Movie snacks: they’re too much
Movie popcorn, candy, and soft drinks have gotten ridiculously expensive. The theaters consider their patrons to comprise a captive audience slave to its munchie cravings, much like the passengers in an airport waiting for a plane are forced to pay the higher prices at the food stores there.
But isn’t the solution to this weighty problem not a lawsuit, but instead to refrain from buying those in-theater snacks? And to bring your own if you feel you just gotta eat at the movies?
I would have thought so. But I don’t go to the movies much anyway—I prefer the Netflix-type arrangements—and when I do I actually don’t buy the food anyway. They’re “too much” in more than just price, they’re enormous and getting larger all the time.
So I wasn’t aware till I read the article that many movie theaters actually ban the importation of food by its patrons, so that people have to resort to smuggling it in if they want to beat the high prices. Maybe that’s why women’s bags have gotten so large lately, too; they have to be, in order to store the contraband.
The theaters consider their patrons to comprise a captive audience slave to its munchie cravings, much like the passengers in an airport waiting for a plane are forced to pay the higher prices at the food stores there.
This explanation makes people feel good and fits with the “evil business” meme, but it’s not true. If it were you’d have to explain why movie theaters don’t make you pay for the use of bathrooms or water fountains. Tim Harford does a good job explaining why popcorn and snacks cost so much in his book</a.
The link didn’t work above, so let’s it again.
Can you give us the short answer, Ken? I always thought it was originally a concession, i.e. the theater owner let a snack bar operator into his lobby. For a price, of course. Which the operator paid because he had exclusive access to a hungry group of customers. Of course he charged more money because he had that extra fee to pay to the theater owner. Similar to, I’m sure, the high rents that an airport eatery has to pay for that nice location busy with hungry travelers.
Can you give us the short answer, Ken?
I recommend simply reading Harford’s explanation. He’s an excellent writer and can explain things much more clearly than I can.
However, I can try to give a basic summary. The basic point is the one I made above: if the answer really is that the theater has a captive audience, why not charge for the bathroom and the water fountain. After all, the audience is captive. That these things don’t happen is evidence against a captive audience. Additionally, many go to dinner, then the movie, meaning most do not want snacks. Additionally, since theaters compete with each other (there are at least a dozen high end movie theaters within 10 miles of where I live), the idea that the audience is “captive” becomes even more remote.
The reality is that businesses are profit maximizing. The prices are what they are because that’s what maximizes profits, not because an audience is “captive”. If the theater would maximize profits by selling cheaper snacks (because more would get bought), then they would do so. If the theater would maximize profits by selling even more expensive snacks (snack buyers may not be very price sensitive), then they would do so.
Ken: I don’t have time to read the article right now, but as a quick response to your points I’ll just say of course the audience isn’t literally “captive,” nor do people eat popcorn and candy in movies because they are literally hungry (such as, for example, having skipped dinner). Having just eaten dinner does not preclude having a treat afterward! And banning the bringing in of other snacks from the outside makes the audience more “captive” in the sense I’m thinking of captive, meaning that if they want to see the movie playing in that theater at that time and they want to have a snack to go along with it, if they play by the rules they must purchase the food sold there.
I agree that there’s a limit to what would work, however. Charging for using the public toilets there (which, by the way, was done a lot in my youth, but perhaps you are too young to remember pay toilets) would probably not work. The trick is to charge just enough so people will keep coming and keep buying but not enough to drive them away. That’s why my suggestion is that if a person doesn’t like the prices, don’t buy the food.
I seem to recall that the Paul Newman brand of popcorn once had an anecdote on the package where it referred to Paul making the popcorn and sneaking it into the theatre. Anybody else have that memory?
Ah yes, Newman confesses in 1959 to smuggling greasy popcorn into the movie theater inside his tuxedo.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19590511&id=ZDJSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8nYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5577,433295
Exactly. They tell you you can’t bring in food. Which makes a monopoly. All you had to do was to make them strike that rule off, and now you have free markets. But that’s not how the government thinks. Either they will shake down the movie companies for money, or the companies will initiate the bribe and use government regulations to cut down on their competition, even if it means they have to pay more.
Isn’t Leftism great.
Scholastic Choices (Feb/Mar 2012) recently reported on movie popcorn. First the price: the average price of a large tub of popcorn is $6, while the average cost to the theater for that same tub is approximately 25 cents. It’s little wonder then that many theaters don’t allow food to be brought in. That’s a mark up that’s hard to beat anywhere. If you’re the average movie-goer, if the price doesn’t kill you, maybe the movie popcorn will.
Nutritionally, movie popcorn is a disaster or, as the magazine calls it, a “horror show.” That same large tub has approximately 980 mg. of sodium (about 40% of the recommended daily total); 60 grams of saturated fat (that’s about three days’ worth!); and has approximately 1600 calories which is roughly 83% of the recommended daily calorie total for women, and 63% of the total for men. (And we wonder why we’re getting fat?)
If you aren’t in the mood for munching a tub of movie popcorn while waiting for the ads and previews to end, you can get the nutritional equivalent by instead eating three Quarter Pounders and 12 pats of butter. Yum. That is, of course, if theaters would let us bring this non-theater stuff in. By the way, if you’re still hungry after finishing off a mega-tub of popcorn, you should know that some theaters allow a free refill, if you can prove that your will is in order and your final resting place selected.
And if you’ve survived the popcorn, you’ll probably want to wash all the salty stuff down with a theater King Kong Mega Super-Size Coke…for which you’ll likely need a bank loan and a personal endocrinologist standing by.
Maybe that’s why women’s bags have gotten so large lately, too; they have to be, in order to store the contraband.
nah… when your waist gets wide, you get big, and a normal sized bag makes you look like a circus lady (not to mention wearing different shoes between work and home. and if it could fit, the pilates mat all rolled up)
I smuggle food in everywhere. So shoot me. Disneyland has lost my vote because of the high concession prices, plus banning bringing your own food. I did get caught once though, going into a local arena for a concert. Bag got searched and I lost a very fine bag of gourmet popcorn.
I like Neo’s capitalistic approach…just don’t buy the damned stuff.
I am not at all intimidated about sneaking candy bars into a theater if I feel the need (via my wife’s bag). The moment they search my wife’s bag is the moment I demand a refund and leave.
I also agree with Neo’s “Netflix-type” arrangement. I like watching movies at home…Netflix, Amazon Prime, DVR saved movies off Dish network channels, etc. With this approach, you get a better selection of movies and you don’t have to sit and watch a movie with spilled popcorn and soda puddles under your feet.
When I do go to a movie once in a blue moon, I always eat just before I go to the theater.
This nation is going to go back to Prohibition, with smuggling of booze, except it will flout American “laws” made by the Aristocratic alliance between corporations and Democrats. Sooner or later.
Believe it or not, there’s a triple-screen theater in a small town about a half-hour from me where a couple can get tickets, popcorn, drinks, and a chili dog, all for around $20. That’s for both of them. Some patrons drive in from urban areas, some from as far as 60 miles away just to see a movie without being scalped.
I believe the theater has been in existence so long that the price it pays for movies is grandfathered in. And yes, it does get first-run movies.
Eh, the way I see it, the theater is ripping people off by over-inflating the cost of beverages and candy. Give me a break. I snuck in food last week and it felt good because I didn’t have to pay $10 for 3 bags of M&M’s. With the current economy as it is, people can’t afford to throw money around on stuff like candy at a theater. Bring a great big purse and fill it with popcorn and candy. Even when I was little my Mom would pop popcorn and put it in a bag and hide it in her purse so we wouldn’t have to eat that fattening butter popcorn at the theater.