[00:00:04] I am Mark the New Brunswick Traveler and here we talk about New Brunswick stuff. On this podcast, I'll be talking about some of those natural wonders, be talking about some of the people that live in New Brunswick, past visitors that have come to New Brunswick
[00:00:22] and maybe even some ghosts that I find along the way. So for now, let's get started. Today I'm with Don Monahan, the owner of the Sussex Drive-In and I'm really interested in finding out from Don just exactly what it's like to be running something that I
[00:00:51] went to back in the early 1960s when I was growing up in Indiana. Don, welcome to NB Traveler. Thank you Mark, I appreciate it. I'm really interested in finding out what inspired you to get involved with the Sussex Drive-In.
[00:01:08] Well, I've been camping here for the better part of 10 years and I saw an opportunity to take the drive-in and the campground to a new elevated level and I approached the owner years back and made him an offer that he couldn't refuse and then we went
[00:01:30] on our way to enhance and make improvements to infrastructure and policies and protocols here at the drive-in and the campground as well. Can you give me a little bit of history of the drive-in? Well, the drive-in actually debuted back in 1967 and it was the Alexanders who were
[00:01:49] the original owners of the property. They had a farmhouse which still is here today that is a rental property and the campground actually was a secondary thought because what happened is that here in the
[00:02:03] summertime in New Brunswick, dusk in the month of June and July is usually not around until 930, 945 and drive-in theatres typically are a phenomena for playing two movies instead of one. So by the time the second movie wraps up we're looking at 1.30, 2 o'clock and
[00:02:21] sometimes we have triple bill Sundays on long weekends or by the last movie won't terminate until about roughly 3 or 3 in the morning. So folks back in the late 60s were actually dragging their trailers or pop ups,
[00:02:35] their tents and tenting on the front line what we call it today facing the drive-in. So again like I mentioned the campground was a secondary thought and they started opening up sites and it became the Sussex drive-in and campground at that point.
[00:02:55] Now if I'm not mistaken I think there's only three drive-ins in New Brunswick now. That is correct and there's three in New Brunswick, there's less than three dozen in Canada and overall in North America there's roughly around 350 in total.
[00:03:13] What's the biggest challenge of operating a drive-in theatre in today's age of streaming and modern movie theatres? It's really about picking the right content and knowing your audience. So for example we told ourselves as being a family friendly drive-in so typically we
[00:03:32] play a kids movie being the first movie and then an adult movie for the second. What happens after the first movie when it wraps up usually around 11 o'clock is that we say a mass exodus even though we're still playing the second movie kids are tired
[00:03:47] and folks just want to come out for the first movie. If I try playing an adult movie first then the turnout is just not there. So I'll give you an example last year and it depends on the content not every
[00:04:00] weekend am I going to have a new kids movie that I can play so I have to alternate content depending what's available from the movie distributors. So last year I played and opened Mission Impossible 3 with Tom Cruise and I love
[00:04:18] Mission Impossible personally so it was nice to do that film here at the drive-in but I only had 60 cars that showed up on each evening Friday and Saturday night. Yet when I play a kids movie or I play movies such as Barbie well we had close
[00:04:31] to 300 some odd cars each and every night for that viewing so it's really a kids movie and the younger type of content that really drives the audience to the Sussex Drive-In.
[00:04:43] So if I'm coming to see a movie how much am I going to pay to drive onto the lot there? So we price it reasonably because I'm all about giving value and service so you're
[00:04:57] getting two movies for the price of one and about a dollar less expensive than Cineplex. So it really is a no-brainer cost wise you're getting a much better opportunity to watch movies you're getting a fantastic venue we were very meticulous about the grounds.
[00:05:14] A lot of people are gates open at 7 30 but the movies don't play till dusk. A lot of people make it a family outing so they come with their dogs they come with the baseball bats or frisbee because we have a big grass area adjacent to the
[00:05:28] drive-in screen where they'll play ball lock their dog whatever get their poo tin their popcorn before the show starts and they make it a family outing. A lot of people too back in they tailgate pop up the hatch put the lawn chairs out and
[00:05:42] they just make it a very friendly fun outing. You can't do that when you go to a Cineplex you got to pick your seat and sit in your seat and you got one movie and that's it.
[00:05:53] And I can't take my own water in with me or anything else I have to buy it all there. Yes absolutely obviously we want to we want to support the drive-in whatever you can buy at
[00:06:04] the canteen we appreciate it but we don't refrain people from bringing in their snacks or drinks etc that type of thing. So just you're coming in your own car so maybe it was your please.
[00:06:15] When I was at the Cineplex the last time I got a small popcorn and a diet coke and I think I got 25 cents back out of a 20 dollar bill. I know it's relatively expensive and likewise I usually don't go to the movies just
[00:06:32] because I see them all in the summertime but likewise a couple weekends when it was raining and the campgrounds closed I went to see a civil war and me and my partner two people a popcorn a drink and it was close to 50 dollars so yeah it's expensive
[00:06:48] absolutely but we try to make it family friendly prices competitive in the canteen and that children they actually pay nine dollars so children five through 16 pay nine and four under four and under it's free. So how do you select the movies?
[00:07:04] Well I get data from the movie distributors it's what we refer to as a what's tracking so basically it's an excel file that lists the new movies that are coming out and it's basically movie distributors I believe they do a poll or survey of the
[00:07:24] marketplace and they indicate the level of interest for certain types of movies so it will track in terms of a number from from one to I believe 15 it is so obviously the higher the number the better performance that movie is going to be and they track it
[00:07:40] based on the weeks leading up to the release of the movie so obviously I want to play a movie that's tracking high with a 10 or high score versus something that's only a one or two because it's not going to draw the crowd.
[00:07:55] And you know your market pretty well with regard to what your crowd is? No absolutely absolutely so people like horror films and watching a horror film without driving is always a little eerie a little spooky but it will never be the
[00:08:09] number one movie it's always the number two late at night unless people are there people are going to go up top on your car and try to scare you that type of thing so it's quite it's quite astonishing.
[00:08:19] So what's some of your best memories in the length of time that you've been working with a drive-in theater? It's playing some of the vintage films that I watched growing up as a child for example during COVID there weren't many new releases because the movie distributors are holding
[00:08:40] back so they can generate higher revenues because the cineplexes were closed during COVID but not the drive-ins so it was basically a retro summer that year so I played and there was no new content during COVID until August of that year so from May until August
[00:08:54] I was spinning my wheels and I'm old content so I played E.T. I played Jaws I played Star Wars back to the future like I was reinventing myself but believe it or not the crowds were high because there wasn't anything to do during COVID and these
[00:09:12] are all classic movies so it was a spectacular year so it worked out very well so I very much enjoyed that. As well we started doing live performances during COVID it was something
[00:09:24] I always wanted to do but we're restricted by car count during COVID so the maximum number of cars I could have is only 350 so I had to keep the show small because the production costs
[00:09:33] the audio video the lighting the stage and that type of thing but we did we were actually the first live performance in Canada in June of 2020 so outdoors so we had James Mullins
[00:09:45] perform with a couple of musical bands then we had an Elvis impersonator Thane Dunn who did an event at the end of July so it was a great opening and a great pivotal point to
[00:09:57] take the drive-in to a whole new level so we're just not showing movies but we're doing performances as well and that allowed us to move into the next phase which we started last
[00:10:07] year was the first year we did what we call Sussex Funday Fest it's the third weekend in July last year is our first year we're doing again this year on July 19th and 20th and people can
[00:10:18] pick up tickets on our website at sussexfundayfest.com and basically it's a two-day event we have 10 artists four artists on Friday six on Saturday and we focus on using artists from the Bay of Funday area so we're encouraging and promoting local and then we had some
[00:10:36] handliners to draw in the crowds as well and to generate bigger numbers so for example on Friday evening he's local he lives out west right now but we have Julian Austin he's going
[00:10:46] to be the headliner on Friday evening and we're pretty pumped up about Saturday one of my favorites is Tim Hicks he'll be playing on Saturday as well so it promises to be a great
[00:10:57] event we had a good turnout last year but it was the first year so getting people aware of what we're doing and geographically we're in a right spot to do this type of thing and
[00:11:07] it went off very well in the sense that we have the stage just adjacent to the big screen and when it becomes dusk like you're at the Bell Center the Avenir Center or any big stadium
[00:11:17] we project the headliners on the big screen so you can see them on stage you can see them on our 80-foot screen it was magnificent so people were having a good time rejoicing
[00:11:27] being outside and and it wasn't crowded like in a big concert type of area so it's a lot of fun and we didn't make any money doing it but I knew that it takes years to build a trend
[00:11:40] and I'm committed to doing that so and again it's all about giving and helping the community so does it benefit us in the campground for sure but also it helps to fill up the hotels
[00:11:49] the restaurants there's a lot of local spend on gas food this type of thing so everybody wins collectively in the area during the month of July for that well Don I will be putting
[00:12:00] information on the play notes with regard to how my listeners can get in touch with you with regard to the Fundy Fest and also how they can find out what shows are being played
[00:12:16] excellent thank you appreciate so much having you with me today and uh trust you have a good movie season and a great campground season excellent well I appreciate the opportunity to discuss our business and our offerings and again come out and visit the drive-in there's
[00:12:34] not that many out there it's a great experience and as I tell people come and watch the movies under the stars have a good day all right likewise bye bye now oh it's been a real joy being with you today I appreciate you taking the time to listen
[00:12:55] to the podcast if you go to my website mbtraveler.com you can leave a comment you can do a rating and I look forward to seeing you back here again next week and oh by the way you can also buy
[00:13:09] me a coffee there on that website if you care too have a great day and a wonderful week