Sneaking candy/food into the movie theater. Do you do it? (sell, sale)

[Itz]

I go to the movies every couple of months and try to always remember to bring bottled water with me. I forgot once and got one at the theatre... $5 for a bottle of water that costs $1 down the street at the convenience store.

I dont do this for frugality reasons... i do it because what the charge is ridiculous!!!

[NJBest]

Originally Posted by Itz

I go to the movies every couple of months and try to always remember to bring bottled water with me. I forgot once and got one at the theatre... $5 for a bottle of water that costs $1 down the street at the convenience store.

I dont do this for frugality reasons... i do it because what the charge is ridiculous!!!

I don't know why they choose to do it this way... but they do it in order to keep ticket prices low. Personally I would rather they charge $20 for a movie ticket and $1 for a soda.

[Hopes]

This is only slightly relevant to the topic, but I don't understand why people buy bottled water. There's really no guarantee that what you're buying is better than what comes out of the tap. At least with the tap water, you get an annual report telling you what's in it. Maybe local tap water isn't good in some areas of the country.

[NJBest]

Originally Posted by Hopes

This is only slightly relevant to the topic, but I don't understand why people buy bottled water. There's really no guarantee that what you're buying is better than what comes out of the tap. At least with the tap water, you get an annual report telling you what's in it. Maybe local tap water isn't good in some areas of the country.

It's purely a convenience thing. I keep a case in the car in-case I get thirsty. But it also depends on what you're drinking. I drink a lot of sparkling water and that doesn't come out of my tap.

[indy_317]

Originally Posted by NJBest

But now that you know it's banned, you might think twice.

No. They pay their CEOs millions. They don't need those high prices to 'stay in business,' they need those prices to make 1% of the company employees wealthy beyond belief. I don't think a person needs to make six-figures just to have a comfortable middle class lifestyle in Knoxville, TN.

Originally Posted by NJBest

I don't know why they choose to do it this way... but they do it in order to keep ticket prices low. Personally I would rather they charge $20 for a movie ticket and $1 for a soda.

No. They do it so the upper echelon of employees can make millions a year. Regal is based in Knoxville, but the upper level management makes loads of cash. I never knew the cost of living in Knoxville was that of lower Manhattan? Oh wait, it isn't. So now you know why you pay dearly for concessions. It isn't about keeping ticket prices low. I'm sure one could have a decent lifestyle in Knoxville, TN if they only made a measly $250K/year??

[CTGirlNoMore]

Originally Posted by Hopes

This is only slightly relevant to the topic, but I don't understand why people buy bottled water. There's really no guarantee that what you're buying is better than what comes out of the tap. At least with the tap water, you get an annual report telling you what's in it. Maybe local tap water isn't good in some areas of the country.

Because what comes out of my faucet is enough to make me gag. It's certainly nothing like tap water I've tasted elsewhere.

And this thread is making me want popcorn now

[MustangEater82]

Originally Posted by jhadorn

I realize that movie theaters must make a profit in order to stay in business, but with ticket prices rising rapidly, about $10 per person now, and a coke and popcorn costing about $8, where it would cost about $3 or $4 anywhere else, some people would rather wait a few months until it comes to dvd and let the whole family watch it for a rental fee of $3.

At what point do movie theaters price themselves out of business?

Almost forgot, to answer the question, I never sneak candy in and rarely buy candy at the theater.

I just wanted to add in case it wasn't already posted. I worked with management with movie theatre company, one of the largest in the nation. I also have worked at several locations.


1st thing.

Movie tickets. That is hollywood, not the movie theatre. You remember when Halle Barry got paid an extra Million to show her boobs? Remember hearing $20 million per movie per some of the big main stars? you hear of all the money and extravagent houses in LA and around the world from Movie starts?

That is where movie ticket money goes. Nearly 90-95% of ticket sales go to hollywood, they don't even pay for the cashier that sold you the ticket. Hence the big jump on automated and online ticket purchases to cut costs.


2nd thing

Popcorn/concessions is marked up, but it paid for the building, the staff, the licenses/etc... the sound equipment, the screen, the projector, etc... Also the new recent addition and revamp for digital projectors demanded by the public.

I worked at one of the more profitable locations in the entire company. I will throw out some numbers.

-$145k month lease
-$20k powerbill(after dumping thousands in to powersavings techniques, including adjusting the AC controls to the movie schedule every week, talking saving "30 min" of AC)
-$5k a month water
-$1k in neon repair
-$25k for a popcorn popper.
-$10k a month in building maint, sometimes more.
-Punk kid throws something at the screen and puts a hole in it? about $15k
-new silver screens for 3d and IMAX projectors, have a special coating that usually cannot be cleaned like older screens could.
-$20k just to wax the floors every 6 months.
-We had 120 employees, 18 managers/projectionists.
-Hell had to hire 3 cops on the weekends for 8-9 hour shifts at $35 an hour, for them to just stand around in case something happened(which often did)

Now throw in the lawsuits of people walking in dimly lit rooms with stairs and ice/soda/butter on the floor.

Much more beyond all that, fire and alarm security, armoured car pickup.
Doesn't even get into maintaining projectors/sound systems, Hell a projector bulb can cost $1200.




All paid for by concessions. Popcorn is obviously the money maker, all the things like candy/prepped food, etc... have a lower profit margin. You will never attend a movie theatre that doesn't pop popcorn. If it doesn't, then its going out of business. Also want to state, look around, you will see only about half, maybe less of all patrons actually pay for anything.



Don't get me wrong Theatres usually do make money, you have seen the ones that don't and their ultimate end.






As for lower priced theatres, I worked at a $3 theatre for a bit while I was between jobs. Literally did as little as 50 people a day, and guess how much stuff cheap people bought? We had $1 wed and sundays, we would do as many as 750-1,000 people. Sell alot, but that also required more staff, working on a shoe string budget on a building that was falling apart, and projectors in desperate need of work to keep them running. I ran the place into the black 1 month, with a $1,000 surplus after a year of running in the red. The place got shut down eventually. I am 29 and the lamphouses/power supplies are older then me. We pulled out some of the first dolby theatre sound systems out. I helped install new projector heads from 1985. LOL that was an upgrade for the place.


LOL here are rubberbands used to keep a projector running right for a week

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/59599_440994083801_533343801_5273609_3679270_n.jpg (broken link)

Rubber bands bypassing a failsafe (you can see where previous ones snapped)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/39151_418195488801_533343801_4768428_2287232_n.jpg (broken link)

Paperclip, I rigged into a spring to hold compression on the film on a projector to keep it from "jumping"
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/61010_431213043801_533343801_5075356_7862269_n.jpg (broken link)

[Mightyqueen801]

Not about food, but the movie itself--my coworker, who is in his mid-fifties, told me he buys a senior citizen movie ticket at the kiosk. Most of the time the ticket-takers are fetuses in the late teen/early 20's range and can't tell the difference between someone in their 50s or 60s anyway, and no one has ever questioned him.

[leftmyheartintennessee]

No need to sneak candy in, as I don't go to the movies...period...have not been inside a movie theater since the first SANTA CLAUSE movie with TIM ALLEN came out...

[NJBest]

Originally Posted by leftmyheartintennessee

No need to sneak candy in, as I don't go to the movies...period...have not been inside a movie theater since the first SANTA CLAUSE movie with TIM ALLEN came out...

And this is how you protest high prices. Good job! Please do pass on your wisdom to the idiots sneaking in candy and drinks.