The price of pop corn

I finally saw The King's Speech at the $1 theater yesterday afternoon. What a terrific movie. But why is a small popcorn $5.25 if the ticket to get in is $1.50? So I passed on that treat. Didn't I read that theaters make more on food than on tickets?

Even at home I've gone to popping up a few tablespoons in a pan rather than doing the prepackaged in the microwave. Cheaper and fewer unknown, unpronounceable elements. It's the difference between a minute and 3 minutes.

So I asked Google--why does movie popcorn cost so much? And Stanford University has researched this:

Research from Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of California, Santa Cruz suggests that there is a method to theaters’ madness—and one that in fact benefits the viewing public. By charging high prices on concessions, exhibition houses are able to keep ticket prices lower, which allows more people to enjoy the silver-screen experience.

So I guess it's OK--I can enjoy a cheap movie because some people don't care if they pay $5-$7 for pop corn. It seems that the big buyers of popcorn will come to see anything--it's those of us who only go to the movies occasionally and are more discriminating about the movies, that refuse to pay those outrageous prices. Also, if I'd gone to the movie with a group, rather than alone, statistically, there was a better chance I'd buy food.

Who knew?

Also, some people don't care about the calories. Popcorn is really a low calorie snack, unless you eat a large movie container with butter, which racks up to about 1200 calories. The Nannies are urging labeling of buttered popcorn at movies, as though the general public can't tell it has more calories than carrot and celery sticks (which would make too much noise in a theater, betcha).

Anyway, a great move, and I'm glad I went, with or without popcorn. Go see it if you haven't. It's more fun in a theate than at home on the couch.