Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:34:00

San Jose's last drive-in still lights up six screens every night of the year. The Capitol Drive-In at 3630 Hillcap Avenue opened on 25 May 1971 with four screens and a free inaugural program of The Owl and the Pussycat, 101 Dalmatians, Valdez Is Coming and Zeppelin - one of six drive-ins then operating in San Jose, designed by Vincent G. Raney, the architect behind much of the Century Theatres circuit. Later expanded to six screens, it outlived every competitor: at the industry's 1960s peak California had more than 220 drive-ins, a number now reduced to around fifteen statewide, three of them in the Bay Area. Operated today by West Wind Drive-Ins - the family-owned chain descended from Syufy Enterprises that has made a business of keeping the format alive across several states - the Capitol runs first-run features year-round on all six screens, day-and-date with indoor theatres, in crystal-clear digital projection with sound broadcast over FM radio. Admission stays deliberately family-friendly, with discounted Family Fun Nights on Tuesdays, fully stocked snack bars, playgrounds and arcades between the double features, and a bring-your-own-food tolerance unheard of indoors. The property works double duty: since 1978 the grounds have hosted the Capitol Flea Market by day, a year-round institution with vendors, food and live bands several days a week, making the site a seven-day community fixture rather than a nights-only relic. A 16-screen indoor multiplex was later built on the western portion of the lot, bracketing five decades of exhibition history on one parcel. For the South Bay the Capitol is equal parts cinema and time machine - car culture, dusk settling over the Santa Clara Valley, a movie under the stars for less than the price of a multiplex ticket - and its survival through the streaming era has made the neon marquee off Capitol Expressway one of San Jose's best-loved landmarks.