Siblings Everly, Mila, and Alta cozied up to watch the 20th anniversary release of ‘Cars’ on Sept. 7 at the closing night of the Coyote-Drive In theater in Fort Worth.
Emily Holshouser
After 14 years as a Fort Worth icon, the Coyote Drive-In movie theater screened its last films on Sept. 7 as it makes way for phase two of the Panther Island development.
As rows upon rows of jam-packed sedans, souped-up pickup trucks, and beater cars snaked into the parking lot of Fort Worth’s Coyote-Drive In on Monday, just as the sun set behind hazy clouds, you’d almost never know it was the beloved movie theater’s last night in operation.
Chris Fortune, the Coyote’s general manager, always knew this day would come.
“We have to make room for the second phase of the Panther Island project, unfortunately, that’s where we’re standing,” Fortune told the Star-Telegram as movie-goers began to arrive for the first show of the evening. “It’s sad. We don’t want to go. We love our customers. We’ve loved the last 14 years.”
The Coyote Drive-In Theater in Fort Worth showed its last films on Sept. 7 as the theater makes way for phase 2 of Panther Island. Emily Holshouser
The Coyote’s fate has always been a guarantee. The theater’s landlord — the Tarrant Regional Water District — always planned to exercise its right to terminate the theater’s lease when TRWD wanted to begin construction on two canals and a three-acre park, the next phase of the Panther Island development.
Even so, the Coyote became a Fort Worth institution after it opened in 2013. The theater has hosted a Jimmy Buffett concert, high school graduations, weddings, and other gatherings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater provided a refuge to families.
“It was hard with all the changing regulations day-to-day” Fortune said. “But we figured out a way to do it. We gave back to the community by hosting high school graduations for schools that would have canceled them because they had no safe way to put them on.”
Caitlyn Truitt and her husband Chase got engaged at the Coyote years ago — and they came on Monday night to say goodbye.
“We’ve been here from the beginning,” Chase said. “My brother was the original general manager … I proposed to [Caitlyn] here. We put it on the big screen for her.”
Caitlyn said that the theater has given North Texans a place to relax, unwind, and find community.
Caitlyn Truitt gets her face painted at the last night of operations at Fort Worth’s Coyote Drive-In by Eric Malmsten, who has been face painting at the theater with his wife Kerri-Jean for over a decade. Emily Holshouser
“We’ve made friends over the years that we still talk and keep in communication with,” Caitlyn said. “It’s just been a great way to meet people, it’s been a great way to keep up with what’s going on in Fort Worth, and just to have a good time, and escape from all the stresses of daily living.”
Movie theaters have been the family business for Coyote’s president, Glenn Solomon, since the 1920s, he said. Drive-in theaters, once an American institution, are disappearing.
“The reason there aren’t as many drive-ins as there once were is because cities grew up around them,” Solomon said. “The land became more valuable to sell the land than to continue to run a drive-in, and as a result, the land was sold.”
Fortune said that drive-ins like the Coyote can be a solace for families with special needs children who might struggle with the indoor movie theater experience — or any other families who need a something a little different at the movies.
“We have so many that we see on a weekly basis,” Fortune said. “There were three or four of them here last night, and the parents were crying because they don’t know what they’re going to do with their children.”
As bittersweet as the evening was, though, Solomon and Fortune made it clear that they want the Coyote to howl again.
“We’ve got a few locations on the horizon we’re looking at,” Solomon said.
The Coyote’s signs, he said, will be saved until it could open again one day.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.