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It is believed that the screen at the Sunnyside Drive-In in Fresno, California measured 140 feet wide by 50 feet high.

Sunnyside Drive-In in Fresno had Cinerama capability, specifically designed to project single-strip 70mm Cinerama films. The theater opened in May 1965 and was built by Pacific Drive-In Theatres. The head of Pacific Theatres at the time, William R. Forman, also served as the head of Cinerama, Inc.. Because of this corporate alignment, he regularly equipped his major West Coast drive-ins with high-end projection technology.

By the mid-1960s, the cumbersome original 3-strip (three-projector) Cinerama system was being phased out in favour of a single-strip 70mm film format.

The Sunnyside Drive-In was custom-built as a premium venue, boasting a massive 1,612-car capacity and a gigantic screen specifically optimized to handle these large-format 70mm-equipped presentations.

The Sunnyside boasted that they had the biggest screen in the world, however to claim this you would have to discount The Algiers Drive-in in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Algiers had a screen that measured 65.8 m (216 ft) wide and covered 445.9 m² (4,800 ft²) when it first opened on 15 August 1956 to show the VistaVision western, The Searchers (USA 1956) starring John Wayne.

The Algiers drive-in had an original capacity of 1,200 which increased to 1,500 in 1977, but in 1985 the site was sold and is now a shopping centre

Over its lifespan, the Sunnyside screened wide-format event films distributed by Cinerama Releasing, alongside standard Hollywood features, until it transitioned fully into a swap meet and was eventually demolished in 2004.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -