Maine drive-in is first to win projector to convert to digital; others to be announced soon

UPDATE, Sept. 23: Four more theaters were awarded digital projectors on Monday. Winners were: Stateline Drive-In, Elizabethton, Tenn.; Starlite Drive-In, Cadet, Mo.; Monetta Drive-In, Monetta, S.C.; and Ocala Drive-In, Ocala, Fla.

UPDATE, Sept. 16: The contest has been extended to Sept. 23, when four more winners will be announced, in addition to the first five winners. Winners announced Friday, Saturday and Sunday were Graham Drive-In in Graham, Tex., McHenry Outdoor Theater in McHenry, Ill., and 99W Drive-In in Newberg. Ore.

UPDATE, Sept. 13: The 60-year-old Cherry Bowl Drive-In in Honor, Mich. was selected Thursday as the second recipient of a digital projector. Michigan has 10 drive-in theaters, but once had more than 150, Garrett Ellison reports for MLive Media Group. (Read more)

People in Saco, Maine, love watching movies at the Saco Drive-In (Portland Press Herald file photo). On Wednesday Project Drive-In announced that the  in the town of 18,000 is its first of five to receive a new digital projector in a national contest. The second winner is being announced today, the rest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A sixth theater will receive a digital projector paid for with donations collected in a campaign coupled with the contest.

When all motion pictures are converted to digital, which could happen as early as next spring, theters will need digital projectors that cost $70,000 to $80,000, plus the cost of updating projection rooms to fit the needs of the new projectors. With most of the roughly 400 U.S. drive-ins being seasonal, mom-and-pop operations, that price has many worried they can't afford to remain open.

But not in Saco, where the 74-year-old theater is the proud owner a new $80,000 projector, thanks to a Facebook campaign by owner Ry Russell, Gillian Graham reports for the Portland Press Herald. Russell, who said he faced closure if he didn't win the projector, told Graham, "The drive-in is so much bigger than just a small business or anything I've put into it. It's an escape for families from the financial difficulties everyone is facing today. For me to be a part of preserving that is a feeling like no other. It feels like we've accomplished a lot more today than just saving the drive-in."

The Facebook page has more than 26,000 followers, and some of Russell's daily posts were shared as many as 500 times, Graham writes. Saco native Justin Chenette told Graham, "This is a good example of what you can do with social media. This was a long shot, but it shows how tight-knit Maine communities can be. The community rallied behind this. We've saved a piece of our cultural history and an important job generator."  Main has five drive-in theaters. (Read more)