
Josh Frank of the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In at the height of the pandemic. Now the theatre owner has new woes as the mini-chain’s North Austin location was broken into earlier this week, and thieves took thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment. (Photo by John Anderson)
Following a recent spate of thefts from film and TV production houses in Austin, a beloved cinema has been hit, with thieves stealing thousands of dollars of equipment from the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In.
“It really sucks, man,” said founder and owner/operator Josh Frank. The drive-in, which marks its 15th anniversary this year, moved to the Austin VFW Post 8787 (aka the Capital City Post) on VFW Road off North I-35 last year, and shares proceeds from screenings with the veterans’ organization. “So it wasn’t like it was just us getting robbed, it was the VFW because it affects them.”
The timing is particularly appalling for Frank, as this is a big week for the film-lover. Today Blue Starlite started taking bookings for Silents Synced, a new series of licensed re-scorings of classic films to classic alternative albums (the first, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu set to the music of Radiohead, is available to independent theatres and drive-ins now). Now he’s also dealing with the fallout of this crime.
“It wasn’t like it was just us getting robbed, it was the VFW because it affects them.” – Blue Starlite Mini Urban Driver-In owner/operator Josh Frank
The thefts happened some time over Sunday or Monday while the drive-in was closed. One of Frank’s staff was on site on Tuesday morning, and when he went into the main office he discovered that it had been cleaned out. The stolen equipment included iPads, Blu-ray players, cords, and two of their backup projectors. Luckily the thieves did not get into the main projection booths, so Frank purchased enough equipment to get those operational. He explained, “We’re open tonight, we’re open this weekend.”
Frank has increased security measures at the VFW location and has contacted the Austin Police Department but was told that it will be at least seven days until they will get back to him. His only other hope is that there were trackers on some of the equipment, so he may get a break in the case that way.
What’s most disappointing is that this means Blue Starlite has suffered a break-in at every location it has had since it originally opened on Cesar Chavez in 2009. Those losses include the theft of several generators from their old Mueller site in 2019, and the loss of thousands of dollars of projection equipment from their Downtown location last year. “It’s really hard to have an outdoor business involving tech,” said Frank. “You can lock it up a hundred different ways, but if they have time they’ll get in.”
“That’s just the life of the Blue Starlite,” he sighed, but added that he is committed to keeping the theatre open. “Fire, robbery, rain, wind, but we’re like the Postal Service.”
Help Blue Starlite get back on its feet by donating via GoFundMe.com.
Buy tickets for both Blue Starlite locations and the Eastside Cinema at bluestarliteaustin.com. Screenings of new releases this weekend at the VFW location include MaXXXine, Longlegs, and Robot Dreams, with repertory screenings of Jurassic Park and Twister.
Theatre owners and bookers interested in Silents Synced can find out more at silentsynced.com.