TIFFIN, Ohio — A community staple in Tiffin for more than 70 years is making its official return this weekend after being closed since 2020.
Since purchasing the aging Tiffin Drive-in Theater in August 2020, owner Mike Cole has worked to totally reinvent the Seneca County mainstay.
Gone is the old main screen, which still had some of the original 1949 structure, and the former projector building.
Now, an expanded lot features a total 316 spaces for the main and secondary screen and an expanded concession area in a brand new projector building.
"We've pretty much rebuilt everything, there is pretty much none of the old structures here anymore. They were all suffering from a lot of neglect over the years and so we wiped everything clean and started over with everything new," Cole said.
And the real centerpiece is the new BARCO SP4K projector for the main screen.
Cole says it is currently the best image quality projector on the market in the world, and the Tiffin Drive-In is one of the first businesses to showcase it.
In all, Cole hopes this total reboot for the iconic community staple can hopefully help it continue on for generations to come.
"It was really a community institution, but kind of a forgotten one and what we've tried to do here is turn it into a community entertainment centerpiece," he said. "And, with all that we've put into it, I'd really like to think that we've done that."
The Tiffin Drive-in Theater officially kicks off its 2022 season this weekend with movies showing on both screens this Friday and Saturday around 8:30 p.m. and a special Easter Sunday showing of "The Ten Commandments."