What does a working drive-in movie theatre look like in 2024? In Texarkana, it looks like the 67 Drive-In on U.S. Highway 67 in the Pleasant Grove area — a modest stretch of gravel and painted speaker poles where families pull in on Friday and Saturday nights and stay for a double feature that runs well past midnight.
The place has been operating in some form for decades, and it hasn’t tried to reinvent itself. There’s a single screen, a classic concession stand with nachos, hot dogs, and fountain drinks at prices that feel like a minor miracle, and a gravel lot that fills up faster than first-timers expect. People back their trucks in, drop the tailgates, and watch the first feature from lawn chairs. The cars with fogged-up windows tend to park toward the back.
Admission runs around $7-$9 per adult depending on the billing, with kids typically getting in cheaper or free depending on age. Compared to a multiplex ticket in 2024, it’s a deal and then some — especially since the admission generally covers both films on the double-feature card. Cash is king here; some weeks the card reader cooperates and some weeks it doesn’t, so planning accordingly is smart.
The sound comes through an FM radio frequency, which means the audio quality runs as good as the car’s speakers. Older vehicles with basic stereos sometimes end up with a tinnier mix, but most regulars tune their phone to a portable Bluetooth speaker set on the dash and call it settled. First-time visitors sometimes miss the posted frequency on the marquee and spend the opening credits wondering why they can’t hear anything.
Programming leans toward new wide releases, often pairing a blockbuster opening weekend film with something that’s been in theaters a few weeks. It’s not an art house — don’t show up expecting foreign cinema or a curated classics series. What’s on is generally what’s playing everywhere else, just watched from inside a personal tin box under the Texas sky.
The concession stand is the real social hub. People line up between features, catch up with neighbors, let kids run off energy before settling back in for round two. The chili cheese nachos are the move; the popcorn is competent but unspectacular. Coffee is available later in the night, which earns gratitude during a long double feature that stretches toward 1 a.m.
Summer nights here can be brutal — heat doesn’t always break by sundown in East Texas — but fall and spring evenings are genuinely pleasant. The mosquitoes make their presence known in warmer months; a can of repellent in the glove box is not optional advice. Winter screenings happen but draw a smaller, more committed crowd, people who run the heat and stay bundled.
There aren’t many places left in the four-states area where a family can spend a full evening outside for under $30 and actually stay for the whole program. The 67 Drive-In is one of them, and on a clear October Saturday with the right movie on the card, it’s about as good as an evening in Texarkana gets.
