Houston’s New East Downtown Drive-In Will Show Brand New Movies, Including Tenet — Getting Moonstruck?

Houston is getting yet another new drive-in movie theater, but this one is different. This one could change the coronavirus movie equation. This one will show new movies — including the highly-anticipated Christopher Nolan thriller Tenet.

One of the Bayou City’s top development companies, Midway, is teaming up with Moonstruck to open up the Moonstruck Drive-In Cinema in East Downtown. The new drive-in will make use of Midway’s massive 150-acre East River development space at 100 Bringhurst Street. The movies — including Tenet on its September 4th opening weekend — will be shown on a 40 foot by 80 foot mega screen made out of shipping containers.

This qualifies as a whole new movie wonderland with coronavirus rates still scarily high in the Houston area — and many understandably nervous about the prospect of being inside an enclosed theater with strangers for several hours.

“The East River site has been inaccessible to the public for generations, and we are thrilled to activate the space ahead of its decades-long development horizon,” Midway chief executive officer Jonathan Brinsden says in a release. “We look forward to providing this new contactless drive-in for the community to gather and experience during these unique times.”

The resurgence of drive-ins have been one of few bright spots of all the coronavirus pandemic side impacts. While there a number of new worthy Houston drive-ins, almost all of them are centered around reshowing classic movies whether they are from the last few years or decades ago. This new East Downtown drive-in bucks that trend by showing brand new releases.

For months, essentially ever since the first coronavirus pandemic shutdowns in March, there have been no new movie releases to get excited about. Tenet — which the notoriously difficult Nolan refused to even consider just releasing for in-home demand viewing — is the first movie that could make people go back inside movie theaters (and make no mistake, plenty will go back to traditional indoor cinemas to see it).

Now, this new Moonstruck Drive-In provides another way to see Tenet. Moonstruck will also show the new comedy Bill and Ted Face the Music if you’re looking for a more lighthearted excellent adventure.

Moonstruck will show movies at 8:30 pm daily — with another movie shown at 11 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays . Tickets are $25 per car — with each movie ticketed separately (these are not doubleheader showings).

The entrance will open at 7 pm each night for first come, first serve parking. Food trucks and portable restrooms will be on site.

For Midway, it’s a chance to tease its upcoming long horizon development — one that will be much larger than its CityCentre development. Eventually, East River will be full of restaurants, stores and apartments.

Until then, it will be all about the movies.