Amsterdam to get first post-pandemic drive-in movie theater

Movie theater operator Pathé said it will launch Amsterdam's first new drive-in cinema with regular screenings beginning at the end of the month. The new theater does away with old projectors, replacing them with a massive 16 by 8 meter LED screen, so people can also enjoy a drive-in movie experience in the day time.

The drive-in theater will open on the terrain of event location Borchland in Amsterdam-Zuidoost on Friday, July 31. Popular Hollywood movies like Knives Out, Green Book and John Wick 3 are on the program, as well as Dutch features like Mees Kees in de Wolken. The original language versions of several children's movies will also be screened, including Frozen 2, and the live-action versions of Aladdin and The Lion King.

"Obviously, the 1.5 meters measure is guaranteed during the Pathé Drive-In Cinema," Pathé said. Tickets will be sold per car, and the theater will sell soft drinks, popcorn and M&Ms.

It is not the first drive-in theater to set up in Amsterdam this year, an honor which goes to Outdoor Cinema. The group partnered with Dutch director Martin Koolhoven to launch a one-off event called Koolhoven's Kino on June 3, a free screening for people in vital professions which kept the Netherlands running during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Kinepolis theater chain also organized a week of drive-in movies last month at the Breepark in Breda.

A drive-in cinema was also launched in Barneveld in mid-June, with films announced through the end of July.