In our life, some of us enjoy movies, entertainment, seeing the new films that are out, venturing out to the movie theater either alone, with someone, some people and groups. Now, as we go to the movies, we tend to make a stop at the concession stands where the workers serve popcorn, drinks, candy, nachos, hot dogs, poutine, and among other foods. I understand that they need to generate money to cover costs of the grounds, facilities and the theatres, however it is outrageous and so overpriced.
I am an avid movie goer and most of the time, I satisfy my cravings with going into my pocket to purchase concession’s, and it gets so expensive. For a popcorn combo with drink, and candy comes to over $16.00, $20.00, $28.00 or more if you do not have the points card or some discount card. It is outrageous to pay 5-6 dollars for drinks, 5-7 dollars for Popcorn, and about 5 bucks for candy, 10 dollars for nachos and drink. It is absolutely ridiculous to be spending that much money for those things where it should not be more than 5-6 bucks at the most for drink and popcorn together. Never mind the candy.
Yesterday, I had gone to the movies and satisfied my cravings yet again. I had bought popcorn, drink and candy combo, and as I was eating it in the movie theatre while watching the trailers, the movie, I kept thinking to myself, why I need to pay so much money for Popcorn? It is not expensive when you buy it from the grocery store. So, I got home everything was ok, in the early morning hours around 5:30am, I had woken up and I got so sick. I ended up vomiting.
The problem was that I think the Popcorn they gave me was sitting around for a while maybe and nobody was buying it. I saw a whole bunch of already prepared popcorn bags and I thought they had made it fresh as they were putting them in the popcorn stand, and so I made sure that my popcorn was fresh and they said that it was, so I believed them. I went ahead and bought it and went on my way into the theater. Anyway, this morning I was so sick and I also got Diarrhea from it and I was so awful. I decided that I will no longer be purchasing anything from the concession stand.
I also filed a complaint to the movie theatre, and I feel like there will be nothing done about it and I will not be getting compensated as they didn’t seem to care at all. All day I have been feeling weird since my morning incident, but I am a lot better than I was. I felt like I was almost going to go to the hospital, so as the hour went by, I felt better, so I did not need any medical attention and I drank water and took breath mints and I was good.
So as a movie goer, I will just be purchasing my movie ticket and then I will not go near the concession stand. I will not risk my health and get sick again. A word of advice, please make sure your popcorn is freshly popped right before your eyes and you witness it coming out freshly and right into your bag and make sure all other foods are freshly made and prepared. It is in your right to ask that as you will be consuming it.
I don’t have a problem with paying for the movie, but I have a problem paying a lot just to eat popcorn and all that. Well, no more. They lost me as a customer at the concessions.
Have you had a terrible experience in the aftermath of eating movie theater food?
Do you agree that concession movie theater food is so expensive?
Do you agree that concession movie theater food is so expensive?
Would love to hear from you.
Talin Orfali Ghazarian 
I so agree with you! The food is not only too expensive, it’s terrible.
I feel the same way! The markup is almost criminal!
What a horrible experience!Hope you are now better!Personally, I don’t go to the movies much, but when I do I buy packaged candy. Thanks for sharing.
It is not food. We spend that money at a real restaurant after we leave the theater, a bottle of water, if anything, suits me fine …
It’s not the popcorn that made you sick. It may been the butter or something else you could have eaten prior.
So who can afford to go to the movies anymore?
Save your money and save the calories. You’ll feel better not eating all that junk.
studied film history briefly in college – theaters don’t really make money on ticket sales – most movies are contracted so that the production co. gets something like 100% of profit on week 1, 75% on week two, 50% on week 3 and so forth, so concession items literally cover the cost of operations almost entirely – including labor (employees) which is typically the most expensive part of any business.
that being said, I am “poor” and I typically don’t buy concession items even though I know that. but I understand why they’re priced so outrageously. I don’t know if they’d sell more to compensate if they lowered the cost but I imagine there is some formula concerning amount of ticket sales vs required income to continue operating. (for instance, if you know you’ll have 200 people coming to see a new release one day, and statistically 45% of those people will buy snacks, considering that 45% sales, at what price are your operating costs covered? or so forth.)
Here in France, villages have theatre seats to put up in the foyer. The films are current but there is no concession unless you go to one of the larger cities. I couldn’t comment about quality or price as I prefer going with my friends right down the street. We don’t even need to consider parking, gas or any other expenditure. After living here nearly eight years, I can easily say I do not miss any of it.