9 Texas Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Open and Worth the Trip

Texas had around 388 drive-in movie theaters when the outdoor movie craze peaked in the 1950s and ’60s.

Fewer than 20 are left running today.

That’s a brutal survival rate.

These are the Texas drive-in theaters still selling tickets today.

1. Graham Drive-In

Graham Drive-In has run movies on the same lot since 1948, longer than any other drive-in in Texas.

That makes it the oldest continuously operating drive-in in the state, older than the interstate highway system.

Nobody’s replaced it.

The McFerrin family runs Graham Drive-In today, showing movies Friday and Saturday nights on one big screen with room for hundreds of cars.

Bring a lawn chair because families set up outside their trucks as often as they sit inside them.

2. Brazos Drive-In

Brazos Drive-In opened on Memorial Day weekend in 1952 and has run every season since, on the same lot outside the Granbury square.

It’s cash-only at the gate, one movie at a time on its single screen, with a double feature on Friday and Saturday nights for one ticket price.

Dogs are welcome as long as they stay leashed or in the car.

A lawn chair counts as a second living room once the sun goes down.

3. Galaxy Drive-In

Galaxy Drive-In runs more screens at once than almost any other theater in the state, all showing different movies off the same stretch of I-45 south of Dallas.

The theater has grown to nine screens, a scale that’s rare for a drive-in where you can still watch from the driver’s seat.

Nine movies. One trip.

The concession stand serves fried food and banana pudding alongside new releases, often the same weekend they hit the multiplex.

4. Stars & Stripes Drive-In

Stars & Stripes Drive-In runs three screens at its New Braunfels location, right between Austin and San Antonio.

The theater shows first-run movies nightly, and a sister location in Lubbock runs the same three-screen format.

It’s less a parking lot with a screen and more a full night out, with a 50’s-style cafe on-site slinging burgers, funnel cakes, and chicken wings so nobody has to smuggle in snacks.

Lawn chairs are welcome outside the car at Stars & Stripes.

Pets can tag along too, as long as they stay inside the vehicle once the movie starts.

5. Doc’s Drive-In

Doc’s Drive-In turns movie night into an overnight trip, with a private swimming beach, a full-service diner, and a bar on the same property just south of Austin.

Book one of the small themed cabins on-site.

The movie becomes the last item on the schedule instead of the whole night.

Bring a swimsuit.

Doc’s Drive-In is still running movies today on its two screens, one of the newest theaters in Texas, built for a crowd that wants dinner, a swim, and a movie without moving the car more than once.

6. Tascosa Drive-In

Tascosa Drive-In is the only drive-in serving Amarillo and the surrounding Panhandle.

It nearly didn’t survive long enough to make this list.

The theater closed at the end of the 2023 season after its previous owners retired, leaving its future uncertain for months.

It came back.

Amarillo business owners Jim and Candy Dewitz bought the property and reopened it in July 2024, with room for about 195 cars instead of the roughly 800 it once held.

Regulars point to the clean grounds and a kids’ play area at Tascosa Drive-In as reasons it’s worth the drive across flat Panhandle highway just for a movie.

7. Big Sky Drive-In

Big Sky Drive-In sits between Midland and Odessa with room for almost 1,000 cars across three screens, one of the largest drive-ins left in Texas.

That’s no exaggeration.

Big Sky Drive-In opens Friday through Sunday nights year-round, under a stretch of open West Texas sky with no city lights competing with the screen.

Big is right there in the name.

If a car battery ever dies in the lot, the theater keeps portable chargers on hand so the night doesn’t end early.

8. WesMer Drive-In

WesMer Drive-In is the last drive-in movie theater left in South Texas, running out of Mercedes in the Rio Grande Valley.

WesMer Drive-In opened around 1950 and marked its 75th year in business in 2025, run today by Hector Garza, who took over the theater two decades ago.

Still the Valley’s only drive-in.

Every other drive-in that once served the Valley has closed, which makes WesMer worth the trip for anyone south of San Antonio who wants the experience at all.

9. Moonstruck Drive-In

Moonstruck Drive-In runs out of Houston’s East Downtown neighborhood, inside the city limits instead of out on a highway like many of the theaters on this list.

A tornado tore through its original East River location in May 2024.

Instead of closing for good, the theater rebuilt at a new site on Delano Street and reopened in April 2025.

It came back with more screens than it started with, running two screens Thursday through Sunday as of 2026.

Moonstruck plays first-run new releases the same weekend they open at the multiplex, a rare move for a Texas drive-in built mostly around classics and reruns.

Why So Many Texas Drive-Ins Went Dark

Texas drive-ins survived the multiplex boom and the rise of DVD rental stores, then ran into a nationwide shift that didn’t care whether they could afford it.

Major studios began phasing out 35-millimeter film distribution around 2013, pushing every theater toward digital projection without ever naming a firm cutoff date.

Many didn’t switch.