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You're bang on - all of the economic jargon on the StackExchange page is funny. People are overcomplicating matters. I used to work for the largest theatre chai

You're bang on - all of the economic jargon on the StackExchange page is funny. People are overcomplicating matters. I used to work for the largest theatre chain in Canada and remember that George Lucas demanded 100% of ticket sales for the first 3 weeks of his Star Wars releases (and re-releases), which is unheard of, but he can command that. Popcorn & soda is where theatre chains make their money. From what I recall the marginal cost of each soda was about $0.25, popcorn is even less.

mattm 15y ago
I worked at a movie theatre during high school. On initiation day, as we were viewing the large stacks of popcorn kernels, my manager said the actual cost of a bag of popcorn is around 5 cents.
joezydeco 15y ago
There had to be a bit more to the Lucas thing, though. Like a minimum ticket price. Otherwise I would have (as a theater owner) slashed my ticket price by 99% and doubled the cost of popcorn. Still a win for the moviegoer and theater owner.
- waterside81 15y ago
  Well, that's not really reasonable. Now you have different ticket prices for different movies (patrons would be outraged) and then you have inflated concession prices for all patrons (or only some?). The software that movie theatres use to run their POS terminals isn't that flexible.
miked 15y ago
This. I worked for AMC Theaters for 4 years as a developer. One of the wonderful things about that company is that every employee has to go thru a week long training program in the theater business, to include working at a theater. One of the things I'll never forget is the trainer telling us one day, "We're not in the movie exhibition industry. We're in the snack concession industry. We just use movies to get the patrons in the door." The reason is that, in the movie industry, the Hollywood studios have almost all the power. When the original Batman came out and lines were around the block, the company actually lost money on ticket sales (after theater costs). That's because Batman cost the theaters 90% of the gross ticket sales. If the theaters were really making big profits the companies would have margins -- and stock prices -- akin to Apple's. They don't. Check the stock listings: they have a marginal business.

mattm 15y ago

I worked at a movie theatre during high school. On initiation day, as we were viewing the large stacks of popcorn kernels, my manager said the actual cost of a bag of popcorn is around 5 cents.

joezydeco 15y ago

There had to be a bit more to the Lucas thing, though. Like a minimum ticket price. Otherwise I would have (as a theater owner) slashed my ticket price by 99% and doubled the cost of popcorn. Still a win for the moviegoer and theater owner.

waterside81 15y ago
Well, that's not really reasonable. Now you have different ticket prices for different movies (patrons would be outraged) and then you have inflated concession prices for all patrons (or only some?). The software that movie theatres use to run their POS terminals isn't that flexible.

miked 15y ago

This. I worked for AMC Theaters for 4 years as a developer. One of the wonderful things about that company is that every employee has to go thru a week long training program in the theater business, to include working at a theater. One of the things I'll never forget is the trainer telling us one day, "We're not in the movie exhibition industry. We're in the snack concession industry. We just use movies to get the patrons in the door." The reason is that, in the movie industry, the Hollywood studios have almost all the power. When the original Batman came out and lines were around the block, the company actually lost money on ticket sales (after theater costs). That's because Batman cost the theaters 90% of the gross ticket sales. If the theaters were really making big profits the companies would have margins -- and stock prices -- akin to Apple's. They don't. Check the stock listings: they have a marginal business.