After months of being closed for the winter, Stardust Drive-In Newmarket is opening for the season today.
“We have a lot of customers that are super excited,” said manager Jasmine Doucette.
This will be her 10th season at Stardust, which is located at 893 Mount Albert Rd. in Sharon. She started there when she was just 16 years old and worked her way up.
Despite the wintry weather hanging around, Doucette is hoping they will have a lively crowd in attendance.
“We’ll get our hardcore (customers)… I already know who’s going to be there,” she said. “And then some new people, too, but usually we have our core people, like 20 people that we know are going to come even if it’s cold.”
From Friday to Sunday and then again on Thursday, April 7, screen one will be showing Morbius and Uncharted, screen 2 will be playing The Lost City followed by Spider-Man: No Way Home and screen three will show The Batman and X.
The number of new movies is refreshing for Doucette, who said “when the pandemic first started, movies were hard to get.”
The past two years have presented a number of challenges for drive-in theatres that continue today.
“I don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next couple months, so I’m kind of just going day by day and we’ll see what this year brings. I hope we get our full season,” Doucette said.
A typical season runs from March to November, but that hasn't been the case in the last two years. She said last year they were able to open in March but then a lockdown in April closed them down for a couple of months.
However, when they were able to re-open, the drive-in created an opportunity for people to get out of the house, see a movie, and stay safe as you would be in your own car and therefore didn’t have to wear masks.
Doucette said they were seeing a lot of people coming who said it was their first time ever at a drive-in.
“There was so much of that last year and the year before, especially when Cineplex was closed. In Newmarket, where do you go other than the drive-in or Cineplex?” she said.
While she said the weather isn’t great for opening weekend, she is confident the crowds will grow as it gets warmer outside, adding that the May long weekend is usually when it picks up.
“From there our momentum goes until Labour Day pretty much,” Doucette said.
Tickets are now on sale for opening weekend and can be purchased online or at the box office. Tickets are sold as double features, meaning you can see both movies shown on that screen that night.
