Food in Cinemas

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Deleted member 688153

Guest
Obviously the price of popcorn and drinks in most cinemas is ridiculous, so I usually bring along my own food.
Now in my experience cinemas' policies on outside food vary wildly - from complete apathy to a reasonable degree of fascism.

Most cinemas (or at least all the Hoyts branches I've been to in Australia) don't mind about lollies and drink cans etc, but draw the line at hot food, citing various reasons such as smell, difficulty of cleaning etc, with the real answer obviously being profits.

So what are your opinions and experiences regarding food in cinemas?


PS: My personal tip for bringing in hot food if your local cinema is strict is to get a backpack with at least several zip-up pockets and put the food in one of the less obvious ones, then open up and show the main pocket when they ask to check. A coat, laptop, and water bottle - all clear!

The foot-long and large fries remains in the other pocket.
 

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
Financial analyses of this issue have appeared a number of times in the US; American movie theatres simply don't make money for the most part from the showing of movies. The rental fees they pay to have the films is often barely covered by ticket sales. So food is where they make actual money, and I can understand why they would have policies about people not bringing their own.
 

DUROC

Professional
100% of the theatres I've been too in North America and Europe do not allow ANY food or drinks.......period.

And anyone trying to bring a back pack will have it checked and every zipper opened. My wife's large handbag(s) have been checked in the UK and USA in the past.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
100% of the theatres I've been too in North America and Europe do not allow ANY food or drinks.......period.

And anyone trying to bring a back pack will have it checked and every zipper opened. My wife's large handbag(s) have been checked in the UK and USA in the past.

Wow.

Ah well, hidden section or false bottom of the pack it is.
Mine would be easy to do that to now I think of it.
 

Bartelby

Bionic Poster
I think everyone should be entitled to bring water into a cinema for the simple reason that as a matter of public policy people should carry water and therefore no impediment should be placed on it.

It's good for their health and good for the environment.

In Australia, it is legal for shops to inspect bags but not to touch them so I presume cinemas don't bother as there's no way they are going to find small items with a visual inspection.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Financial analyses of this issue have appeared a number of times in the US; American movie theatres simply don't make money for the most part from the showing of movies. The rental fees they pay to have the films is often barely covered by ticket sales. So food is where they make actual money, and I can understand why they would have policies about people not bringing their own.
I understand this, but the financial analysis that usually appears for me is that I don't want to pay $15 for popcorn and $10 for a Coke.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
I usually bring in a grill and a few steaks
The best thing I've ever seen anyone bring in was a large size Ethiopian goat curry, complete with sides.
I started laughing.

It was also me who brought it in.

I've seen someone else bring in a fish curry though.
 
The more interesting question (at least to me) is how can someone have a nice meal after an event, if one is munching on the crap people tend to eat at such places during whatever is taking place?

Another interesting question is how are people not able to abstain from eating all the time and they HAVE to have food even in the cinema (and sometimes I have seen this in the Opera or concert hall)?

:cool:
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
The more interesting question (at least to me) is how can someone have a nice meal after an event, if one is munching on the crap people tend to eat at such places during whatever is taking place?

Another interesting question is how are people not able to abstain from eating all the time and they HAVE to have food even in the cinema (and sometimes I have seen this in the Opera or concert hall)?

:cool:
I'm just used to eating during movies.
If it's not this it's overpriced popcorn.

I always try my best to go to screenings with barely anyone else in them anyway (and even then I sit as far away as possible from any other human beings), so I doubt I'm really bothering many other people.

I don't HAVE to have food, but I want to, and it's still a relatively free country.
As I said above I do try to be as considerate as it is possible to be when you're scarfing a foot-long in a cinema.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Also I'd never bring any food whatsoever to a live performance of any kind.
One bottle of water and that's it.

They're never darkened enough or sparsely attended enough for me to get away with any shenanigans anyway.
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
I don't understand why people go to movie theaters in this day and age. Set up home theater, invite people you like, eat, drink, and smoke whatever you want. Pause video at will for intellectual discussions, bathroom breaks, sex, errands, etc.
I treat "going to the cinema" is an excuse to get out of the house for a fun evening.
The movie itself is rarely my first consideration at all - I'm more in it for the experience.

I view it like many people would view going to the park.

I agree with your points if I actually want to just watch a specific movie in maximum comfort though.
 

Doctor/Lawyer Red Devil

Talk Tennis Guru
Obviously the price of popcorn and drinks in most cinemas is ridiculous, so I usually bring along my own food.
Now in my experience cinemas' policies on outside food vary wildly - from complete apathy to a reasonable degree of fascism.

Most cinemas (or at least all the Hoyts branches I've been to in Australia) don't mind about lollies and drink cans etc, but draw the line at hot food, citing various reasons such as smell, difficulty of cleaning etc, with the real answer obviously being profits.

So what are your opinions and experiences regarding food in cinemas?


PS: My personal tip for bringing in hot food if your local cinema is strict is to get a backpack with at least several zip-up pockets and put the food in one of the less obvious ones, then open up and show the main pocket when they ask to check. A coat, laptop, and water bottle - all clear!

The foot-long and large fries remains in the other pocket.
The rules in cinemas around here are that we can't bring in any food or drinks that are outside of cinema. Backpack and jackets with several very deep pockets are always there when my group goes to a cinema. Security isn't really scary and doesn't check all the details, but being too cautious can never harm in these situations.

Always preferred to watch movies at home though. A lot of my mates are seduced by humongous screen and all that HD stuff, but I am not. Ordinary is enough, as SoBad said other stuff can be done in between as well, and it is less expensive (read: I am a scrooge :D).
 

Bartelby

Bionic Poster
I'd agree with that. A lot of interesting new films are put on in the context of mini film festivals themed by country - French, German, etc. So there are films you might have only one chance to see.

There are now also cinematheques where curated films are shown with the best possible prints. Hollywood films, on the other hand, presumably function either as date or family outings.

I treat "going to the cinema" is an excuse to get out of the house for a fun evening.
The movie itself is rarely my first consideration at all - I'm more in it for the experience.

I view it like many people would view going to the park.

I agree with your points if I actually want to just watch a specific movie in maximum comfort though.
 
D

Deleted member 716271

Guest
I treat "going to the cinema" is an excuse to get out of the house for a fun evening.
The movie itself is rarely my first consideration at all - I'm more in it for the experience.

I view it like many people would view going to the park.

I agree with your points if I actually want to just watch a specific movie in maximum comfort though.

Agreed with that, I find it difficult to watch a movie and not snack at the same time. It's part of the experience. Often, I dont like the overprocessed fake popcorn junk and sour candies for 8 year olds they serve there anyway, so I try to smuggle in my own sh*t. I do feel a bit of a cheapskate doing it if the party I'm with doesn't know beforehand, particularly on a 1st date or something.
 

esgee48

G.O.A.T.
Haven't been to a movie theater in over 20 years. The crowd distracts me. Easier and cheaper to get the DVD, look at the movie and then return it. :)
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
I can't go to the movies and not get popcorn <3
It could be $50 bucks I have to have it lol. I also love the whole movie-theater experience, it's one of my favorite things to do.
I actually like popcorn, it's very tasty when fresh.
I wish the cinemas charged less, then I'd just buy their stuff instead.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
I actually like popcorn, it's very tasty when fresh.
I wish the cinemas charged less, then I'd just buy their stuff instead.

Lol yeah, you're like can I get a medium popcorn and a drink?
Sure, that'll be $14.00 :eek:

IMG_2007.JPG
 
D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
Lol yeah, you're like can I get a medium popcorn and a drink?
Sure, that'll be $14.00 :eek:

IMG_2007.JPG
In Australia it's even more and free refills are unheard of here.

Cheaper to bring my own popcorn from home.
 

SoBad

G.O.A.T.
I treat "going to the cinema" is an excuse to get out of the house for a fun evening.
The movie itself is rarely my first consideration at all - I'm more in it for the experience.

I view it like many people would view going to the park.

I agree with your points if I actually want to just watch a specific movie in maximum comfort though.
I see what you’re saying, but I guess different people live in different types of houses and not all agree on what constitutes “fun.” Basically, you travel and pay to be confined in a an uncomfortable seat in the dark with strangers, for a couple of hours, where you cannot move, talk, eat, drink, smoke, or do anything, really. The war on contraband snacks is a minor issue when you look at the big picture.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
I see what you’re saying, but I guess different people live in different types of houses and not all agree on what constitutes “fun.” Basically, you travel and pay to be confined in a an uncomfortable seat in the dark with strangers, for a couple of hours, where you cannot move, talk, eat, drink, smoke, or do anything, really. The war on contraband snacks is a minor issue when you look at the big picture.

I like that though, bc at home people talk.too.much.during.movies.please.shut.up.and.WATCH! I love seeing something in the theater opening night and getting those epic group reactions. I get where you're coming from through, but I hate when people don't pay attention to movies.
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
The more interesting question (at least to me) is how can someone have a nice meal after an event, if one is munching on the crap people tend to eat at such places during whatever is taking place?

Another interesting question is how are people not able to abstain from eating all the time and they HAVE to have food even in the cinema (and sometimes I have seen this in the Opera or concert hall)?

:cool:

I haven't been to a movie in at least five years so I don't know what the "food" is like but I probably couldn't eat it anyways. I've given up on popcorn because of the annoying dental problems. I love the stuff and used to make it at home but I hate digging out husks and kernels. I find that it's a lot easier to enjoy a performance on an empty stomach.
 

Mike Bulgakov

G.O.A.T.
Who Made Movie Popcorn?

By PAGAN KENNEDY OCT. 4, 2013

In the 1920s, movie palaces rose up around the country like so many portals into a glamorous world. After you bought a ticket, you might pass through gilded archways and ascend a grand staircase lighted by a crystal chandelier to find your velvet seat. Eating was not meant to be part of the experience, says Andrew F. Smith, author of “Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.” Theater owners feared that audiences would strew popcorn and peanuts on those crimson carpets. They hung signs discouraging people from bringing in food from vendors parked outside and didn’t sell it themselves.

A widow named Julia Braden in Kansas City, Mo., was one of the rare concessionaires who managed to talk her way inside. She persuaded the Linwood Theater to let her set up a stand in the lobby and eventually built a popcorn empire. By 1931, she owned stands in or near four movie theaters and pulled in more than $14,400 a year — the equivalent of $336,000 in today’s dollars. Her business grew even in the midst of the Depression, at the same time that thousands of elegant theaters went bust.

According to Smith, it’s impossible to establish who sold the first box of movie popcorn. For decades, vendors operated out of wagons parked near theaters, circuses and ballparks, selling a variety of snacks. But Braden seems to have been among the first to set up concessions linked to movie houses — and to pioneer a new business strategy: the money was in popcorn, not ticket sales. (That’s still true today. Movie theaters reap as much as 85 percent of their profits from concession sales.)

In the mid-1930s, a manager named R. J. McKenna, who ran a chain of theaters in the West, caught on to this idea. An old man selling popcorn outside one of McKenna’s movie houses amassed enough money to buy a house, a farm and a store. McKenna installed a popcorn machine in the lobby and collected the proceeds — as much as $200,000 in 1938. With that kind of money rolling in, who cared about the rugs? McKenna lowered the price of tickets just to draw more people to his concession stand. By the 1940s, most theaters had followed suit, and soon the smell of melted butter wafted through lobbies. One entrepreneur of the era offered the following advice: “Find a good popcorn location and build a theater around it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/who-made-movie-popcorn.html

Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?
Popcorn is just as economically important to the modern movie theater as it was to movie theaters of old. Patrons often complain about the high prices of movie concessions, but there's an economic basis for this: popcorn, cheap to make and easy to mark-up, is the primary profit maker for movie theaters. Movie theaters make an estimated 85 percent profit off of concession sales, and those sales constitute 46 percent of movie theater's overall profits.

And so the history of popcorn and the movies was written in stone—sort of. In recent years, luxury theaters have begun popping up around the country–and they're reinventing the popcorn-snack model. These theaters offer an old school approach to the movies, trying to make the experience of attending a movie theater tantamount to going to a live show (much like the earliest movie theater owners once tried to do). As Hamid Hashemi, the CEO of iPic Theaters, a luxury theater chain with nine locations, says, "Think about going to a live Broadway show—our movie theaters provide that kind of experience. The average time spent in the theater at our theaters is around four hours." iPic Theaters still provide popcorn to patrons, but their focus is on a more gourmet level of movie theater dining, offering a menu of larger, cooked items like sliders and flatbreads.

Even as the demand for luxury theaters increases, Hashemi doesn’t think popcorn will ever be phased out. "Popcorn is the cheapest thing you can make, and to a lot of people it has that ritualistic experience," he says, suggesting that for movie theater owners, a cheap snack never loses its golden appeal.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-do-we-eat-popcorn-at-the-movies-475063/?no-ist
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
Who Made Movie Popcorn?

By PAGAN KENNEDY OCT. 4, 2013

In the 1920s, movie palaces rose up around the country like so many portals into a glamorous world. After you bought a ticket, you might pass through gilded archways and ascend a grand staircase lighted by a crystal chandelier to find your velvet seat. Eating was not meant to be part of the experience, says Andrew F. Smith, author of “Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.” Theater owners feared that audiences would strew popcorn and peanuts on those crimson carpets. They hung signs discouraging people from bringing in food from vendors parked outside and didn’t sell it themselves.

A widow named Julia Braden in Kansas City, Mo., was one of the rare concessionaires who managed to talk her way inside. She persuaded the Linwood Theater to let her set up a stand in the lobby and eventually built a popcorn empire. By 1931, she owned stands in or near four movie theaters and pulled in more than $14,400 a year — the equivalent of $336,000 in today’s dollars. Her business grew even in the midst of the Depression, at the same time that thousands of elegant theaters went bust.

According to Smith, it’s impossible to establish who sold the first box of movie popcorn. For decades, vendors operated out of wagons parked near theaters, circuses and ballparks, selling a variety of snacks. But Braden seems to have been among the first to set up concessions linked to movie houses — and to pioneer a new business strategy: the money was in popcorn, not ticket sales. (That’s still true today. Movie theaters reap as much as 85 percent of their profits from concession sales.)

In the mid-1930s, a manager named R. J. McKenna, who ran a chain of theaters in the West, caught on to this idea. An old man selling popcorn outside one of McKenna’s movie houses amassed enough money to buy a house, a farm and a store. McKenna installed a popcorn machine in the lobby and collected the proceeds — as much as $200,000 in 1938. With that kind of money rolling in, who cared about the rugs? McKenna lowered the price of tickets just to draw more people to his concession stand. By the 1940s, most theaters had followed suit, and soon the smell of melted butter wafted through lobbies. One entrepreneur of the era offered the following advice: “Find a good popcorn location and build a theater around it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/who-made-movie-popcorn.html

Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?
Popcorn is just as economically important to the modern movie theater as it was to movie theaters of old. Patrons often complain about the high prices of movie concessions, but there's an economic basis for this: popcorn, cheap to make and easy to mark-up, is the primary profit maker for movie theaters. Movie theaters make an estimated 85 percent profit off of concession sales, and those sales constitute 46 percent of movie theater's overall profits.

And so the history of popcorn and the movies was written in stone—sort of. In recent years, luxury theaters have begun popping up around the country–and they're reinventing the popcorn-snack model. These theaters offer an old school approach to the movies, trying to make the experience of attending a movie theater tantamount to going to a live show (much like the earliest movie theater owners once tried to do). As Hamid Hashemi, the CEO of iPic Theaters, a luxury theater chain with nine locations, says, "Think about going to a live Broadway show—our movie theaters provide that kind of experience. The average time spent in the theater at our theaters is around four hours." iPic Theaters still provide popcorn to patrons, but their focus is on a more gourmet level of movie theater dining, offering a menu of larger, cooked items like sliders and flatbreads.

Even as the demand for luxury theaters increases, Hashemi doesn’t think popcorn will ever be phased out. "Popcorn is the cheapest thing you can make, and to a lot of people it has that ritualistic experience," he says, suggesting that for movie theater owners, a cheap snack never loses its golden appeal.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-do-we-eat-popcorn-at-the-movies-475063/?no-ist

As a popcorn fan, I love this :)
 

3fees

G.O.A.T.
Its not only theaters charging high prices, fast food chains here are trying to charge as much as a regular sit down restaurant, the grounds keeper here, took his girl friend to Burger King-fast food hamburger place,2x dbl whopper, small fries and small drink around $20.00 He said I didnt order steaks.

Kentucky Fried Chicken-fast food place is like $5 plus for 2 pieces of chicken, spoon full of mash potatoes and gravy and a small biscuit-go to Walmart get a 2lb rotiserated Chicken for $5, every day.

As too movie theaters here the ushers will get in your face if you bring food in and they see it.

Cheers
3Fees :)
 
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movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
We get Burger King coupons in the mail. Have your friend use the 2 for 1 Whopper Coupon (I've never seen a double whopper but it sounds like a ton of calories), get a bag of chips from the grocery store for a buck and serve at home with chilled water. Cost is about $6. If we get whoppers, I usually split them with someone else anyways. We sometimes get the two for one and it feeds the family.

I haven't been to KFC in some time as they closed the local one. BTW, you can get a 3-pound rotisserie chicken at Costco for $5 or $6.
 

3fees

G.O.A.T.
Costco is membership fee time. We get coupons here too,,costs overall of fast foods is rising fast and ridiculous. Of course the new wave restaurants are stupid as well, for $50 you get a plate with food so small on it a baby would cry from hunger, of course, they put a design on your plate with a dime store plastic bottle and call it sauce..

Back on point cinemas charge a arm and leg for tickets and snacks, got a small family count on burning up $50-100 to see a movie and all get drinks and oversugared, overfatted snacks.

Cheers
3Fees :)
 
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movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
Costco is membership fee time. We get coupons here too,,costs overall of fast foods is rising fast and ridiculous.

Cheers
3Fees :)

Fast Food restaurants have to deal with rising minimum wage rates (legislated or de facto) and regulatory costs, even while their commodity inputs are fairly cheap. Consumers have been cutting back on fast food as prices have gone up and as the ratio of eating out to grocery prices has gotten larger which is why the consumer packaged goods industry is doing really well (Smuckers, General Mills, Post, Kraft-Heinz, etc). The margins at fast food places are usually in drinks and fries while the other stuff is often discounted or sold at breakeven. So one way to save on costs is to just buy the low-margin stuff and then supply the rest yourself.

Of course the best savings are if you cook at home. I think that women in general are pretty impressed if you can put together a decent meal and take care of the cleanup.
 

3fees

G.O.A.T.
Cinemas have increased ticket prices as less people go to the movies, why pay $7-$15 to go to the theater, when you can buy it in dvd or blue ray for less. The days of 10 cents or 25 cents kiddy matinees is over, the greedy , ignorant and get rich quick are here to stay until they are bankrupt and penniless .

Cheers
3fees :)
 
D

Deleted member 733170

Guest
In danger of sounding like a grouch people slurping drinks through a straw and stuffing themselves with popcorn are pet hates. Both activities are noisy, especially the rustle of someone finishing the carton when they are sitting behind you. Many smaller art house cinemas also serve alcoholic drinks in Europe. There used to be a cinema that back in the days when smoking wasn't outlawed, that turned a blind eye to pot smoking. Times change, but like Pavlov's dogs, people are still conditioned to munch on popcorn at the movie theatres.
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
Cinemas have increased ticket prices as less people go to the movies, why pay $7-$15 to go to the theater, when you can buy it in dvd or blue ray for less. The days of 10 cents or 25 cents kiddy matinees is over, the greedy , ignorant and get rich quick are here to stay until they are bankrupt and penniless .

Cheers
3fees :)

Theaters still appear to be viable economically as they're still around and I think that they're the place where you have to go if you want to see something when it's released as the content owners delay DVD sales for some period of time on the most popular movies. It's similar to sports - you pay a big premium to see something live where it may be free to watch it a month or two later on. Disney's about 18% off their highs, mostly on lower ESPN revenues and ESPN has done a lot of cost-cutting in the past year (layoffs). It still costs a lot of money to make movies and theaters are one way to monetize their IP.

We always have the option to not go to theaters.
 

3fees

G.O.A.T.
Thats what they said about drive in theaters too, look what happened to them.

Cheers
3Fees :)
 
D

Deleted member 733170

Guest
Thats what they said about drive in theaters too, look what happened to them.

Cheers
3Fees :)

People have been forecasting the decline of Cinema since VHS and Betamax.

I'm less convinced that movie theatres will abruptly disappear. Humans are social creatures and like to find reasons to go out and do things with other human beings. Even with today's technology you can't replicate the big screen at home.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
I used GrubHub to order dinner yesterday and found it much easier than going to a restaurant. I hope cinema theaters and restaurants go bankrupt. Too much hassle to go to them.
 
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