Hilltop Drive-In Theater

Address: 3151 Hilltop Drive, Richmond CA 94803 (also listed as 3150 Garrity Way, Richmond CA)

Date Opened: July 4, 1963

Date Closed: September 5, 1983

Owners/Circuits: Jeha Family,  Syufy Enterprises

Screens: 1

Number of Car Spaces: 950

Current Status: Demolished

The Hilltop Drive-In was a single screen drive-in theater adjacent to what is now Hilltop Mall Shopping Center in Richmond. It was originally owned and operated by the Jeha family who owned the Park Theatre in nearby El Sobrante but later acquired by the Syufy circuit who also owned and operated the Rancho Drive-In in San Pablo. The Hilltop opened on the 4th of July 1963 with a double feature of "Follow That Dream" and "Sergeants 3".

Historic Aerials shows location of Hilltop Drive-In in relation to Highway 40 (now 80) in and off ramps.

In September of 1964 the Hilltop Drive-In is promoting a change in policy from second run to first run attractions. With so little competition from the few remaining indoor theaters in the Richmond area there was plenty of first run product available for the local drive-ins if they chose to pay extra for it. 

By May of 1965 the Syufy circuit had acquired the Hilltop Drive-In which now shared newspaper ad space in the Independent with Syufy's Rancho Drive-In, located in nearby San Pablo. 

The Hilltop was the last drive-in theater to be built in the Richmond-San Pablo-El Cerrito area and the last one to close, finally ceasing operation on Labor Day, September 5, 1983. The final program consisted of a couple of repulsive but then popular R rated "slasher" films, "Mortuary" and "The House on Sorority Row". Mainstream America's taste in drive-in entertainment had obviously changed considerably since the Hilltop opened twenty years earlier with the family friendly combination of an Elvis movie and a Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin "rat pack" western comedy. The Hilltop's closing left the two screen Solano Drive-In in Concord as Contra Costa County's only remaining drive-in. It retains that distinction in 2018.

2012 Google aerial view. Courtyard Marriot Hotel now stands in the former location of the Hilltop Drive-In. Cinemark's Century 16 Hilltop Mall indoor theater multiplex is also nearby.