MANILA -- Expect a big reboot for the movie theater industry with the opening of more sprawling drive-in cinemas.

After the launch of the SM Cinema Drive-In at the Amphitheater in San Fernando, Pampanga last July 31, other drive-in venues are being finalized in Metro Manila under an anticipated general community quarantine (GCQ) setting in the last quarter of 2020.

The odds are daunting with the onset of the rainy season and expected minimal revenues at the tills but the industry is hoping that this will be the start of the turnaround of the movie theater industry crippled by the pandemic.

Awaiting the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases are two proposed drive-in cinema locations.

Megaworld Cinemas is eyeing Pasig or Taguig as the venue of its drive-in cinema which can accommodate up to 100 vehicles for every screening on weekend evenings. SM is also putting up another drive-in movie at the concert grounds of its Mall of Asia.

No official details have been made by the companies but industry sources expect the projects will get the green light which allowed the opening of the first drive-in theater at the SM City Pampanga Amphitheater, with the same arrangements and guidelines.

Open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the SM Cinema Drive-In theater is showing “Train 2 Busan: Peninsula” and “My Spy.” Purchased online in advance, each ticket costs P400 per person inclusive of bottled water, regular-sized popcorn, and beef franks.

Two persons are allowed per vehicle with a maximum of 4 persons. Each vehicle is assigned their parking spots for optimal view of the screen.

Guests turn on their car’s FM radio to a specific frequency to broadcast the film sound straight into their vehicles. Guests are also welcome to bring their own radio and other devices with FM capabilities. The Pampanga venue can accommodate between 80 and 90 vehicles per screening, and individuals aged between 21 and 59 will be admitted in accordance with IATF Guidelines and Safety Protocols.

The drive-in cinema concept will hopefully spawn other businesses in food and merchandise items in its area of operation to provide employment opportunities for displaced workers. The Pampanga drive-in cinema, for one, attracted vintage car hobbyists, notably multi-awarded actor Allen Dizon and company who showed off their car collection. It also employed marshals and other workers in the venue.

Pending the reopening of hundreds of moviehouses across the country, other malls have made feasibility studies on the construction of drive-in cinemas.

“We are also looking forward to provide this form of entertainment soon,” Bomboy Lim, general manager of Robinson’s Movie World, told ABS-CBN News.

Megaworld had earlier shown "Train to Busan 2: Peninsula" at its advance screening at Festive Walk Cinemas in Iloilo during the first week of August.