Is Pa. leading the nation in drive-in movie theaters? Here’s how we compare to other states

Drive-in movie theaters have been making a comeback across the country, but particularly in Pennsylvania.

The growing trend in outdoor movie screenings has certainly been boosted by the coronavirus pandemic, when sitting inside at a movie theater has become a risky prospect. But thanks to the folks at WorkWise, we’ve got some hard data to see how the drive-in boom has been going in our state and across the country.

According to WorkWise, Pennsylvania has 27 drive-in movie theaters, the second highest number of operating outdoor theaters out of all 50 states. Only New York State has more, with a total of 28, and it’s obviously a narrow margin of victory.

The next highest number is another neighboring state, Ohio, with 24, and Indiana is tied for fourth with Texas at 20, showing a line of states from the mid-Atlantic region to the midwest where drive-ins are thriving. Several states, including Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, North Dakota and Louisiana, don’t have a single drive-in movie theater currently operating.

The website also listed numbers from each state for how many drive-ins have reopened since the 1990s, when their numbers and popularity began to fall nationwide. And again, Pennsylvania is near the top of the heap: our state has had 10 drive-ins reopen since the 1990s, putting us third in the nation behind Texas (15) and Alabama (11).

Pennsylvania’s drive-in movie theaters also ranked towards the high end of the pack for both quality of reviews from customers (though every state recorded between four and five stars on that metric) and for affordability. To check out the full results of the WorkWise study, visit their website by clicking here.

We’ve been covering the local boom in outdoor and drive-in movies in our area over the past few months, which you can read about here: