KANE — After its first season under new ownership, the Kane Family Drive-In had a successful summer, and according to owner Lowell Watts, bigger plans are in store for the landmark theater along U.S. Route 6 between Kane and Lantz Corners in the not-too-distant future.
According to Watts, the first year of ownership was a learning experience, and seeing first-hand how the industry operates was crucial to its success. He said a successful concession stand is critical to the theater’s survival.
While the movies come from the distributor for free, Watts estimates that between 60 and 70 percent of the the box office receipts go back to Hollywood. Theaters depend on concessions to remain open, according to Watts. He said pre-preparing some of the food and upgrading to a two bay deep fryer allowed for greater efficiency in the concession area for the drive-In over the summer.
On the technical end, Watts had tweaked his $85,000 2k resolution digital projector to make it “clearer and sharper than ever before.” In the fall, a fresh coat of paint on the four-story 60 by 60 foot screen will improve picture quality further, he said.
Watts plans on installing a new roof on the screen tower also, which will not only help the paint stay on the screen, but also help in the preservation of the tower. He cited the deterioration of the screen tower at the Corry Drive-In which led to the theater’s demise in 2011. Watts does not want to see the Kane Family Drive-In suffer the same fate.
“This is an icon of the community,” Watts said. “No matter what we do, we can’t lose the drive-in.”
The upgrades to the theater facilities includes more than just movies, Watts said. He said the property goes back a little further into the woods, and the theater parking lot used to be three rows deeper. The old speaker poles can still be seen among the trees, according to Watts.
Watts has plans for that wooded area. He is looking to have a trial run this fall with staging low–powered youth paintball games in the old woods. If the beta test proves successful in the fall, Watts may have paintball as a regular attraction in the spring.
But that’s not all.
Watts will also be bringing video games to the big screen. He first introduced the idea during the intermission of the movie “Pixels,” when patrons were able to play the classic 1980 arcade game “Pac-Man.”
Afterwards, Watts purchased a Sony Playstation 4 for the theater and invited a group of high school-age gamers from Bradford to test out the system on the drive-in’s screen, and was impressed with the results.
“It was incredible,” Watts said. “It’s not pixelated. It’s not fuzzy. It looks awesome.”
Watts said much of the drive-in’s success is because of the efforts of Tracy Smith. Smith has done everything at the theater from adjusting the projector to producing commercials for the theater’s intermission advertisements. Watts called Smith “the most talented individual I’ve ever met.”
Watts plans on offering party packages at the theater Mondays through Thursdays, when no movies are being shown. He envisions the packages including paintball, the perennial favorite mini-golf, and when the sun goes down, video games on the big screen.
Watts has something up his sleeve for the big kids, too. He said on Oct. 17, weather permitting, the drive-in will host its first concert with local favorite “Hollow Body.” If the concert proves successful, more will follow, according to Watts.
Watts said the drive-in is truly a family business. He and his wife, Jackie, and daughters Kendall and Jillian are there working when the gates are open. While he said his daughters are already learning good life lessons from working in the family business, Watts would be “ecstatic” if either of them someday took over the drive-in.
As the movie season comes to a close on Labor Day weekend, the drive-in will have a triple feature of “Minions,” “Jurassic World” and the classic 1980s hit “The Goonies,” according to Watts. He said “The Goonies” is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
For more information, visit the website kanefamilydrivein.com.
