Tucked away behind an alley entrance off 88th Avenue and Rosemary Street in Commerce City is a still-living piece of retro nostalgia - the last of its kind in the metro area.
After Sheridan's Cinderella Twin Drive-In shut down in 2007, the 88 Drive-In Theater has become the only game in town, though owner
Susan Kochevar speaks fondly of her old competitor.
"Sadly, we lost [it] last year," she says of the Cinderella. "In 1958, there were over 4,000 drive-ins. After that, they started declining and now there's less than 300."
Kochevar runs the drive-in, built in 1972 and purchased in 1976 by her family, with a personal touch.
"Do everything yourself," she says, explaining her mantra for keeping prices down. "I put in all the orders, negotiate with film companies, clean the bathrooms - everything that needs to be done." Depending on the length of the films (and whether groggy patrons knock over parking posts in the lot when leaving late at night,) the work can keep her on site until the small hours of the morning.
That work, though, and weekly negotiation with film companies to get feature flicks as cheaply as possible, has allowed the 88 to show two feature films a night on the silver screen - stainless steel if you're a stickler for accuracy - for $8 total.
In general, though, little has changed about the drive-in. That's part of it's appeal. Kochevar has had to make some adjustments to keep with the times, though.
"When drive-ins were built there were only cars," she said. "Now we have to park according to height."
A color-coded system keeps cars up front, where their view won't be blocked by progressively taller rigs heading back: minivans, trucks and, pulling up the very rear, the occasional diesel and semi truck.
"We call them our balcony," she said.
Despite the apparently bleak future for drive-ins, struggling to stay profitable versus their increasingly valuable land, Kochevar plans to keep the 88 in the family. Business is still good and drive-ins still have an ace-in-the-hole versus the omnipresent multiplexes.
"You can come out and talk on your cell phone if you want to, talk to the person sitting next to you, text, smoke, whatever you want," Kochevar said. "I think that's why they're still around."