Posted on 03/05/2012 2:44:22 PM PST by grundle
Link only due to copyright concerns:
Yeah it’s an issue for them, though remember every week the percentage they keep goes up, of course the revenue of the picture goes down to. But I think there’s more money in reducing the cost of concessions. It’s one of those “would you rather sell 1000 of something at $6 or 10,000 at $2”. Normal businesses you figure they put a lot of work into their pricing to find the break points, but movie theater concessions have been over priced so long I doubt anybody’s really put the work into it anymore. Heck just being able to advertise “we use convenience store pricing” would make them the choice theaters in town. I think they consider themselves amusement parks with a captive audience, forgetting that movies are two hours long, if we can’t smuggle food we can always wait.
There are a lot of older, smaller theaters which sell $2 to $5 tickets to movies which have been out awhile. Sure, the same movies are in DVD format, but there is something about the theater experience and big screen which still brings in the patrons. You'll find these type of theaters in college towns, but also in smaller towns. They also sell refreshments at convenience store prices. They really don't care if you bring your own stuff in because their prices are reasonable enough that almost nobody does. They evidently make money because they remain open.
two hour long movies with 30 minutes of useless commercials and pre-commercial local ads on the screen.
The problem is the CONTENT of the movie.
I remember when my Brothers and I would all go to the Bay Theater in Panama City, Florida for a nickel each. This would be on Saturdays. There would typically be a cowboy or Tarzan or similar movie on Saturdays.
There was always a cartoon and a serial, my favorite being Rocket Man or Commander Cody. I don’t think we ever got snacks tho.
A few years later it cost 15 cents at the Ritz in DeFuniak Srings. I would often buy milk duds or another of the standard theater snacks.
When I got to 18, the Ritz jumped to what I thought was highway robbery: 65 Cents, tho the Junior Mints etc. were still the same and completely affordable.
I know there has been a lot of inflation since 1965 but theater prices have gone up much more than most things.
My date, and I just saw “Woman in Black” there a month ago. We solved this problem by going to dinner first. Although, they say Livonia is the Whitest city in America, so I call Racism! :)
“There were very few people at the concession stand”
We went to see Act of Valor a couple of weeks ago. I’ll bet we didn’t see more than 4 boxes of popcorn in the sold out theatre.
I feel your pain. The last movie I saw was the first Transformer movie. I took my young son as he wanted to see it.
Anyway, the two tickets, two small drinks and a shared popcorn cost me $35 and that was a matinee.
Unreal, to put their energy into something so flipping unimportant at this time.
I can think of many more pressing issues to take a stand against.
Ha!
50 yrs of public screws indoctrination made it happen. Yea, the Communist Manifesto is working well here.
Movie popcorn is the most expensive food product based on weight alone. I can get prime filets for less.
If I could figure out how to get my own popcorn in I would.
The real issue is the theater banning people from bringing their own snacks. Challenging that is the only thing that might make a little bit of sense. Theaters can charge whatever they want. It’s the enforced monopoly that is the problem.
many, many, many, many years ago I worked in a local movie theatre, they make their money from candy and the most from popcorn sales....Haven’t been the the movies since ET. Won’t pay the price....
So don’t buy any.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks!
Lowering prices would result in selling more candy, but it wouldn’t result in more profit. Look at it this way (using big round numbers to exaggerate the effect).
Scenario 1:
Sell 100 candy bars at $10.00 each.
Theater’s cost of each candy bar = $1.00.
Gross income - cost = profit: $1,000 - 100 = $900 profit
Scenario 2:
Sell 500 candy bars at $2.00 each.
Theater’s cost of each candy bar = $1.00.
Gross income - cost = profit: $1,000 - $500 = $500
Selling more product does not always mean more profits. In this case, the theater made $400 more profit by selling a few high priced candy bars than it would have by selling a lot of low priced candy bars.
This is another reason food is so expensive at theaters. It’s more profitable to sell a few expensive items, than to sell a lot of cheap items.
It all depends on how many you sell. I know that as prices increase or decrease the number of customers varies. I doubt highly that if they dropped the prices to 1/5 they’d only see sales go up 5 times, I think they go up 10 times at least. Outside of the world of movie theaters candy bars are an impulse buy, one of the reason they’re an impulse buy is they’re dirt cheap, a functionally negligible amount of money for most of the populace even in these times. Movie theaters have pushed the price way past the impulse buy line, if you force your customers to pre-plan whether or not they’re going to buy a candy bar then they’ll probably pre-plan to buy it someplace cheaper and smuggle it in. Putting impulse items at impulse prices will dramatically increase sales.
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