Central Drive-In (Norton, Virginia)

06/21/2026

Happy Fathers Day to everyone! We are open tonight and wish every dad a very Happy Fathers Day. We are going to celebrate the night by saying thanks, all dads tonight will receive a free soda or water again free with any ticket purchase but only for tonight only.

We did not sell out as we have a giant property lot with over 7 acres and our land area goes up the mountain creating a stadium style seating for parked cars. We hold 400 but have come really close. Saturday we had people come early and that helped the crowd control and made things much easier. We still had long lines at concession stand but it's really unavoidable with fresh made food.

As our daughter said in earlier post last night we could not have a successful business with you as a customer. We are so grateful and humbled to come within 250 dollars of a record night here in total sales. That's even including great nights of the past like Smokey and the Bandit, Jaws and more recent movies like Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lion King live action. It has not been a great time post COVID to be in the movie business and a long 7 years since our last good crowd but again we feel blessed you all are coming back to the movies.

We have some awesome pics to share from last night with families being together. We love this part of the business, creating memories for a lifetime. It's those memories from childhood of escaping Dunbar with older kids or the church youth group bringing me that made me want to purchase the drive in back in 2005. I hope to pass the drive in on to my kids and it continues but we need customers to do that and you showed up in force last night. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you!
Buddy

06/21/2026

I was not able to get pictures of how full we were at the drive in tonight, due to being in the kitchen lol, which I finally escaped at 11:30 pm. But I am so thankful to be in the kitchen that long, I just wanted to personally give a thank you to all of our customers for making Toy Story 5 such a great success tonight and last night. We know without you we are nothing. Without you we have no business, the customers are what makes the business. I have always said our drive in customers are the very best. Thank you for your patience and appreciate of our small mama and papa theater. Y’all are making it possible for us to get to our 75th anniversary where we will be the longest continuous running drive in in the state of Virginia!!!

Thank you we love our customers!!!!!

06/21/2026

06/21/2026

A live look in at 840pm we are only 1/3 full but yet first two rows are filling up. We have room for you but are busy so can't answer each question at the moment

Eric and Josh are manning the booth giving this old 58 year old Buddy a rest

We appreciate everyone com my out.

Thank you!

06/20/2026

Pictured here is the line of cars we had 10 minutes before showtime. We will open the box office at 6:30 tonight to try and mitigate the lines while the concession stand will open up shortly after that time allowing people who come earlier to get their spots and concessions. We thank everyone who came last night and we hope today is just as successful for everyone who comes tonight and this will hopefully help. Hundreds of drive in’s were sold out across the country and it will be more busy than it normally is and sometimes it will be slow but we do our best and hope you have a good experience if this is your first or one of your first times visiting us.

06/19/2026

We have an added bonus tonight. Ice cream is here at the drive in. The Drippy Cone is here

06/19/2026

🎉 Great News! 🎉

Online ticket sales for Central Drive-In are now working again! You can once again purchase your tickets online ahead of your visit, or as always, stop by the box office when you arrive.

🌟 Join us tonight for our second night of Toy Story 5 and enjoy a great movie under the stars with family and friends. There’s nothing quite like the drive-in experience!

🍿 Grab your favorite concessions, sit back, relax, and make some memories with us.

Thank you for your patience while we worked through the issue, and as always, thank you for supporting your local drive-in! We can’t wait to see you tonight!

06/18/2026

🚨 Important Update – Central Drive-In Online Ticket Sales 🚨

Due to a technical issue, online ticket sales for Central Drive-In are temporarily suspended. This issue has been escalated to our online ticketing partner for further review, and we are working to have it resolved as quickly as possible.

The good news is that tonight’s movies are STILL PLAYING AS SCHEDULED! 🎬🍿

🎟️ Tickets can still be purchased in person at the drive-in box office.

Please note that the only circumstance that would prevent tonight’s movies from playing is a power outage. Otherwise, we look forward to welcoming everyone for a great night at the drive-in!

We will post another update as soon as online ticket sales have been restored.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We look forward to seeing you tonight at Central Drive-In!

📢 Please keep an eye on our page for the latest updates.