Todd Williams is one of the last of a nearly vanished breed — the independent movie theater operator.
As the owner of Memory Lane Drive-In in Monroe and the new proprietor of the Sundance Drive-In, located at 4500 Navarre Ave. in Oregon, Williams stands alone in a sea of chain operated multiplexes. But to Williams, operating a retro form of entertainment like the drive-in makes sense in a world gone mad.
“Honestly, I think the world has just gone absolutely nuts. And this is the type of entertainment that never should have gone out of the mainstream. Drive-ins are things that brings people together from all walks of life — families, friends, dating. It don’t matter, it’s just a good time all the way around,” said Williams.
Williams, who also owns an auto repair shop, said he bought the land that the Memory Lane Drive-In now sits on in 2017.
“We built that drive-in with our own two hands and we opened (the Memory Lane Drive-In) in 2021.”
The Sundance Drive-In, which opened for the season earlier this month, previously operated as the Parkside Drive-In for the 2023 season. The Parkside’s operator was the nonprofit group Save Our Screen, who announced in March that they would not reopen in 2024, citing “many challenges including an inherited and growing list of repairs” and an unspecified “costly ongoing litigation with the previous operator we had naively called our friend.”
At one point, the group was planning to build a National Drive-In Museum on the site and keep the facilities open 12 months each year with activities such as holiday lights celebrations, farmers markets, and ice skating, and roller-skating rinks.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with a wonderful group of volunteers and staff, and we remain humbled by the kind words of support received from drive-in enthusiasts here at home and across the country,” the nonprofit said in a statement posted to social media channels and its website.
Williams did not provide comment on the ongoing litigation.
His now-partner in the Sundance, is someone who is very familiar with the drive-in business.
Assisting Williams with the operations of the Sundance Drive-In is Keven Christy, who has been in the movie business for 50 years. His first day on the job was working at a theater on Thanksgiving Day, 1974. The first drive-in he operated was the Portage Drive-In in Portage, Ohio, which he started operating in 1975. At some point in the past five decades, he ran just about every independently owned drive-in theater throughout northwest Ohio.
Christy ran the Sundance when it was called the Sundance Kid Drive-In through 2022 and Christy said he and his wife Sue are happy to be back in the movie business, even if the technology has changed over the decades.
“The technology is a thousand percent different than it was in the old days,” said Christy. “Back then you had to change a reel every 15 minutes and now you just have a computer disc. It’s great being back.”
With the Christys in tow, the success of the Memory Lane Drive-In has inspired Williams to focus on the present and future of the Sundance Drive-In. He doesn’t want to just restore the theater to its former glory, he wants to improve and expand upon it.
“I’m trying to focus on some of the things that may have bogged the place down or been bad for customer experience,” said Williams. “This place was built in 1949. The bathrooms are way too small and outdated. There’s just not enough capacity for a large crowd. When you put yourself in the customer’s shoes, I don’t want to stand in the bathroom line forever. So number one is to build a new bathroom facility and then take the existing floor plan and use it for something else.”
An arcade, a third movie screen, and an updated and enlarged concession stand are planned for repurposing the existing space. Plans are also in the works for a playground and new fencing around the property.
“The concession stand needs to be sped up quite a bit. The previous owner didn’t have much capacity to quickly get through your lines and that's the only way a drive-in can survive is on concessions. So the number one thing is to be able to do that in a speedy process,” said Williams.
According to Williams, the addition of a third screen would allow the Sundance Drive-In to be more competitive by allowing for wider choice of movies.
“We want to add a third screen as well as that gives us the ability to play more of the new features when they come out. The more screens you have the more ability you have to play everything that comes out and people will have better choice.”
Williams said his ability to remodel the drive-in is driven by community support.
“This is all based on how much the community really loves the drive-in,” said Williams. “I’d like to see there be enough support to make it one of the top five drive-ins in the country. The more the drive-in is supported, the better it’s gonna be.”
Another reason Christy is happy to be back in the fold is just because of that support he helped build at the Sundance over the years.
He has said that the theater gets “a lot of five-star reviews” for its outdoor theater experience, and noted that over his four decades involved with the Sundance, some of his original customers “are now bringing their grandkids” for the Friday and Saturday night shows.
“All of our old customers are very nice and giving us all sorts of compliments and they seem to like Todd and what he’s trying to do out here,” Christy said. “Come and watch a movie. Buy some food.”
The Sundance will be hosting two double features this weekend, showing on Friday and repeating on Saturday. On its screen 1 will be IF, beginning at 9:20 p.m. followed by Godzilla x Kong : The New Empire starting at 11:15 p.m. On its screen 2 will be Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes , beginning at 9:25 p.m., followed by The First Omen at 12 a.m. Visit facebook.com/sundancekiddrivein/ for more details.
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