Ten years ago we were running at 300-plus families a week. Now we often average about 100 and more recently below 100,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said a series of wet weekends in recent months had also taken a toll.<\/p>\n
“We had thought we might stay open through until February or March but the prospect of a very wet summer just basically brought everything on here,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From a peak of more than 50 drive-in cinemas in Queensland, many have been lost to Brisbane’s suburban expansion.\u00a0 (State Library Queensland: Rob Tonge)<\/p>\n
Pastor Muys said the decision was a sad one and one of his “big regrets.”<\/p>\n
“It’s been a real honour to be able to go out and see families sat out there to enjoy the drive-in,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The news was met with disappointment from locals.<\/p>\n
Ipswich resident Caitlin Schiewe said she had taken her family to the drive-in every few weeks for the last nine years and was “devastated” by the news of the closure.<\/p>\n
“Our eldest is nine and we started going when she was a baby. It was a way to get out of the house,” she said.<\/p>\n
“You didn\u2019t have to worry about the kids making noise and honestly, it was a cheap night out which was a really big drawcard.”<\/p>\n
“The kids are going to be devastated when I tell them.”<\/p>\n
There are now just five drive-in theatres left in Queensland, from a peak of more than 50 during the 1960s \u2013 and around a dozen operating across Australia.<\/p>\n
Dr Elizabeth Heck from the University of Queensland said it was sad to see the era gradually fading.<\/p>\n
Dr Heck said there were a multitude of factors to blame for the decline of what was once a popular Australian pastime \u2013 including the “suburban squeeze”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Elizabeth Heck says many of the original drive-in cinemas have been pushed out by expanding surbubia.\u00a0 (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
“If you look at areas like Aspley and Keperra where a lot of housing estates had gone in the sixties and seventies \u2013 there\u2019s the need for land that was once considered more affordable.”<\/p>\n
Then there’s the impact of convenience, as more streaming services are offered to the average consumer.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s a real pinch for cinemas, even regular cinemas have been feeling the squeeze from streaming services so I imagine that would be amplified for drive-in cinemas,” Dr Heck said.<\/p>\n
But she said not to underestimate the impact of nostalgia, with some older technologies attracting younger age groups.<\/p>\n
“Vinyl is a great indication of that, and 35mm film is making a resurgence as well,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think people like to recapture that and there\u2019s something about that older form of technology that\u2019s really recapturing a lot of interest.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the last remaining drive-in theatres in south-east Queensland has closed down, citing cost issues and declining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,170092,47144,65992,170089,2610,21567,170088,134,1972,170093,4717,43669,344,94,701,170091,27342,170090],"class_list":["post-296677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christian-church","tag-cinema","tag-cinemas","tag-closing-down","tag-cost-of-living","tag-drive","tag-drive-in","tag-entertainment","tag-films","tag-fred-muys","tag-in","tag-ipswich","tag-movies","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-rivers-of-life","tag-south-east","tag-tivoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}