Maybe “The Last Picture Show” should’ve been on the marquee at the Franklin Drive-In this past season.

The outdoor movie theater, in operation since 1969 at 6250 Nashville Road in Franklin, has shown its last film.

Gary Price, whose family had owned the theater for the past 33 years, said Monday that the longstanding business simply fell victim to the inevitable decline of drive-in theaters and the inexorable commercial development in the area near Kentucky Downs and the adjoining Mint Gaming Hall.

Price closed last week on the sale of the nine-acre theater property and an adjacent nine acres to HG Capital LLC, a corporation headed by Franklin native and Bowling Green resident Greg Burrell.

“We’ve enjoyed being here,” Price said as he stood in the empty theater Monday. “We looked at keeping it open as a drive-in, but there are so many challenges.”

Those challenges, which include changes in the public’s movie-viewing habits and the development that is encroaching on the drive-in property from all sides, made selling more palatable in recent years.

“We didn’t take it (selling) lightly. We tossed the idea around for two or three years. We were approached by a group of investors and decided to sell. It was a difficult decision.”

The decision, though, was made easier by trends in the entertainment industry and by commercial development in the area near Kentucky Downs.

Already buffeted by a trend that the driveinmovie.com website says has seen the number of drive-in theaters plummet from more than 4,000 nationwide in the 1950s to around 400 today, the Franklin landmark has also taken a hit from loud truck traffic along Nashville Road and glaring lights from Mint Gaming Hall and other businesses.

That growth near the Interstate 65 exit 2 interchange led Burrell to ante up $1.14 million for the property, although he isn’t yet sure how it will be developed.

“I think it’s a good time to be investing in that area,” said Burrell, who is treasurer for Warren Fiscal Court and has also developed residential and commercial properties in Bowling Green, Franklin and other areas. “Franklin is already benefiting from the growth of north Nashville, and it’s only going to continue.”

Burrell said he is “in the planning stage” now and could bring in other partners, depending on what engineering and other studies show.

“I think it (the acreage) has a lot of potential,” Burrell said. “We’re going to see what can go there and what makes the most sense financially and then put a plan together.”

Although he has sold the property, Price said he is still looking for potential buyers of the large movie screen and the projection and concession equipment that he admittedly will part with reluctantly.

“I’m pretty proud of what we did here,” he said. “It’s hard to see it go.

“We just hope that whatever it is that goes on the property will be good for Franklin.”