Future uncertain for Blue Moon Drive-in

GU-WIN — The Blue Moon Drive-In Theater is shutting down its week-to-week normal operations, and the theater’s future beyond that has yet to be determined, according to owner Chris Curtis.
Curtis and his dad took over the theater and opened it as the Blue Moon in 1996. Curtis said he took over for the most part in 2002, and his dad passed away in 2019.
Curtis and his father were no strangers to drive-in’s. Curtis said his family owned several while he was growing up, such as the Amory Drive-In in Mississippi.
Despite the changing times over the years, he and his family have been able to keep up their business.
“Back then, times changed, and TVs had a lot of stuff on them, then VHS came out and all that stuff,” Curtis said. “Things sort of went downhill. But from 1996 to 2013, things were real good. Everything got better. We have a great family atmosphere. A lot of people come here to watch movies, some people come just to come out here to spend time with family, things like that.
“But in 2013, everything went digital. That was a huge hurdle for every drive-in because drive-ins aren’t a big money-making business. It’s just a family business. It put a lot of drive-ins and other theaters out of business, anybody who was small. So we had that hurdle, but things were good at the time.”