Jim Mertz has watched many drive-in theaters come and go during his more than 50 years of working in the movie industry, and he’s doing his part to keep one of the last ones standing in Iowa in operation.

Mertz, 69, bought the Valle Drive-In Theater in Newton in 1976. At the time, there were still around 50 drive-ins operating across the state, down from a peak of nearly 70 during the 1950s and 1960s.

“There were several (drive-ins) in Des Moines at one time, but it got to where the land value went up and it was more profitable to close them down and sell the land to developers,” Mertz said.

Newton’s drive-in still stands where it did when it opened in 1949, a mile and a half west of Lambs Grove on old Highway 6. Dan Badger, executive director of the Newton Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the drive-in is a major attraction for the community, bringing people from miles away.

“When you go out there, you’ll notice out-of-county cars all over the place,” he said. “I think last weekend our assistant went out there and counted plates from at least six different counties.”

On weekends, Badger said, regular attendees know to show up at the Valle an hour and a half to two hours before dusk to get a good spot at the drive-in, which has room for about 300 cars.

Badger said he’s heard that two of Iowa’s other drive-ins, 61 Drive-In in Maquoketa and Council Bluffs Drive-In, also stay busy. Iowa’s newest drive-in, Sunshine Mine Drive-In in Centerville, opened earlier this month.

“I’m surprised more haven’t opened up,” Badger said of the state’s new drive-in.

Mertz said families account for a majority of the Valle Drive-In’s customers. He thinks there are a couple of reasons for this. First, parents (or grandparents) want their kids to experience a drive-in theater like the ones they had growing up, and second, because the drive-ins can be more affordable than traditional movie theaters. For double features, the Valle Drive-In charges $7 for adults and kids 11 and under get in for free.

“The attendance is pretty good because of the families that like to come here, and Newton has been a good business town because of its location along the Interstate (80),” Mertz said.

The Valle Drive-In has undergone some changes over the years. The screen currently in use is the third one the drive-in has been through. Instead of old, tinny- sounding speakers that hang on the windows, audio now streams through high-tech speakers or can be heard in digital quality on an automobile’s stereo. Mertz said his investment in equipment is significant, considering the business is only open a portion of the year.

Iowa’s weather also adds to Mertz’s operating expenses by occasionally damaging equipment and crushing ticket sales.

“You have a short season to begin with (April to October), then the weather plays a role,” he said. “You can get wiped out on the weekends with rain and take a big hit that week. The weather is always a factor, and that’s one drawback of having a drive-in.”

During the summer, the Valle Drive-In runs nightly double features, and operates on weekends throughout the rest of the season. For the past six or seven years, it has played first-run movies, and Mertz said ticket prices had to be raised this year so he could keep offering the newest movies.

“The film companies, in order to get the first-run movies, they insist that you keep admission prices up,” he said. “They can’t legally tell you how much to charge, but when they only have so many copies of the film to distribute, they will favor the ones that charge more.”

Mertz said the film companies he works with now collect 50 to 60 percent of every dollar generated from ticket sales, and he’s growing frustrated that the amount continues to increase.

“You have a tremendous investment in the property because it costs so much to build it and maintain it, and then the film company takes the biggest share of the money,” he said. “With the way things are, it seems like it’s just a matter of time before all of them close down.”

Nina Finch hopes that Mertz is wrong.

Finch and her brother, Phil Radosevich, are the owners of the new Sunshine Mine Drive-In in Centerville, a community of about 7,500 in South Central Iowa. She believes there is a revival taking place now in the drive-in theater industry, and there’s data that supports her belief. Of the more than 400 drive-in theaters in operation today in the United States, 40 were built or reopened during the past five years, according to www.driveins.com.

“We got talking to people in the trade, and they were saying that there was a spark of interest in drive-ins,” Finch said. “We sat on the idea until we found a pretty good deal on some land. We figured that was our sign to go through with it.”

In May, Finch and Radosevich began work on the Sunshine Mine Drive-In (named for the former Sunshine Coal Mine on the 7-acre property). They installed a used screen measuring 50 feet by 20 feet, which they got for free from a closed drive-in in Unionville, Mo., built a concession stand and ticket booth and opened for business Aug. 5. Finch and Radosevich also own the Majestic Theater in Centerville, a one-screen movie house located downtown.

Finch thinks that the drive-in’s location a couple of miles outside of Centerville on Highway 2 is ideal to capture visitors who use nearby Rathbun Lake for recreation, along with future tourism brought to the lake as its destination park is developed. Until then, Finch hopes to build on the growth in attendance she has witnessed during the drive-in’s first few weeks in business.

“We have the nostalgia factor on our side,” she said. “People don’t just come to see the movie. They come for the experience because they remember how fun it was to go to a drive-in as a kid. It’s something different for families to do. Parents can come here and feel like they can bring their kids and put them in their pajamas and if the kids doze off as it gets later, it’s no big deal.”

“As long as people know we’re here, we’re going to do OK,” she said.