Sunset falls on a historic season for the drive-in

FILE - Filmgoers attend the "Nomadland" screening at the Queens Drive-In at the New York Hall of Science during the 58th New York Film Festival in New York on Sept. 26, 2020. After a historic season, winter is coming at the drive-in. Summer and early fall have seen the old drive-in transformed into a surprisingly elastic omnibus of pandemic-era gathering. Red-carpet premieres that would normally consume Lincoln Center uprooted to drive-ins. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — After a historic season, winter is coming at the drive-in. Summer and early fall have seen the old drive-in transformed into a surprisingly elastic omnibus of pandemic-era gathering.

It has hosted concerts and comedy shows, business conferences and Sunday services, graduations and weddings. With temperatures dropping — and even some snow flurries falling — in the northern half of the country, one of the pandemic’s few bright spots is running low on time.

Many drive-ins are staying open well beyond normal closing, and some are selling a lot of hot chocolate.