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While the Thursday night opening of Starving Art Studios’ new urban drive-in movie theater drew less than 30 patrons, the modest turnout helped to enhance the venue’s intimate feel.

Some guests took part in the traditional drive-in experience and sat in their cars, while others chose to make use of the transformed lot behind the studios. Viewers sat on stone benches beneath a large, light-strewn tent. The vintage theater commercials projected onto the property’s high back wall kicked off the night and set the mood for silver screen versions of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John to dance
and sing in 1978’s Grease, the first in a series of three classic movies – all featuring drive-in theaters – shown throughout the weekend.

For $10 and a reservation, viewers can park their cars in one of six spaces, each equipped with its own old-fashioned audio box to hang on their car’s window. Lawn seating is free of charge. There are also several food carts available for those who want a quick meal or something to munch on while watching the movie.

Located at 2326 E. Cesar Chavez, the theater is the brainchild of Starving Art’s 35-year-old owner Josh Frank, a born Austinite and owner of the adjacent East Austin Trailer Park & Eatery (E.A.T. for short). While the idea of a drive-in boutique theater had always been in the back of Frank’s mind, the popularity of the art studio and eatery during East Austin’s First Fridays became the impetus he needed to pursue the concept.

“I wanted to create a drive-in for today,” Frank said. “I wanted to create one for a place where didn’t have much space, somewhere where you couldn’t have 100 cars, but maybe you could have a couple and have it be a really intimate experience.”

After realizing that E.A.T.’s food carts could serve as the theater’s concession stands, Frank got to work collecting all the equipment he could to ensure that the drive-in experience he created was as authentic as possible.

“I was a huge collector for about a month,” he said. “I went on eBay and bought up all the vintage drive-in speakers I could find. Some of the speakers worked, but some of them didn’t, so I kind of taught myself how to fix them. I figured out how to connect all the speakers and the sound and have it all kind of work.”

While most of the night’s attendees enjoyed the movie, the food and the overall experience, there were mixed feelings about the theater’s appearance.

“Right now I would use the word ‘potential’ to describe the space’s visual appearance,” explained Todd Lee, 37. “It’s got a great nostalgic feel right now with all the equipment, but once some landscaping gets done, it will be even better.”

“The lot makes [the drive-in] feel authentic and retro, but romantic at the same time,” said Jessica Shapiro, 25. “[Although there were other people], it was intimate enough to feel like it was just for me.”

Sunday, the theater's staff worked on reorganizing the lot to expand it, in order to fit more patrons for this weekend's showings.