The show may not go on for Commerce City's 88 Drive-In

Like an old-time Western, the Denver metro area's last drive-in movie theater appears to be riding off into the sunset.

After nearly half a century, the summer of 2023 could be the last season for Commerce City’s 88 Drive-In at 88^th and Rosemary.

Under mounting pressure from suspicious outdoor moviegoers, the Commerce City Planning Commission announced that the outdoor theater's closing is not part of some government takeover.

At its May 18 meeting, planners explained that the end of the 88 Drive-In is simple: "the owner-slash-operator is ready to leave the movie theater business."

The end of Commerce City's well-loved outdoor movie destination presents a familiar plot.

Big city industrial developer eyes the seven acres of land as a great place for a warehouse, developer talks with the owners of said property, no one from the community attends or listens to the rezoning meetings to complain, and the planning commission votes unanimously 4-0 in favor of a zoning change.

“We’re super excited to be here and we really like this opportunity to build what we think is a quality product in your community,” First Industrial Realty Trust Regional Director John Strabel told those in the nearly-empty commission meeting room last month. 

Cue the photos of the current condition of 88 Drive-In's worn buildings shown on the city planning commission's own big screen. 

The warehouse Strabel is proposing to replace the drive-in theater property would be 80,500-square-feet, with “nice reveals and details facing the street,” assured Strabel. “Trucks will be behind the building and out of sight.”

Strabel said that if the plan goes through, construction would start in the spring of 2024. 

Commerce City residents will have a chance to speak up about 88 Drive-In Monday night, when its fate will be up for public comment at the Commerce City Council meeting.

The council is scheduled to determine whether the zoning change already approved by the planning commission aligns with the Land Development Code and meets with associated criteria.

As word gets out of 88 Drive-In's possible fade to black, hundreds of nostalgia-minded folks are waking up. They are recalling first dates, of mom and dad, sisters and brothers crammed into a vehicle to watch "Fast and Furious," of sneaking in snacks, and prom-posals.

The outcry has so intensified, Commerce City government took to its Facebook page to assure fans of 88 Drive-In that municipal government is not to blame. This is a decision made by the owners of 88 Drive-In, who, the city explained “have chosen to step away from their business and go in a different direction for the future of that property.”

In their FB statement, the city government added that, “The decision to close the theater was not made by the city, and Commerce City has not asked or encouraged the drive-in to close its operation.”

The 88 Drive-In is still in operation, and currently showing a double feature. "Big George Foreman" and "Spiderman Across the Spiderverse" costs $10 per person.

The Commerce City Government Facebook post about the outdoor theater’s possible end had over 200 comments and 449 shares as of Sunday afternoon.  One poster suggested that perhaps Matt Stone and Trey Parker could save the theater the same way they re-purposed Casa Bonita.  

Some people were sad and some expressed anger that the space where they had such delightful family memories would be replaced by a warehouse.

Others wished the 88 Drive-In family luck.

Calls by The Denver Gazette to 88 Drive-In went unanswered because the theater’s voice mail box was full.

The 88 Drive-In was built in 1972 at East 88th Avenue and Rosemary Street in Commerce City, a mile or so east of Interstate 76. It's been reported that the community was uncomfortable with the soft porn which played on the gigantic screen until it was bought in 1976 by Bill and Margret Holshue and has stayed in the same family, currently owned by their daughter, Susan Kochevar. 

There are a handful of operational drive-in movie theaters still in Colorado, including the Best Western Manor in Monte Vista and Minturn’s Blue Starlite Drive-In, where you listen to movies through your car’s FM radio. The Holiday Twin in Ft. Collins is showing the Spiderman movie. Perhaps the state’s oldest, Montrose’ Star Drive-In, is owned by the same family who started it in 1949 when it showed it’s first move, "The Younger Brothers," starring Wayne Morris.

There are also Delta’s Tru-View Drive-In, Pueblo’s Mesa (reportedly the state’s largest) and Comanche Drive-In in Buena Vista.

Red Rocks Amphitheater also shows outdoor movies.