15 years after fire, Admiral Twin Drive-In reflects on past and looks to the future

Fifteen years after a devastating fire shut down Tulsa’s iconic Admiral Twin Drive-In, the theater has rebuilt, faced ups and downs in business, and is planning for its 75th anniversary in 2026.

Saturday, September 6th 2025, 10:53 pm

By: Sam Carrico

This week marked fifteen years since a fire destroyed the original screens at Tulsa's Admiral Twin Drive-In.

The Admiral Twin's owner says he remembers that devastating day like it was yesterday. Fifteen years later, he says the new question is: how long can they keep the gates open?

It was September 3, 2010, when a fire reduced the iconic screens at the Admiral Twin to rubble.

"It was the longest drive of my life. Coming down, you could see the smoke from the—you know—so it went down pretty fast," said owner Blake Smith.

The fire shut down the drive-in for more than a year.

"I had a fear that they were going to just tear it down and do away with it. But I was real happy that they actually decided to rebuild it," said moviegoer Jessica Dunham.

Before that, the Admiral Twin had been a Tulsa summer staple for decades—many of them under Smith's ownership.

"Pushing 40 years, you know, so it means something to me. And I'm glad that people are able to come out and, you know, enjoy it," he said.

Smith says it took donations, benefit concerts, and a little luck to rebuild in 2012.

"Really what ended up happening is, is I've just got a great banker, and he sort of just said, you know, what would it look like to rebuild?" he said.

Business boomed after reopening and again during COVID, but Smith says it has slowed in recent years. Now the question is how long the drive-in can keep going.

"I think Tulsa needs to keep this alive. It's a part of Tulsa's history," said Dunham.

Next year marks seventy-five years since the drive-in opened, and Smith says more luck will be what it takes to make it to one hundred.

"I would be pretty old, but yeah. I don't know about a hundred years. I don't know about any drive-ins for 100 years," said Smith.

He says this summer's movie season didn't have the returns they were hoping for. He hopes their annual scary movie showings in October help make that up.