Outdoor movies are a staple of summer entertainment for families. Normally there are at least 10 outdoor movie series throughout the Charlotte area. They’re a fun night out, usually including kids’ activities, like face painting, before the movies.
As with most of our entertainment, hosts are having to rethink these events for 2020, and most of them are not taking place.
However, what we’re seeing is that drive-in movies are making a comeback.
Permanent Drive-In Movie Theaters
There is no permanent drive-in movie theater in Charlotte, but there are several that are within an easy drive.
Hound’s Drive-In in Kings Mountain and Badin Road Drive-In in Albemarle both show movies Friday through Sunday. In addition, Knight Drive-In is operating at Rowan County Fairgrounds in Salisbury, and showing movies Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of every week.
These three drive-in theaters vary in pricing — some charge per car and some charge per person. They tend to be reasonably affordable, and a safe way to enjoy a summer movie.
We have all the details you need to know about these three drive-in theaters here.
Pop-Up Drive-In Movies
In addition to these permanent drive-in theaters, we’re seeing some organizations start to host pop-up drive-in movies, both series and one-off events.
Drive-In Movies in OTC is an event produced by Bella Love, Inc. in Cornelius. These events are taking place at Oak Street Mill, 19725 Oak Street, Cornelius, and Lake Norman YMCA, 21300 Davidson Street, Cornelius.
Most of the movies are on Saturdays, and the pricing is $15 for the car and driver, $10 for an adult passenger, and $7 for a child passenger. In addition, there is some room up front for walk-in guests, and they pay $9.
Charlotte Motor Speedway has shown one drive-in movie, and has one more planned, on July 8th. The cost is $30 per car. We’ll keep an eye open to see if they add more!
The Music Yard, at 2433 South Boulevard, has been hosting drive-in concerts, and has also shown at least one drive-in movie. The cost was just $10 a car. We will add future drive-in movies to our calendar and post.
Walmart announced that it is going to use the parking lots of 160 of its stores as drive-in movie theaters. We don’t know yet the locations of the stores, or if any will be in our area, but we’ll be keeping an eye on it.
Outdoor Movies
As of now, all of the annual traditional (non-drive-in) outdoor movie series have been canceled. If the health conditions improve, or if some venues can think of ways to modify their events to make them safer, we will add them right here.
List of outdoor movies by date
The following day-by-day list of outdoor movies will include both drive-in movies (both at permanent and pop-up drive-in theaters) and traditional outdoor movies, when and if they’re scheduled. We are including drive-in movies as far away as Mooresville, Salisbury, Albemarle, and Kings Mountain.
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