Summer Drive-In

Info Updates:

5/25/2004 - Detroit News

Drive-in to open on arena site By Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP — The Township Board approved a plan Wednesday for a three-screen drive-in movie theater on the grounds of the Compuware Sports Arena. The Farmington Hills-based company Movies at the Drive-in will bring in first-run movies and offer double features, partner Joseph Cobb said. “We’re very excited. It’s a wonderful opportunity and a wonderful venue,” Cobb said of the Slap Shot Drive-In Theater. “There’s going to be affordable and wonderful family entertainment for families and teen-agers.” Cobb, with partners Kenneth Stocker and J. Ronald Slavik, will use inflatable movie screens to accommodate about 500 cars. The theater is set to open at the end of May and will run until September. Canton resident Maureen Anthony, 50, said the theater is a good idea. “It would be used by kids and families rather than somebody my age, (but) it would be good for the community,” Anthony said.

4/14/2004 - Detroit Free Press

Compuware Arena a possible drive-in site BY TRISH ROBB FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER Now the kids are playing ice hockey at Compuware Sports Arena, but this summer they could be watching movies in the parking lot. Plymouth Township planning commissioners will consider a proposal tonight to open a three-screen drive-in movie theater in Compuwares parking lot at 14900 Beck Road. The Planning Commission meets at 7 p.m. at Township Hall, 42350 Ann Arbor Road. Joseph Cobb, whose Farmington Hills company, Movies at the Drive-in, would run the theater, and Dennis Moore of Compuware Arena met with the planning staff Tuesday to discuss the proposal. In the fall, Cobb and his partners, Kenneth Stocker and Ronald Slavik, opened the Silverdome Drive-in, a five-screen theater in the parking lot of the Pontiac Silverdome. The Pontiac theater will reopen this month with an additional screen, Cobb said. If the Compuware drive-in plan is approved, the theater could open as early as May 15, Cobb said. "Wed want to take advantage of the summer months while theyre here," Cobb said. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s, more than 4,000 drive-in theaters served Americans. Today, there are 10 in Michigan, including the nine-screen Ford-Wyoming Drive-in in Dearborn. Drive-ins are coming back, Cobb said, in part because traditional movies now cost so much. "People are looking for alternative forms of entertainment, things they can do as a family," he said. "Our idea is to take underutilized properties and make them into sources of revenue" while providing cheap entertainment. For Compuware Arena, the idea is appealing because most of its business, such as hockey league and Plymouth Whalers play, takes place in the fall and winter, arena Vice President Dennis Moore said. During the summer, the parking lot is rarely full. If approved, the drive-in would have space for 500 cars. Each screen would show a double feature seven days a week, and movie times would be staggered to avoid traffic problems, Cobb said. The movie screens would be inflatable and could be installed without drilling into the pavement and taken down when not in use. The projection equipment is portable. Movie sound would travel through a vehicles FM radio. Ginopolis Restaurant, located inside the arena, and portable vendors would sell concessions. The partners also hope to have inflatable playscapes for children. "Rather than just a drive-in of old, we want to make our facilities an entertainment destination," Cobb said.

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