Florida drive-in movie theatre owner says 'the show must go on'

Transcript

Sitting on your couch in last night's pajamas trying to synchronize your Netflix stream somehow lacks the magic of going to the movies. But with theatres closed because of COVID-19, most movie-goers are out of options.

Unless they live in Ocala, Florida — where John Watzke's big screen still lights up the sky every night and the popcorn is still popping.

Watzke is the owner of the Ocala Drive-In. Sit-down theatres are closed across the United States but a small handful of drive-in theatres are still open. He told Vice News his drive-in is the only one still showing new releases.

As It Happens host Carol Off spoke to Watzke about his movie theatre and why he considers it an essential business during the pandemic. Here is part of their conversation.

What movie is showing tonight at the Ocala Drive-In movie theatre?

Tonight, we have Trolls [World Tour], and the second feature is Back to the Future — the original. We brought the classic back for that. And then on my second screen, we have Resistance and the True History of the Kelly Gang. Both of those are new features. They're put out by IFC Films.

Wow. Are there other movie theatres that are actually showing new releases?

Not to my knowledge. There's only 11 drive-ins, to my knowledge, that are open in the country.

Most of the major film companies have delayed the release of their movies. So we have to reach out to these smaller, more independent film companies. And from what I'm understanding, none of them are showing the new releases right now.

I understand that not only did you have the top-grossing film of last weekend in the United States, you had the entire revenue for the top-grossing film.

Yes. You know, you can only be the top if you're the only one.

How much revenue did you bring in?

Well, actually, that was for the movie Swallow and that was right at $2,000 ($2,821 Cdn).

But that was just for the weekend on that one movie. That was the only one that I could report to the industry because the rest were a little bit older and they weren't even taking them.

What's the set-up you got? Because it's not business as usual at your drive-in. If I drove in what would it look like?

It looks like we're under construction because every other parking space is fenced off with that orange construction fence line. And that's in order to assure social distance between everybody. If you're parked in one of my parking spaces, you have 10 to 12 feet on either side of you, before the next vehicle.

I cut a service window for people to come walk up, if they want to walk up to the concession and place their order there. There's a 72-foot fenced-in walkway going to it with a little, small light every six feet and that keeps their social distance there.

We've put together a website where they can go online and they can order their food and we will deliver their product directly to their vehicle.

How do you protect your employees then, if they're delivering to the cars?

All of my employees wear masks and they wear gloves. They're instructed to walk to the vehicle, hold the tray out a full arm's length away from them, and ask the customers to please reach out the window and take their product.

That way my employees — the ones that are going outside — are not touching even the packaging, to where there could be any kind of cross-contamination there, and the guest is taking it from them. That employee then comes back to the concession. They change their gloves, put another pair of disposable gloves on, and they go back out with the next tray.

Wow. OK.

All of my employees have their temperature taken when they arrive at work and we have a log. We log it down and every three hours we go around and we take every employee's temperature.

I have to ask you, John, I mean, why do you bother? If you're losing half your revenue because every second spot is blocked out.

I'm losing half of my revenue there and I'm also absorbing a lot of expense.

Why do I bother? This is a part of my life. OK. My family has worked in theatres for over 100 years. The old cliché that the show must go on is not a cliché. It's a way of life. Regardless, the show goes on.

And the other thing is I have been through natural disasters in my life. I'm 63 years old. I'm actually a victim of Hurricane Katrina, on the Mississippi coast. And the things that brought one minute of feeling normal to you during that time span is the things you remember the most.

Right now, you have people, they're all basically having cabin fever. They're locked in the house together. You got a mom and dad that both work usually. They're home together. You've got children that normally go to school, hang out with their friends, and so forth. They're all in that house. You got everybody kind of getting on each other's nerves.

So if they can drive here, and relax, and enjoy a movie together, and have some form of normal activity in their life, it takes a lot of the stress off of the whole family.

Is there anything that would make you close?

It would take one of my employees getting sick or the government would have to say everybody closes.

That's not likely to happen because your governor is saying that everybody should open, including the beaches. 

Right. Well, I was opening before he said that. When they said essentials could stay open, unlike a normal concession stand in a normal theatre, I have an excessively large menu. I carry the same license as any takeout restaurant or delivery restaurant.

So you've decided that you're going to stay open and you're still getting lots of customers?

Oh yes.

I am getting wonderful feedback from the customers about the fact that they could get out of the house and have some normal life. Everybody is very appreciative of it because it does give them something normal to do.

Interview produced by John McGill. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.