Chief Drive In

What a great find. I didn't even know that drive ins still existed. I thought going to the movies would be a thing of the past once baby boy was born. We got to see some great blockbuster movies this past summer when the baby was still a few months old and we didn't have a babysitter yet.

When you first drive in, bring cash because it's like a dollar cheaper. I believe the first several rows in front are for nonsmoking. You can tune your radio to the station but before the movie starts (at sunset) they play some golden oldies. We tried the drive in with the suv backed in and laid blankets down with some fold up chairs. I think my husband got it right when we took the truck and backed in and set the fold up chairs... Sitting up higher gives you a better viewing of the screen.

We went and bought a hand held radio with batteries. Some people stay in the car with the engine running.... But we have seen several cars battery die.

They have a very strict rule of no outside food. Some people really complain about that and try to sneak it in. But it's a family run drive in, they probably don't make a lot of money from ticket sales....so not sure why people try to beat the system. Their menu items aren't that bad. It's better and bigger than a regular theater. Chili hotdogs to rootbeer floats.

It's always gonna be a two for one showing. Some people don't stay for the second movie so during the 'intermission' people will drive off. It's a great time to get a better spot if you came in late and got a crappy spot.

Is it the best cinematic experience? No, but it's a fun switch up for the kids, and an awesome way for new parents to still get to see movies out of the house.

Sidenote: Summer's can be hot and lots of mosquitos. Definitely invest in bug spray!!!

If I could leave zero stars, I would. What started out as a fun evening with the fiancé and two friends for a double date ended with the night ruined and everyone going home to do nothing. We pulled up and were gruffly greeted by who we assume to be the owner. He told us we'd have to throw our drinks away in order to enter. Not exactly eager to see money down the drain, I'm guessing we weren't quick enough to just hand over our unopened beverages to be trashed, and he lost his patience, ordering us to roll down our window for an inspection, at which point he walked around our car, threw my card back in my face and handed me a refund, short of a dollar, and told us to "shove those cans up [my] ass" and "get the fuck out of my driveway"

I get that some places have policies about outside food or drink, but my fiancé's best friend is now in the back seat of my car, crying her eyes out because a grown man straight up yelled at us over a fucking beverage. Being prior military, being yelled at doesn't faze me, but she isn't used to that kind of unhealthy behavior. If anything, we feel he was already mad at another patron for the same "infraction" and thus, took it out on us. Regardless, the attitude makes it hard for us to emphasize for his "plight."

He told us "don't come back."

Don't worry, we won't!

Chief Drive-In Theatre was an absolute blast and still the best movie experience in the state if you ask me! Thank you for some great memories and amazing movies!

This was our first and last visit to this place! We drove over an hour and a half to visit this establishment. We met my brother and his family and our daughter and her boyfriend (total of eight people and a young child) here so we could hangout and watch the movies. Well, needless to say we had outside pizza boxes and smoothie cups in our vehicle that we had purchased when we got to town at 6:40ish to eat before going to the drive in. Our 2 1/2-year-old was finishing his food and we were finishing our smoothies when we got in line at 6:50ish. Since this was our 1st visit ever, we were not aware of the signs at the entrance to the line to get in saying "No Outside Food or Drink Beyond This Point" which literally means to them you cannot even have food or drink in your possession while waiting in line for the gates to open and pay your entry fee at the booth. We had no idea finishing our smoothies or our son finishing his food while waiting in line and then having the empty boxes and cups in our car would be a huge problem. Our smoothie cups were actually in the cupholders in the front seat of our truck. When we got to the gate to pay, the gentleman was nice we informed him it was our 1st time to this drive in and he was very considerate explaining about the nonsmoking rows, concession, radio station, etc., he said nothing to us about outside food or drink and our empty cups were right there and our youngest was in the backseat with the box lid we used for a plate in his lap with a small slice of pizza he was eating on it. We went in and within about 15 minutes were approached by a worker and owner saying they saw my husband throwing away a pizza box in their trash. Well of course he threw the trash away. They proceeded to accuse us of bringing in outside food and drinks and lying to the guy at the front about having outside food or drink when he did not even ask us. If he had asked, we would have told him yes and gladly have given him all our trash except our son's food. They were aggressive and rude. I happily cleaned out the truck of ALL food boxes and cups while they stood there and watched. I am surprised they did not make us throw my son's insulated drinking cup away that we take with us in the vehicles. I was honestly shocked and tried to explain where we drove from and that we ate and drank the items before coming through the gate except our son that was still eating his pizza when we were paying at the gate. They did let us stay after we stated we were fine leaving if that is what they wanted, but it was uncomfortable, and they continued to police the parking lot until after the movie started at 9:00ish...CRAZY!! I get the policy and fully understand the need to make money but come on with young kids it is difficult to travel without water bottles and drinks on hand or even to not have some sort of food boxes/bags in your car these days. If you do go BE SURE TO RID your car of ALL OUTSIDE food establishment trash.
As a group we spent $64 to enter plus three buckets of popcorn, five drinks, and other food, and candy that was purchased. Guess it was all worth losing our business and recommendations all for food trash from a family visiting from out of town.

So sad I'm writing this review.

We've been driving down to this drive in for over 3 years. Sometimes we would come specifically for the burgers. The past 6 months, they have been unable to keep up with the increased business and have asked people to be patient. Our food orders have gone from 20 minutes to over an hour. Fine.

We went this past weekend after a baseball game. It was 104 degrees on Saturday. When I paid, the attendant asked me to roll down my window so he could check the back seat... ok. I obliged. We were relatively close to the front of the line. We got in and the line for concession stand was already long. My son simply wanted something to drink (we've started eating before going lately, because the food is declining and taking forever). It was so hot and he was so sweaty, I finally pulled his water bottle out of his baseball bag and told him to fill it in the bathroom. He came back with hot water. He got in the concession stand line and it took 45 minutes just to reach the building. If you cannot accommodate the crowds and provide water for patrons.. you need to allow for a cooler fee. I'm all about supporting local businesses and paying what is required, Denying people access to water should be criminal. You have young children, breast feeding mothers and elderly patrons in summer heat.

We will unfortunately not be back. I cannot, in good faith, continue to support this business practice. Winchester and Beacon both do cooler fees, and that is where we will be going from now on.

Giving this drive-in a 0 for customer service. I'll take full responsibility for violating no outside food or drink. The employee asked at the gate and we gave him what we had. He went on a rant about branded cups. We had TWO outside water bottles. Sorry, i'm not sorry, i'm not going to detail my car for drinks and snacks, I have children in tow!

Our families combined spent $60 at the concession stand and $50 in admissions. The water bottles we had may have been a loss of $2 to the establishment. He also accused us of having outside popcorn when it was actually an outside Tupperware to share the $10 popcorn bucket we bought at the concession stand! (Silly, right? but that's how out of control he was!!!).

The issue isn't the food/drink policy, it's the way the matter is handled. I read prior reviews and it's clear there is an employee (or possibly an owner) who is known for his belligerent reaction to outside food or drink. We had five children there to witness these actions. You can pull any policy or video footage you want, you don't come up to paying customers (especially with children) and start grabbing their stuff, making accusations, telling them to leave, and they are trespassers OVER WATER BOTTLES! We weren't trespassing by the way, we paid full admission. To give other reviewers any indication of how ridiculous this man is, our 4 year old referred to him as a bully, and rightfully so.

I understand you have to protect your business, but there are better ways to handle this situation. This man is hostile and really showed my children (and reminded me) how hateful and ugly people can be.

Maybe there should be a sign at the front of the theater along with the no food and drink sign that says: "Violators will be harassed and disrespected regardless of whether you are a paying customer." For anyone wishing to go to the theater, be careful and aware, especially if you have children.

A thought for the $$$ collected at the concession stand, do yourself, your business, and future customers a favor, put it towards a training on customer service or hospitality.

There is no reasonable excuse for this type of behavior. I don't need a response from the establishment, it's clear you're lacking in taking ownership for your volatile actions.


Again, the no food policy isn't the issue. The way the owners handle themselves is problematic. The way they refuse to take ownership for their actions is problematic. The way they talk to paying customers is problematic. There is a better way to handle this situation to not realize this after the many confrontations I've read below, and experienced myself last night, is terrible. No one should ever have to be on the receiving in of such hateful and irrational behavior. THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR IT. Unacceptable and not good business. Value customers. I take full ownership of having outside drinks and I will take full ownership of some choice words exchanged. I don't apologize. To get respect you have to show respect...

Should consider changing the drive in name too. From where I come from a Chief is far more respectful, honorable, and of more importance than this business.

Do better.

My husband and I planned our whole day around having a movie night with our two young children and their grandparents. My husband and my in laws are all smokers. I, however, am not a fan of smoking at all. Being REALLY excited for movie night, we arrived at the gate at 7:15, and they "open at 7:30." At 7:40, someone finally showed up to open the gates and take our money. I had a REALLY old take out cup in my cup holder so he asked to throw it out for me. So I handed it to him. My husband handed him $20 to pay, he asked if we had been there before, we told him we had, and he made sure we knew what radio station to tune to and where everything was. Then he proceeded to tell us we could only park in the first three rows, so we kinda just paused and looked at him, because that seemed strange to us. Then he said "unless you smoke. Do you smoke?" And my husband answered "yes." And I looked at my husband in disappointment (because I hate that he smokes) and the man shoved the door open with a LOT of force, ran up to my husbands window, THREW the $20 bill back at him, and told him "he could just go the f&@k home then" because he "doesn't trust him" because "I shook my head saying he didn't smoke." I tried to explain that I was not shaking my head, and that he DOES smoke but I hate it, and he just continued to scream at us to leave, using expletives in front of my 2 and 9 year old.
We called my mother in law to notify her we were no longer able to have a movie night and let her know why. She knew the owner, so she called to speak to her. Turns out said man was owner's husband. She denied everything. Said that her husband told her my husband initiated an attack against him and that she knows her husband would never act like that. My mother in law told her that it is really bad for business to act like that towards paying customers, and that her husband needed to make things right. The woman asked how she would like him to do that and she said "I think your husband needs to apologize to my son. My daughter in law is standing in front of me bawling over how he acted." And her exact words were "well I just don't think that's going to happen." And continued to defend her husband.
We will never return to this movie theatre if they think that is an appropriate way to treat PAYING CUSTOMERS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN just trying to have a fun, summer night at the movies!

Beyond disrespectful.

One star is a bit much for their customer service. We use to love going here. It was something our entire family could partake in. We would spend money on tickets and money at the concession because as small business owners we understand the importance of trying to keep small business alive. I used to discredit bad reviews for this establishment because everyone is someone behind a keyboard until now. When we visited last month the gentleman at the front was rude about weather or not we had outside food or drink. We didn't and I shrugged it off as him having a bad day. Fast forward to last night when what was supposed to be a birthday celebration turned in to all out harassment and disrespectfulness. It was my nieces birthday and she wanted to eat jakes for dinner and then go to a movie. Well, jakes didn't disappoint, but chief's sure did. One car load was able to get in, but not before they were harassed for having empty jakes cups, because they only make money off of concessions. I get it. You need people buying in the concession. Guaranteed we probably spent close to $200 between the 9 of us for one trip last month. When the rest of the group showed up they had already started the movie. It was said they would have to walk in and that wasn't a problem. They were asked if they ate at jakes too then turned away just because they had dinner somewhere else. I wish I was kidding. I wish this was made up because I have told numerous people to check this place out. They will say they that we threatened to fb bash them if the rest of the group was not let in which is an utter lie. At the end of the day they truly have some severe customer service issues that need to be addressed. With other places to go like the Winchester where you won't get harassed for eating dinner somewhere else there is no need to visit chiefs for us again.