It started with Elvis Presley. It’ll end with Will Ferrell.

The Twin Drive-In, an Independence institution since it screened its first film, Presley’s “Harum Scarum,” in 1965, announced Monday that it will close later this month.

The final screenings at 291 E. Kentucky Road will be Sunday, Nov. 17. Theater 1 will show a double feature of “Goonies” and “Jurassic Park.” Theater 2 will coax visitors into the Christmas spirit with “Elf” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Paul Farnsworth with B&B Theatres, which has run the Twin Drive-In since 2015, told The Star that the theater couldn’t come to an agreement with its landlord, the Omaha-based life insurance company WoodmenLife.

“We have an annual lease renewal with them, and this year they came to us with a 350% increase in rent,” Farnsworth said. “We had a brief back-and-forth on it, but it quickly became clear that what they wanted wasn’t going to be sustainable for us.”

A representative from WoodmenLife was unable to provide information on the firm’s real estate investment portfolio Monday afternoon.

Farnsworth said B&B had “very little actual interaction” with WoodmenLife, instead dealing with a management group on the property. He said there was a suggestion during their negotiations that WoodmenLife had plans to redevelop the property, but he couldn’t confirm any details.

The theater’s roots are local. Independence businessman Luva Vaughn founded Mid-America Cinema in 1964 with the opening of the I-70 Drive-In at 8701 E. Highway 40. A year later, Mid-America Cinema added the Twin Drive-In. Vaughn’s company eventually owned more than 70 movie screens in the U.S., including the 63rd Street Drive-In at 8200 E. 63rd St., which closed in 1999.

Globe Cinemas bought the Twin and I-70 drive-ins in 1999, holding onto both until 2014, when the advent of digital projection threatened to force the closure of theaters across the country that could not afford to update their equipment. The theaters were sold that year to B&B Theaters, based in Liberty and founded in Salisbury, Missouri, in 1924. The company upgraded both theaters and reopened for that summer season.

B&B closed the four-screen I-70 Drive-In in 2018, also citing an inability to reach a lease agreement with the property’s landlord.

B&B, which owns theaters in 15 states, still operates one other drive-in: the Moberly Five & Drive in mid-Missouri, where a five-screen conventional indoor theater is attached to an outdoor drive-in.

The closing of the Twin Drive-In will leave the Kansas City area with just one drive-in theater, the Boulevard Drive-In at 1051 Merriam Lane in Kansas City, Kansas.

“Are we bummed? Yeah,” Farnsworth said of the closing. “Bob and Bridget (Bagby, B&B owners) grew up running drive-ins, and during the pandemic the Twin was the only location open for us. So I think we all have a soft spot for what drive-ins represent — they’re a great reminder of the importance of escapism and the magic of movies.

“But we’ve been in business 100 years,” he continued. “Chapters close, theaters close. We’ll move forward.”