Stardust Drive-In opens for the season with 6 new movies

After months of being closed for the winter, Stardust Drive-In Newmarket opens its doors today.

“We have a lot of customers who are super excited,” said manager Jasmine Doucette.

This will be his 10th season at Stardust, which is located at 893 Mount Albert Rd. in Saron. She started there when she was just 16 and worked her way up.

Despite the lingering wintry weather, Doucette hopes they’ll have a lively crowd.

“We will have our hardcore (customers)… I already know who will be there,” she said. “And then a few new people too, but usually we have our hard core, like 20 people who we know are going to come even if it’s cold.”

From Friday to Sunday, then again on Thursday, April 7, screen one will be shown Morbius and Unexploredscreen 2 will play The lost city followed by Spider-Man: No Coming Home and screen three will show The Batman and X.

The number of new movies is refreshing for Doucette, who said “when the pandemic started, movies were hard to get.”

The past two years have presented a number of challenges for drive-ins that continue today.

“I don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next two months, so I’m just going day to day and we’ll see what this year brings. Hopefully we get our full season,” Doucette said.

A typical season runs from March to November, but this has not been the case for the past two years. She said last year they were able to open in March, but a lockdown in April kept them closed for a few months.

However, when they were able to reopen, the drive-in created an opportunity for people to get out of the house, see a movie and stay safe like you would be in your own car and therefore don’t have to wear masks.

Doucette said they saw a lot of people coming who said it was their first time to a drive-in.

“There were so many last year and the year before, especially when Cineplex was closed. In Newmarket, where do you go other than the drive-in or the Cineplex? ” she says.

Although she said the weather was not ideal for the opening weekend, she is sure the crowds will increase as it warms up outside, adding that the May long weekend is usually when he recovers.

“From there, our momentum goes all the way to Labor Day,” Doucette said.

Tickets are on sale now for opening weekend and can be purchased online or at the box office. Tickets are sold in doubles, which means you can see both films shown on this screen that night.