Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In Turning Off the Lights at Mueller

Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In owner Josh Frank at his Mueller location during the height of the pandemic. Today he announced the site will be closing, and relocating this fall. (Photo by John Anderson)

Sad news for film fans who like their movies in the great outdoors. Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In will close its Mueller location for public screenings on July 1.

However, it's not the end of the drive-in in Austin. Blue Starlite founder and owner/operator Josh Frank confirmed that the downtown location, on the top floor of the State of Texas parking garage at Third and San Antonio, will be unaffected and still have screenings of new and repertory titles. Even better, there are plans for a new Blue Starlite, location TBA, to open in August – just in time for the independent chain's 15th anniversary.

Frank promised that the Mueller location will still be available over the Summer for limited private screenings, as will the Forest Walk-in micro-screen right nearby. However, the regular drive-in nights will wrap up July 1 with screenings of Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, family classic The Goonies, and Blue Starlite favorite Twister.

It's far from the first time Blue Starlite has relocated. It originally opened in 2008 in a parking lot on Cesar Chavez, before moving two years later to East Sixth, where it remained for four years. Then came its first location in the Mueller neighborhood, on the old back lot of Austin Film Studios. That was their home for five years, until they moved in 2018 to make way for new construction on the site. However the team only had a short drive to the current multi-screen location on Franklin Avenue, where they've become a neighborhood institution over the last four years, including being one of the few working cinemas in the first few months of the pandemic. (None of those moves include the Downtown location, or the summer runs in Round Rock, or the pop ups that Frank has run over the years in Florida and Colorado.)

In a statement, Frank wrote, “We have loved our operation on Franklin Avenue and being able to serve the community throughout the pandemic lockdown was especially meaningful… but the clock is ticking on that space. The owners of the lot has been a huge advocate for us remaining there for as long as possible as they worked toward its future development and we are so grateful for their support all these years. Although we will be sad to be leaving the great experiences and memories we made at our Mueller location, we’ve been hard at work on our next big thing and we can’t wait to make those plans public.”