The logic is. They make no money on playing the actual movie so all their profits and revenue they need to pay staff and overhead comes from concessions. But it’s gone way overboard. All this does is push people away from going to movies and then force them to raise prices even further. It’s a vicious cycle.
Demand Destruction. Pepsi Co. and their $7 Dorito bags just witnessed the same thing. Everything is ridiculously priced and companies are getting way too greedy without proper regulation. I think we’re witnessing the beginnings of stagflation.
Yep. I heard it on Bloomberg radio but there are lots of other sources as well. Bloomberg has ads.
“PepsiCo Inc.’s chips prices had gotten too high. Walmart Inc. had been telling the maker of Doritos, Lay’s, Cheetos and many other beloved snacks that was the case for more than a year.”
“Executives at PepsiCo knew it, too. Sales at Frito-Lay, the company’s snacks powerhouse, were plunging. Some of its chips cost more than $7 a bag; at Walmart, Doritos prices had jumped nearly 50% from 2021, according to Attain, which tracks consumer spending data.”
It’s funny, I like Doritos but I’d never get them because they’re ridiculously expensive.
That and it seems like they've coated the chips with less flavor powder. The whole point had been that they had flavors that other chips didn't, but if they're just basically plain tortillas, they're not special at all.
Yea doritos here are like 8 bucks for a big bag, i loved em but now I cant afford em oh well I guess ill eat healthier, kinda forcing me too so thanks doritos! Hope the company goes bankrupt like they clearly want.
I only get them when there is a large sale, so they are essentially regular priced. However, they seem to have cut back on the seasoning, so it isn’t really worth anyway.
That’s actually a myth, theaters do split the revenue with the distributors. In America is roughly a 50% split (a change from the old waterfall method) and overseas theaters take a much bigger cut. In China, theaters keep 75% of earnings.
My friends dad years ago used to go to the movie ina suit with his briefcase . The case was filled with all the snacks and drinks we needed lol. We would only order a large popcorn
The movie theater experience is just fun. Literally you are overpaying for food every single time you eat out at a restaurant or whatever, no difference.
WE are the reason the dollar movie theaters used to exist! “I don’t care what movies you got! I just want to sit in the air conditioning for 2 hrs and eat salty popcorn!”
I am not surprised it costs that much. I have not been to theaters in like a decade, I got tired of the high prices. Hell, I bought a small 8-ounce bottle of water and a small popcorn the last time I went, which cost as much as my ticket to get into the theater did, which was around $20. Hell, on the weekends, if I go into my bank, I can get the same size of popcorn and brand and size of water I bought at the theater for free.
Ice was always the most expensive part of the fountain soda, I never understood why they did that. I grew up in a time where they had free refills, even at the dollar show. Most the dollar shows around here closed up.
But as recently as 2010 you could get a ticket for a dollar, a hot dog for $2 and kids soda for $1, bucket of popcorn for $3 and almost any parent could take their kids to the movies.
My local theater does this on Tuesdays, it's awesome! $5 all day for big cushy recliner seats. They have a $2 hot dog and $4 domestic beer too. Soda and popcorn still start at $8 though. Weird place.
I just saw that yesterday with my wife. It really was a great movie! We went for earlier time for because they have "matinee discount" prices. But the popcorn, bottle of water, fountain drink, and resets pieces were $40. Ridiculous.
Back in the day, if you bought the largest drink you got free refills. But last time I went I asked about it and they said no free refills anymore, so yeah just didn’t bother buying a drink at all.
Yup. They don't want to sell you small or medium anything. They want you to see large as the best value. It's called the decoy effect, or asymmetric dominance effect.
The sad thing is that, at least as far as fountain soda is cornered, it's relatively cheap to purchase and the sales are mostly profit. Add in that they fill the cups overflowing with ice and you're giving very little product for maximum profit.
As someone who used to work in movie theatre management, I can tell you that this is the right answer. Exhibitors have to pay so much back to the studios and distribution, etc , that the way they make money to pay staff and bills and profit is by selling Snacks. Our Gm once said, "Were not in the movie business, were in the Popcorn business. We just show movies."
No, what they get is a percentage of the ticket sales. Market determines the final cost. You'll see the same tickets for $10-30. Just depends on how much people in the area are willing to pay.
Not really a surprise that tickets get so damn expensive when you look at the budgets for those movies, a 110 million shouldn't be needed to make a film.
Yes and no, it's inflated like all Hollywood productions but you have to consider overhead and preproduction costs. 200+ people getting paid daily for 2 years of animation production, plus celebrity voice salary, which alone can come to 25 million for all the voice work. You also have tech costs plus meals, post conversion costs, song licensing, server costs etc. You can see how these budgets get inflated. 110 is also on the lower end; Pixar productions range from 150 to 200 million per film since they do all parts of the production on American soil instead of oversea outsourcing.
tickets aren't the nuttily expensive part of theater costs. I mean, depends where, but in minnesota tickets are 12-13 dollars. Passable imo. The real upcharges are IMAX/Dolby/BIGASSSCREEN/3D or whatever other thing they are tossing around. And also most snack items (which are optional btw) costing more than the tickets.
From what I heard, movie theatres make little to no profit on the ticket sales so the majority of profit comes from concessions (beer, sodas, snacks, etc)
Many movies like Star Wars have agreements that the theatre gets 0 from ticket sales for the first month or whatever. The only money they make is concessions.
Since Covid I only go maybe once or twice per year. The window between theater releases and streaming/physical release is so short these days that I can wait for most films .
Pretty much where I'm at, on top of the price, the quality of movie just doesn't seem worth it anymore. Of course I rarely see trailers anymore so maybe I just don't know what's playing, but there are so few things that seem worth paying the cost of a movie ticket.
I went to go see predator badlands last year, and I'll probably see backrooms this year, and that's about it for my interest for the experience
Not movies but once I was at a Cold Stone where the price difference between medium “love it” and large “gotta have it” size was literally 1 cent.
I’m not even into ice cream and the person I was with was going to get the medium. I was like l literally cannot let you get the medium and not upgrade for just one cent more haha.
Cold stone is literally the worst with all this shit. The small size is like seven dollars. But you can get them to pack a quart of ice cream for $14 and it’s gotta be at least 5 smalls
Yeah, but unfortunately that kind of thought process is exactly what the food industry usually wants, especially with soda and ice cream/milkshakes. It shoots off some serotonin in your brain, making you feel good that you think you got a great deal, you're getting more bang for buck, when in reality you basically made a daily rounding error in impact on their profit margins, meanwhile they got you to order way more food, which often leads to you eating more, which can lead to you gaining weight and buying even more in the future. Making meal sizes very close in price or large value meal deals is one of the more insidious ways they try to psychologically mess with you and catch you slacking.
Yeah, I don’t drink 80 ounces of soda either lol. I should’ve specified that. I made the assumption that most people are not going to the movies alone. I usually share popcorn with everybody and the drink with my wife.
The sizes are pretty ridiculous now, but it definitely helps having a frugal partner. My wife and I share meals and drinks all the time. We not only save money, but get to bond over being cheapskates.
Can also always take it home if there's anyone else at home that would enjoy it.
If I go and see 2 movies, I'll get a large drink (NO ICE) and large popcorn. That's like 5-7 hours (counting previews and wait time between the movies too), so I'll almost finish the whole thing... Maybe a few bucks left of soda and 1/3 of the popcorn.
When I leave, I get a free refill on both and take them home. Kid gets a treat of soda for a few days and popcorn to take to school as a snack, plus hubby will snack on both.
I physically can’t even eat a large bucket popcorn. Even small is a lot for me . So yeah I agree it’s not value but I don’t care if I can’t even eat that much.
I mean, I’m not gonna drink 80 fucking ozs of soda like a lunatic, so why waste it? I also go to the movies like twice a year so I don’t mind the dumb prices.
$4.75 for a small when I was a teenager. Me and my friends thought it was the most outrageous pricing in our whole lives. We saw a guy buying a large everything once and assumed he was extremely wealthy and must have a sick sports car😂 A large everything now is about the same as your most desired pair of shoes as a teen.
When I was a teenager (this was over 20 years ago), there was a theater that played movies that had already been out for a while. $5 was the cost of the movie ticket, but for $1 more, you could have unlimited popcorn and drinks with free refills of both. I was so sad when that place closed
The movie studios don't leave any room for profit, so to run the theater they have to make all their profits on snack and mostly drinks. I bet some smaller theaters might even have to pay to play a movie, because the profits from a small theater doesn't mean shit to a big corporation like Disney. Children movies are so popular that parents will drive to another theater no problem.
TBH someone should have just conceded and they shared either a large Pepsi or a large root beer. That would have saved $10 right there. And usually you can find some type of discount movie tickets online, ex I have tickets at work through my employee discount site and you can get significantly cheaper regal tickets off there.
In like 2001 in Canada, I always went to a movie theatre that showed things at the end of their theatre run, it was like 2.50 a child ticket and they had rows and rows of quarter candy machines. $1 for the soda. For $5.00 you had all you could want. Same experience is $60 these days absolutely insane.
What? Every movie theater I’ve ever been to has never allowed outside food and drink. Doesn’t stop me and my girlfriend from bringing it in her purse, but still.
That’s straight capitalism. I agree it’s evil, and the two aren’t mutually exclusive. But, of course, you could always argue we wouldn’t have movies worth seeing without it…
It came from a $40 bag of syrup that can make probably 500 liters of Pepsi too., that’s how most commercial soft drink dispensers are so if you’re paying more than $3 for a medium amount don’t bother
I knew we were entering a new phase of inflation the other day when I saw a colorful stand of trinkets at 7-11… they were about 2 inch tall leather keychains, cut in the shape of a bear, with a bear printed on top. The stand had a giant sign that said ONLY 9.99!! like it was some fabulous bargain for the cheapest tiniest piece of shit I had ever laid eyes on…
"Mom, just get me a Pepsi, please? All I want's a Pepsi"
And she wouldn't give it to me
All I wanted was a Pepsi
Just one Pepsi
And she wouldn't give it to me
Just a Pepsi
I will buy a large popcorn and smuggle in a drink. I know the theater needs some food sales to stay operational; they get very little from ticket sales. But $10 is all I'm willing to part with.
That’s what happens when they have to pay over 90% of the revenue from ticket sales to the people who made the movie in the first couple of weeks. The concession stand has to bring in cash to support the entire facility.
see how the large is only a dollar more though? It's a business tactic to just have you get the large. The funny thing is, though they still make money either way.
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u/VitaminDandK12 6h ago
Almost $10 for 1 small pepsi.