Photography

JOHN LOK AND DANNY GAWLOWSKI / THE SEATTLE TIMES

With movie companies pledging to distribute movies only digitally instead of on film, the Blue Fox Drive-In movie theater will need to raise about $60,000 to $80,000 to convert to a digital projector by the end of the year or face closing down. The facility, which was built in 1959, is among the dying breed that still project 35mm film prints.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Darrell Bratt, co-owner of the Blue Fox Drive-In movie theater in Oak Harbor, switches the projector lens in preparation for the second and final feature showing on a recent evening. He is trying to raise the money to convert his decades-old film-based projection system to the new digital-based system. The cost of doing this ranges from $60,000 to $80,000. At right are the massive platters which hold the 35mm film strips, and at left is the projector.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Mary Brown, right, hands tickets to a customer to the Blue Fox Drive-In movie theater. Visitors ages 11 and up are charged $6.50 and children 5-10 are $1.00. Kids 4 and under are free.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Lillian Pickrell, 8, waits with her mother, Heidi Pickrell, far left, outside the snack bar before the start of a feature showing of "Madagascar 3" at the Blue Fox Drive-In Theater in Oak Harbor recently. The Pickrell family was visiting from Portland, Ore.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Anne Barnett, from left, her boyfriend, Michael Reyna, and her extended family members, Megan Henning and Bronte Lacey, settle in as "Madagascar 3" begins at the Blue Fox Drive-In movie theater in Oak Harbor.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

A movie trailer is projected onto the screen before the start of a feature showing at the Blue Fox Drive-In move theater in Oak Harbor, Wash. The movie industry has indicated that it will soon discontinue distributing film prints, and will instead go all-digital. Movie theater owners must decide how they can make the switch to digital, which can cost about $80,000.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Mary Brown cleans up the snack bar during a feature showing recently at the Blue Fox Drive-In movie theater in Oak Harbor, Wash.