Sunset Drive-In

155 Porters Point Road,
Colchester, VT 05446

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Related Websites

Sunset Drive-In Movie Theatre (Official)

Additional Info

Functions: Movies (First Run)

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 802.862.1800

Nearby Theaters

Sunset Drive-In 1999 Ad

Located in Colchester to the north of Burlington, VT. The Sunset Drive-In opened May 29, 1948 with Sabu in “The Jungle Book”. It had a capacity for 300 cars. It was operated by John Gardner of the Sunset Amusement Corp. The Sunset Drive-In now has four screens and a car capacity listed at 500.

Contributed by Lost Memory

Recent comments (view all 12 comments)

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on May 29, 2010 at 11:47 am

Cool photo of the SUNSET DRIVE IN Lost,and what was the address Mike?

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on May 29, 2010 at 12:43 pm

Don’t have the addresses in that almanac.

jwmovies
jwmovies on December 16, 2012 at 4:36 am

PLEASE UPDATE ADDRESS # TO 155.

Chris1982
Chris1982 on October 10, 2014 at 6:02 pm

The Sunset Drive-In has made the conversion to digital. Address: 155 Porters Point Rd, Colchester, VT 05446

rivest266
rivest266 on August 25, 2016 at 2:41 pm

May 29th, 1948 grand opening ad in photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 26, 2016 at 10:55 am

June 5th, 1981 grand opening ad as a 3-plex in the photo section. Burlington Plaza, Century Plaza, Burlington Drive-In all got one more screen each during April-June 1981.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on September 24, 2017 at 3:59 pm

Mallet’s Bay is listed separately on Cinema Treasures. It was open for a lot of the same years as the Sunset, which the Motion Picture Almanacs and Theatre Catalogs listed under Burlington. (The MPAs also eventually listed Mallets Bay under Burlington.)

Here’s what my Theatre Catalogs say about the Sunset.

1948-49: owner John Gardiner, Sunset Amusement Corp., capacity 300 vehicles. The Sunset was the only drive-in it listed for Vermont in that edition.

1949-50: John Gardiner, 300.

1952: D. Handy, and Daytz Th. Entr., 600.

1955-56: D. Handy, and Affiliated Ths. Corp., 600.

===

And here are the details from my MPAs.

1952-53: Daytz Theas., 600.

1953-54: Daytz Theas., 416.

1955-59: H. Young, 416.

1961-66: Sunset Amuse. Corp., 416.

1969-76: 416.

1982: M. Jarvis, 500.

1984: P. Handy, 1 screen

1986-88: P. Handy, 3 screens.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on September 24, 2017 at 6:53 pm

And despite all those changes, Seven Days wrote in 2013 that Ernest and Dorothy Handy bought the drive-in from a developer in 1948 and ran it until their retirement in 1979, when son Peter Handy took over ownership.

Also, the Sunset’s “Sunset in the News” page (pdf) is a photo of the Lake Champlain Weekly from July 2008, and it says that Peter added those two screens in 1980, then added the fourth in 1994.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on November 7, 2018 at 6:30 am

opened with “Rudyard kipling’s Jungle Book”.

robboehm
robboehm on February 13, 2021 at 1:40 pm

According to a comment on the site of the Fairlee Motel and Drive-In, the Sunset has now opened up a motel. A check of the Sunset web page indicates this is not correct. There is a motel at the foot of the property, however.

Rather than closing at the end of August the Sunset soldiered on thru early January when the weather became prohibitive. They plan a March reopening.

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