MUSKEGON, MI - It was the late 1940s, and movies like “Red River” and “Easter Parade” were playing while ironworkers and linemen were busy at work building one of West Michigan’s most unique community treasures.
The Getty Drive-In, located at 920 E. Summit Ave. in Norton Shores, is now owned by Studio C and part of the Celebration Cinema chain.
It began as a single-screen outdoor cinema in 1948 before Celebration Cinema (formerly Jack Loeks Theatres) purchased the business in 1966.
The drive-in theater would go on to add three additional movie screens, making it one of the largest in the Midwest and in the United States, according to Celebration Cinema.
Getty was originally founded as the single-screen NK Outdoor Theatre by Nick Kuris with a 1,024-car capacity. The theater’s original name is derived from the founder.
According to Interlochen Public Radio, Kuris’s drive-in became the second to ever open in the Muskegon area.
The first, Auto Theatre (formerly Auto Drive-In), opened in 1947 with a capacity for 740 cars.
The NK Drive-In’s location positioned it to serve both Muskegon and the developing Norton Shores area. Its proximity to Getty Street would later provide its new name.
The outdoor entertainment space was purchased by Jack Loeks Theatres in 1966 and renamed the Getty Drive-In in 1967.
Loeks was a pioneering figure in American cinema, credited with opening “one of the first multiplex theaters, Studio 28” in Grand Rapids, according to the Grand Rapids Historical Society.
Drive-in movies are unique to the U.S. The first theater opened in 1933, in Camden, New Jersey.
Marrying two American obsessions of the era — the automobile and motion pictures — drive-ins were stitched into America’s fabric in the wake of World War II.
In the 1950s, Muskegon had five drive-in theaters, and the nation had more than 4,000. Cable television and home video began eroding the popularity of drive-ins in the 1980s.
According to the National Association of Theater Owners, only about 900 drive-ins survived by the early 1990s.
Still, Loeks Theatres pressed on through the changes in the industry.
For the first 12 years under Loeks’ ownership, the Getty Drive-In operated as a single-screen facility, maintaining the basic infrastructure inherited from the NK era.
The theater used traditional drive-in speaker posts that patrons would hang on their car windows—a technology that would remain standard until the 1990s.
The Getty Drive-In’s operations during this period followed standard drive-in practices: double features (two movies for the price of one), seasonal operation from spring through fall and a concession stand.
The theater showed first-run Hollywood films, competing directly with Muskegon’s indoor theaters for audience share.
According to the Celebration Cinema corporate blog, Loeks added three additional screens in 1978, making the Getty Drive-In one of the largest outdoor theaters in the nation.
By 1979, car capacity for Getty had grown from 800 to 1,300 vehicles. Equipment worth $90,000, including projection towers, had also been installed.
This represented a 62.5% increase in capacity and a substantial capital investment (approximately $440,000 in 2026 dollars when adjusted for inflation).
The expansion required significant infrastructure development beyond just adding screens.
Each screen required its own projection booth, sound system, and sight-line considerations to ensure optimal viewing from parked cars.
This multi-screen design allowed the Getty to show four different films simultaneously, dramatically increasing programming flexibility and revenue potential.
Once the 1980s came around, teenagers were the main customers of the Getty Drive-In, “socializing and causing more trouble than watching the movies,” according to a manager’s account shared with MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.
In a 1991 Muskegon Chronicle article, Loeks said staff would experiment with radio.
The trial allowed the company to test FM radio transmission technology, broadcasting the movie’s audio on a specific FM frequency that patrons could receive on their car radios.
Two years later, the company introduced radio audio to all of its patrons, giving moviegoers the option to listen to drive-in speakers or tune into an FM frequency from the comfort of their car’s own speakers.
The Getty maintained a dual system, allowing theatergoers to enjoy their outdoor movie by listening to nostalgic drive-in speakers or by tuning in an FM frequency on their car radio.
By 1996, the Getty Drive-In was characterized as “West Michigan’s last remaining outdoor screen.”
Loeks employees told the Chronicle at the time that receipts were “50 percent higher” than in 1995 and that families were an increasingly popular demographic frequenting the drive-in.
Survival of the Getty Drive-In has not been easy. Loeks Theatres considered selling the theater property in 2001.
A developer was looking to gain approval in 2002 to build a subdivision and sell all 76 lots next to the drive-in.
At the time, the community panicked. It was the home to summer air, cars packed to the brim with locals, couples’ first dates and spilled popcorn.
The drive-in’s customers drove from Grand Rapids, Holland and across the state.
“There’s a very strong emotional connection between motion picture theaters and the people who have attended them over the years ... people who have laughed or who have cried because they had their first dates or met their spouses at movie theaters,” Loeks said in an August 2001 Muskegon Chronicle interview. “They have connected with movie theaters in ways that don’t happen with other institutions.”
In July 2002, the Getty Drive-In was still open. More than 100,000 tickets were sold during the 2001 season.
North Muskegon’s Influence Development signed a purchase agreement with Loeks in May 2001 and planned to subdivide the property and build homes.
But that development was postponed, and a new season was planned for 2003. By 2005, plans for redevelopment were “off the table.”
In 2006, the oldest movie screen was set to be replaced for safety reasons following a severe windstorm.
According to the Hackley Library, the new 100-foot-wide screen cost more than $60,000.
In April 2008, Getty Drive-In reopened for a new season, showing combinations of hit movies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
In 2008, The Associated Press recognized the Getty Drive-In as one of the few movie theaters of its kind in Michigan and throughout the Midwest region following the closure of the Christian ministry-affiliated Devil’s Lake Drive-In theater in Manitou Beach.
The most existential technological challenge came in 2013, when Hollywood studios announced they would stop distributing 35mm film prints by the end of the year.
This industry-wide transition to digital distribution forced every theater showing first-run films to convert to digital projection or face closure.
So, in August 2013, the theater switched its four screens to digital, at a cost of about $70,000 for each screen. The projectors being replaced “had been in use since the 1960s”—nearly 50 years of continuous service.
From its expansion to a four-screen outdoor cinema to the introduction of modern technologies like automobile radio sound and DLP Digital Projection, the Getty Drive-In continues to captivate audiences, providing a movie-watching experience under the stars.
Now celebrating its 83rd season in 2026, the Getty Drive-In remains the go-to spot to watch films like its 1948.
The 2026 season opened on March 27, with gates open at 7:30 p.m., with movies beginning at dusk, about 8:15 p.m.
Complete with a playground for kids, a concession stand and direct-to-car service, the outdoor cinema continues to prove that nostalgia still has its place in modern entertainment.
Skyla Jewell-Hammie is a community reporter for The Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle at MLive.com. Since 2020, she's covered a range of topics from business developments to highlighting diverse...
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