Eat Some Popcorn!

I read a news blurb on the IMDB about how movie concession sales have dropped alarmingly this year. I'm sure upon hearing that, you reacted much like me: "well duh!" People have less money to throw around this year than in years past, on average. Between folks struggling to make mortgage payments and record high gas prices this summer, who has the cash to buy popcorn or sno-caps or sour patch kids when they go see the latest computer animated blockbuster or annoyingly awful family comedy starring Martin Lawrence? Plus, movie concession prices are downright ridiculous these days. You can buy a 64 ounce Icee at the Circle K for a dollar, but at the theater, a 20 ounce Icee costs like three times as much, for three times less Icee. And I don't know what the profit margin on popcorn is, but if I had to guess, I would say at least 5000%.

But here's the deal, everyone. The movie theater conglomerate isn't going to put up with this much longer. The theaters don't see a lot of the cut from the movies they show. The big money is in those five dollar hotdogs and eight dollar buckets or popcorn. And they know that we are still going to the movies. This year, we the moviegoing public, pushed the new Batman movie all the way up to number 2 in all time box office. We turned out in droves for the comeback of Robert Downey, Jr. And we made a movie about talking chihuahuas one of the most successful movies of the year. But the theaters are pretty pissed that we aren't buying as much junk as we should be. And if they can't get to their profit goals through concessions, they are going to raise ticket prices, and no one wants that. Tickets are already approaching $10 apiece here in Tucson, and that's bad enough.

So we all need to start eating popcorn at the movies again. For the good of humanity. I know that it totally sucks spending more than the ticket price just to buy a cup of Sprite from the soda fountain, so I suggest a compromise. Buy stuff you can share. Share your popcorn. Pass around the Twizzlers to everyone in your movie party. Don't buy hotdogs, because sharing those seems sort of gross. A group of four people buying one thing is better than buying nothing, and you can rest assured that your money is going to a good cause. I would much rather spend some money on movie food some of the time than paying $12 for a movie every time.