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Author Topic: Ground Breaking Ceremony - Stardust Drive-In Theatre Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-31-2003 05:18 PM                        I'm sure that Barry is super-busy right now, but I, too, am looking forward to seeing his next update. It's exciting to hear about a newly constructed drive-in.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-01-2003 11:20 PM                        Barry, in this thread please document the actual first night of business and first movie(s) shown so I can record it in the historical section of my WWW site. I drove by the drive-in this past Saturday to look at it in the middle of the afternoon and didn't see any sign of life there. It looks really different than the last time I went by there. Watertown is an interesting location for a drive-in since it seems to be in such an out-of-the-way place. I noticed that the 4-laning of SR 26 (signed as US 70) west of Smithville has progressed some. Do you suppose it will eventually be 4-laned all the way to Lebanon?  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-02-2003 01:16 PM                        OK, guys and gals... here's the update. You people never told me it was gonna be like this !!! Installed the booth last Sunday afternoon with no electricity. We basically just got the equipment set in place, and the sound rack mounted and the equipment installed. We finally got power to the building on Tuesday by 11:00 a.m., and we were scheduled to open Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Our cinema tech came out Tuesday afternoon, and by 1:30 a.m. we had a picture on the screen. Our flat lens ended up being WAY wrong, but the Scope was dead-on perfect. The picture filled the screen top to bottom, left to right... no cropping anywhere. We built up GREASE on the platter, and left by 3:30 a.m. Wednesday night, we had our first "FREE TO THE PUBLIC" Open House with 117 cars through the gates. It was a major success. We had no water or sewer to the building, so we brought in 6 Porta-Potties and served bottled beverages. The electrical circuit to our 32 oz. Gold Medal popper was installed to small, or something, as we could only get enough power to heat the kettle if we turned off the warmer, oil pump, and neon lights. After we figured it out.... smooth sailing. Thursday. Called Fred Blank at Tri-State Theatre Supply in Memphis and he over-nighted me my flat lens for my Friday night show. It showed up right on time and exactly the right size. Watertown is known to be an old railroad town and still has a frieght line that runs through the middle of town. About 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning, the ONLY train coming thru town that day DE-RAILS, and it's carrying propane tankers. The emergency management agency evacuated the town, and didn't let anyone back in until 6:00 p.m. We opened with a skeleton crew and 71 cars for the last FREE Open House night of GREASE. While Grease was playing I started building Pirates of the Caribbean on the bottom platter, and finished it about 1:00 a.m. After I finished building Pirates, I opened the cans to FINDING NEMO only to discover the paper bands on the reels labeled Reel 2, Reel 2, Reel 3, Reel 4, Reel 5, and Reel 6. NO reel ONE! I about shit. I called Technicolor and went through a couple of people before I checked the reels. Paper bands were all labeled wrong and the reels were wound tails out. Since I don't have a real rewind table in the booth, I had to use the MUT from the platter and rewind each reel, then spin it off to the platter. I left the theatre at 5:12 a.m. Friday night....SOLD OUT, 213 cars... sold EVERYTHING we had to sell in the concessions stand! Learned the meaning of the term "BRAIN WRAP" about 20 minutes into Pirates. When threading up, I got the leader behind one of the rollers on the platter brain and didn't see it until after I started the show. I kept watching as it kept winding and winding around the brain. The film held the payout arm in the full open position and just kept spinning. Finally after about 20 minutes, all came to a screeching halt. Off screen for about 5 minutes, got it back on screen, then the rest of the night was fine. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the night. Saturday Night... SOLD OUT, 225 car... sold everything we went and bought at Sams earlier in the afternoon. The Middle Tennessee Mazda Miata Collectors Club came with about 30 of their members. About 30 minutes into Pirates.. RAIN..., not just rain, but Monsoon rain. Roof leaks, blowing water, and MUD. My God the MUD. People were litterally taking off their shoes, and scraping them against the split-faced block walls of the concessions lobby. I was furious!! The tow truck service from Lebanon came down and yanked out the last of the Miata's and SUV's by 1:30 a.m. and $140.00 later. I spent Sunday afternoon at the theatre with a pressure washer. SUNDAY Night... SOLD OUT with 237 cars. We had'em parked everywhere. No rain, and most of the mud had dried up. Instead of banning Outside Food & Beverages totally like most indoor theatres do, we sell our patrons an "Outside Food & Beverage Permit" that entitles them to bring in their own food from home for only $4.00 per car. Everybody told me that would kill off our business. On the contrary...We sold 143 of the things at $4.00 a pop over the weekend. Only one complaint... and he bought one anyway! Monday Night, a relaxing 31 cars, $400.00 concessions till, and almost a full 5 hours of sleep. So far, our lost and found box has 4 lawn chairs, 2 radios, a pair of "gorilla-faced" house slippers, one baseball hat, one pair of panties , two flash lights, one flip-flop,and an orange and black rubber lizard. Dawn wouldn't let me keep the panties.  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-02-2003 05:54 PM                     Congratulations, Barry! You've received your Monsoon Drive-In Baptism, and survived the worst Murphy's Law can fling at you! Starting with freebie admission, seems you won over your patrons, and after their experiences become the Talk of the Town, I think they'll not only return, but the word of mouth will bring a lot more. "That was back in 2003, the year the drive-in opened, the whole town was evacuated because of the train wreck, and the freak storm got us stuck in the mud. Land Sakes, we love that drive-in!" Looks like you're off to a good start financially. Best Wishes, Gerard  |  IP: Logged Mike Williams Master Film Handler Posts: 255 From: Knoxville, TN Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-02-2003 07:23 PM                     Any pictures?  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-03-2003 09:21 AM                        Still don't have the photos back from being developed. I told Brad as soon as I do, I'll send him a copy for everyone to see. Last night sucked... 5 cars, and one of them left after FINDING NEMO. I sat in a lawn chair in the breezeway through the entire second feature and watched PIRATES in the pouring down rain.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-03-2003 10:15 AM                        It will be interesting to see how business does on weekends from now on. Weeknights tend to be slow at nearly every theatre. By the way, tomorrow night is the last night of business for the Cinemagic Drive-In at Athens, AL for this season. The important thing is for people to know that your drive-in exists. One disadvantage of your location is that it isn't directly off a major highway, like SR 26 (US 70). You have to depend on word-of-mouth and advertising to spread the word to attract people from miles away, since people driving through on the main road don't see the drive-in. Hopefully, your weekends will continue to "sell out" or come close to it. As of now, you're showing two very high-quality, popular movies. I guess what you have to worry about are time periods when there are no such movies out at the time.  |  IP: Logged Sam Hunter Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 779 From: West Monroe, LA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-03-2003 02:08 PM                     Barry, Sorry I didn't get to make it but I promise I will soon. I want to know what your Marquee looks like. Flashing Neon and art deco styling Looking forward to visiting.  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-03-2003 02:13 PM                        Hey Sam... Our Marquee is rather "plain jane". It's a 5' x 10' internally illuminated sign, white faced reader-board, with a blue band across the top with "STARDUST DRIVE-IN THEATRE" in white letters. The sign is mounted between two 4" x 4" steel post columns, with some basic landscaping underneath. As the money was dwindling away fast, we had to choose between Neon and lenses. Lenses won. Evans mentioned relying on word-of-mouth advertising. Although word-of-mouth is the best "free advertsing" you can get, we ran newspaper ads in 4 newspapers last week for our grand opening, plus we have a 30 second radio spot every morning during drive-time on the "Coleman & Company" radio show for a month. The radio show is part of a small local radio station, but it did get the message out. We had cars with tags from 6 local surrounding counties, plus a couple from out-of-state. I guess the object of the game is to let people know we're here, without spending more than we can take in. I sent all the staff home last night because if they worked their full schedule of hours, labor would have cost more than what we made. We expected the weeknights to be dead, so it doesn't really bother me. I'm just tired of watching Pirates of the Caribbean already, and we still have 8 more days to go.  |  IP: Logged Sam Hunter Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 779 From: West Monroe, LA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-03-2003 02:29 PM                     How much more of the season do you have Barry? I understand what you are saying about the situation. I hope that you do well and do so for a very long time, I wish I had some capaital as there is a closed down drive in down here I would love to get going again. A two screener at that! Anyway, take care and happy trails..................................  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 09-03-2003 02:33 PM                        quote: As the money was dwindling away fast, we had to choose between Neon and lenses. Lenses won. A wise choice. Presentation Quality over glitz.  |  IP: Logged Travis Hubrig Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Minot ND, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 09-04-2003 12:15 AM                     Congratulations Barry!!! Best of luck, Travis  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-04-2003 12:56 AM                        quote: Evans mentioned relying on word-of-mouth advertising. Although word-of-mouth is the best "free advertsing" you can get, we ran newspaper ads in 4 newspapers last week for our grand opening, plus we have a 30 second radio spot every morning during drive-time on the "Coleman & Company" radio show for a month. The radio show is part of a small local radio station, but it did get the message out. You need to talk to the morning guys & give them a pair of tickets to give away as a contest prize every day they'll take them. Radio shows love free prizes to give away for ratings, comps cost you nothing usually, & the advertisememt sticks better than in a spot (which some folks tune out & don't hear). And give some passes to the air talent for their own use, or tell them that they're welcome anytime & are on a pass list. I've known a couple of radio stations where a local theater made sure the jocks were always welcome to come free, but there was an understanding that when they talked about going to the movie they'd say where they saw it (free). If the grease is working where you put it, make sure it stays on there!  |  IP: Logged Steve Anderson Expert Film Handler Posts: 168 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Feb 2000 posted 09-04-2003 01:16 PM                        I just love the "barter system" when we need flyers printed up we just slap a couple of free passes to them ....no problem! Now only if we could get the utility companies to see it that way.  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-05-2003 02:20 PM                     Barry, With the weather getting cooler, when can we expect the "Stardust Weekend Flea Market" to kick in? With increased unemployment and a weak economy, the times should be right for people to want to buy cheap, and to sell things to help make ends meet. You've already got the concessions working. Browsers get hungry and thirsty at flea markets, and when the weather turns cool, hot chocolate, coffee and tea might sell. Stardust at night, Sunrise by day! Best wishes, Gerard  |  IP: Logged

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