BRACKLEY, P.E.I. — Bob Boyle hopes adding a second screen to his Brackley Drive-In Theatre will help keep movies playing for a long time at one of the few remaining drive-in theatres in the Maritimes.
“Our main thing is the long-term sustainability of the drive-in,’’ says Boyle.
The second theatre will cost between $350,000 to $400,000, including the screen, landscaping, projecting room and projector.
The screen is being attached to railway containers stacked 50 feet wide by 40 feet high, compared to the existing screen that measures 70 feet across and 55 feet high.
Boyle says the decision to add a second screen came from Walt Disney Studios requiring newly released Disney films to run a minimum of three weeks at any theatre. A second screen will allow Boyle to run popular new Disney releases but also offer other films during the lengthy run of a Disney film.
He hopes films will be playing on the new screen in June.
While many rainy weekends kept traffic down at the Brackley Drive-In in the spring, Boyle says 2019 was "one of our best years ever".
Success, he notes, depends on the popularity of films being shown, the weather, and the number of tourists visiting the area.
“There’s a lot of factors in there,’’ says Boyle.
The Brackley Drive-In Theatre opened in August 1959 under the name of The Parkview Drive-In. The first movie to play there was "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones.
In 1992, Boyle along with his parents George and Linda Boyle, purchased the drive-in and restored it to its original condition. Today, Boyle owns and operates the business with his wife Marcie.
While drive-in theatres have been steadily running out of gas across Canada, Boyle believes he is positioned to motor on.
“The key at Brackley is we have tremendous Island support from the local population and the other bonus is we have the tourist population that is renewed each week,’’ he says.
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Did you know
The drive-in concept as it is known today finds its roots in 1933 with Richard Hollingshead, a sales manager at the Whiz Auto Products car parts company in Camden, New Jersey.
According to historians, Hollingshead was looking for a way to accommodate his mother, a larger woman who had trouble sitting in regular movie theatre seats.
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