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One thing that I find striking is that chain theaters have gradually made the concessions experience less and less appealing, even though concessions are where

One thing that I find striking is that chain theaters have gradually made the concessions experience less and less appealing, even though concessions are where they make most of their money. What's the deal, as Jerry would say?

macintux 3y ago
Purely speculation, but I wonder whether concessions only turn a profit at a certain scale. The cost of keeping a variety of food offerings, and the equipment to prepare them, and the people to run all that, may simply be too high for the current levels of attendance.
- ecoquant 3y ago
  I am sure part of the reason we have popcorn at the movies is that popcorn was easy to scale. I guess tastes just change. Dinner and a movie did not use to mean dinner AT the movie. If you want a full restaurant at the movies why not also have an oil change as part of the deal? Watch the movie, all you can eat soup, salad, breadsticks with your meal and at the same time someone changes the oil in your car.
conradev 3y ago
Alamo Drafthouse has really good food: https://drafthouse.com/ https://drafthouse.com/ I think the fact that so many people want a good theater experience and the fact that they’re largely crap is a (current) market opportunity. AMC has been rolling out upgraded experiences across their chain (food to seat service, reclining seats, etc), but I don’t know to what extent.
- technofiend 3y ago
  Do they have good food again? They simplified their menu, dropping more sophisticated dishes and locally-sourced beers when their CEO went on a drive to expand. Unfortunately the quality dropped way off and it really robbed the theaters of their local charm. Instead of eating there me and all my friends switched to eating elsewhere prior to the movie. Alamo is literally the only place I'll watch a movie due to their "No, really: no using your cellphone" policy, so I'm happy to give them my business, but I draw the line at mediocre food. It's too bad and kind of ironic because they messed up their menu in a drive to greater profitablity and lost a lot of their most profitable business as a result: the margins on food and alcohol are far better than ticket sales.
  - copperx 3y ago
    There are two Alamos in my city. I love the theaters and I go often, but the food truly sucks.
add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
Yeah I used to get popcorn when it was simply high priced. But now that the pricing feels predatory I bring my own snack or have none at all. 2 hours is not a long time to go without eating.

macintux 3y ago

Purely speculation, but I wonder whether concessions only turn a profit at a certain scale. The cost of keeping a variety of food offerings, and the equipment to prepare them, and the people to run all that, may simply be too high for the current levels of attendance.

ecoquant 3y ago
I am sure part of the reason we have popcorn at the movies is that popcorn was easy to scale. I guess tastes just change. Dinner and a movie did not use to mean dinner AT the movie. If you want a full restaurant at the movies why not also have an oil change as part of the deal? Watch the movie, all you can eat soup, salad, breadsticks with your meal and at the same time someone changes the oil in your car.

conradev 3y ago

Alamo Drafthouse has really good food: https://drafthouse.com/ https://drafthouse.com/ I think the fact that so many people want a good theater experience and the fact that they’re largely crap is a (current) market opportunity. AMC has been rolling out upgraded experiences across their chain (food to seat service, reclining seats, etc), but I don’t know to what extent.

technofiend 3y ago
Do they have good food again? They simplified their menu, dropping more sophisticated dishes and locally-sourced beers when their CEO went on a drive to expand. Unfortunately the quality dropped way off and it really robbed the theaters of their local charm. Instead of eating there me and all my friends switched to eating elsewhere prior to the movie. Alamo is literally the only place I'll watch a movie due to their "No, really: no using your cellphone" policy, so I'm happy to give them my business, but I draw the line at mediocre food. It's too bad and kind of ironic because they messed up their menu in a drive to greater profitablity and lost a lot of their most profitable business as a result: the margins on food and alcohol are far better than ticket sales.
- copperx 3y ago
  There are two Alamos in my city. I love the theaters and I go often, but the food truly sucks.

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago

Yeah I used to get popcorn when it was simply high priced. But now that the pricing feels predatory I bring my own snack or have none at all. 2 hours is not a long time to go without eating.