When I was a kid, my extended family used to rent a cottage every summer and get together for a week of swimming, bonfires, and BBQs. One summer, our journey led us to Gull Lake in Muskoka, where, mid-week, the adults surprised us with a trip to the Bracebridge drive-in to see Dragon Heart, starring Sean Connery as a wise CGI winged lizard with a heart of gold.
I remember falling asleep in the back seat of my parents’ purple Ford Windstar, with my head in between the trucks of my first non-hand-me-down skateboard. Something about that drive-in stayed with me and defines the memory of that trip. Not the 13 rock bass I caught, not the septic tank overflowing, and not the summer flu I went home with; no, it was watching Connery’s reptilian character emphatically yelling “I am the last one!” through the windshield of the van that I remember most.
Had that happened in a theatre, or in front of a 17-inch tube TV on VHS, I can’t say I’d care to remember it so vividly. It was the drive-in that made it magical.
Fast forward 25 years, and the legacy of the drive-in is still alive and well in this neck of the woods. When the sun dips below the summer horizon in Grey County, the sky bruises into deep purples and oranges, the crickets begin their nightly rhythmic hum, and for a fleeting moment, the world can feel remarkably still. In a quiet field just outside of Hanover, the silence is still broken by the crunch of gravel under tires, the buzz of car stereos, and the soft glow of a massive screen flickering to life.
Drive-in theatres are, by almost every modern metric, a thing of the past. They are relics of a mid-century boom, a time when the car was king and the ozoner, as drive-ins were once called, was the heartbeat of a Friday night for young people and families alike. Yet, here we are in 2026, and the Hanover Drive-In is still standing, celebrating a staggering 73 years of operation.
I recently caught up with JD Lyons, one of the stalwarts behind the operation, to talk about why this nostalgic community pillar is still drawing crowds in an age of pocket-sized streaming and abundant short-form content.
JD and his business partner, Lyle Schaus, have been the guardians of this outdoor cinema since 1986. For 40 years, while the rest of the world transitioned from VHS to DVD to the digital cloud, JD and Lyle have spent nearly every summer night at the theatre. It’s a labour of love that requires a grueling schedule, typically opening in mid-May and running through Labour Day weekend.
“The drive-in is a whole different culture than the indoors,” JD tells me. He would know – he and Lyle also own the Paramount Theatre on Hanover’s main drag, and the Park Theatre in Goderich. But the drive-in offers something a dark, carpeted room cannot: scale. Seeing a movie on a screen that size, under the open canopy of the Grey Bruce sky, is an experience that borders on the spiritual. From memory, I recall the interlude to be one of the best parts of a night at the drive-in; while parents would fire up the car to recharge the battery, kids would run around together to stretch their legs, waiting for the second film to start. Cartwheels, foot races, a wrestle with your sibling, maybe even a good swing – all powered by a litre of fountain pop and warm popcorn butter. What a time to be alive.
The Hanover Drive-In isn’t just a local haunt anymore; it’s become a full-blown tourist attraction. JD shares stories that sound like scenes from a movie themselves. He tells me people have flown into the Hanover airport from Kitchener, only to pull bicycles out of the plane and ride the rest of the way to the theatre. Then there’s the instance of the “Jurassic anniversary,” when one couple drove all the way from Timmins, just to watch Jurassic World during a COVID screening because they had gotten engaged during a screening of Jurassic Park years prior.
“You don’t have that kind of thing happen with an indoor theatre,” JD says with a chuckle. “It’s a whole different situation.”
The demographic has shifted significantly over the last seven decades. In the early days, the drive-in was the domain of the 16-to-30-year-old crowd, usually there for late-night horror flicks and maybe some innocent front-seat neckin’. Today, many seniors attend movie nights. Families come to watch the first movie together, while the kids nap in the back seat for the second feature. Teenagers with a fresh driver’s license enjoy a safe night out with friends, and couples make it a memorable date night.
The real beauty, however, is the multigenerational return. JD sees people who came as children now returning with their own grandkids, eager to pass down the tradition of the outdoor movie experience. It’s a way to show the younger generation what “mom and dad were all about” before everything became accessible via a smartphone.
Despite its retro feel, the Hanover Drive-In has had to keep up with the times. In 2012, the business faced a “convert or die” moment. JD and Lyle invested heavily to digitize the entire operation, moving away from massive film cans to hard drives and satellite downloads.
This modernization, combined with the unique outdoor layout, allowed the theatre to survive – and even thrive. During the COVID-19 pandemic, while indoor theatres struggled with spacing and air filtration, the drive-in was a natural sanctuary. People could sit in their cars, safely distanced from others, and finally get out of the house. It was one of the few places where life felt somewhat normal.
While the Hanover Drive-In remains successful, the reality for outdoor theatres across the country is grim. They aren’t closing because people have stopped coming; they are closing because the land has become so valuable. In the early days, drive-ins were built on cheap land on the outskirts of town. Now, as communities grow, that land is coveted for apartment buildings and industrial parks. “The land is worth more money than what you could reasonably expect to draw a return on your investment out of that business,” JD explains.
For JD and Lyle, their advice to the community is simple: Enjoy it while you can. They aren’t closing their doors today, but they know the sun is setting on the era of the drive-in.
But for now, the popcorn is still hot, the FM transmitter is still humming, and the screen is still waiting for the first frame of the night. Whether you are driving from down the street or flying in from Kitchener, the Hanover Drive-In remains a beautiful, flickering reminder of why we love the movies.
As the credits roll on our conversation, JD reminds me that the most common question at the Box Office is: will you be open next year? The answer is yes. So, grab the kids, your special someone, pack a blanket, and head down to Hanover to experience a cinematic ritual that’s probably not long for this world.
For showtimes, visit: movielinks.ca/hanover-drive-in
Words by Nelson Phillips
