Are Movie Theaters Ripping You Off?

By Jessi Stickel on August 1, 2015

Whether you are going for date night or with a bunch of friends, going to the movies can be fun and relaxing for everyone.

However, nowadays you’re dishing out quite a bit of money to see a film on the big screen. Paying $10.00 or more for a ticket, then paying a fortune for soda, popcorn, and candy — it can get frustrating for frequent moviegoers.

Many people think that movie theaters make a killing with everything they sell being at least double the price of what you would pay down the street. But are they really ripping us off?

Tickets

The average movie ticket price in North America is $8.12 as of June 15, 2015 according to Statista. Movie tickets are not the highest they have ever been; however, they are still expensive. What the average moviegoer doesn’t think about is how much of a profit the actual theater is making off their ticket sales. In fact, they do not get to keep even half of what the ticket costs.

In 2014, MarketPlace stated that movie studios take about 70 percent of movie theater’s ticket sales. So if your ticket to see “Trainwreck” this weekend is $10.00 the theater itself only pockets around $3.00.

Since the theaters are hardly making anything off movie tickets, they have to make their money somehow, which leads to the outrageous prices of concessions.

Concessions

You cannot truly experience going to the movies unless some kind of incredibly unhealthy, but oh so delicious snack is involved. Candy, popcorn, soda, Icees, pretzels, and nachos, how do we choose?

So many people dread paying for snacks at the movies because of their prices. Movie theaters rely on their concession sales in order to be profitable. According to TIME, movie theaters make an 85 percent profit on their concessions, which shows that their snacks and drinks are so overpriced. If you get a bag of Skittles at the movie theater that costs $5.00 the theater keeps approximately $4.25.

Although, movie theater popcorn (which is a must) is the most increased priced item sold there.

Popcorn

There is nothing like movie theater popcorn; however, some people call the delicious snack “America’s biggest rip-off.” Maybe they are right considering movie theaters mark up the price of popcorn 900 percent of what it actually costs, according to CNN. Purchasing an $8.00 popcorn means the theater just made nine times their money because it only cost them about $0.89 to make.

I think we can all agree that popcorn at the movies is a big rip-off, but the most delicious rip-off!

The bottom line

So are movie theaters really ripping us off? Yes and no. Yes, charging 900 percent more for popcorn is ridiculous, but the theaters have to. If they lowered the prices of their concessions they would probably go out of business, considering they only profit on average $2.32 a person in ticket sales. Since the movie studios overprice their intake of ticket sales, the theaters have to turn around and overprice the concessions in order to make a profit.

The film companies are the cause of this inflation in theaters. Many movies that are on the big screen make millions just in the opening weekend. “Jurassic World” (2015) made over $204 million opening weekend, and has made overall over $626 million so far. The budget for the movie is estimated around $150 million, so Universal Studios is making over four times what they spent producing the film.

Even though it does take a great amount of money to produce a movie in Hollywood, they tend to profit millions more than they originally spent. If filming companies could just lower their ticket profit to at least 55 percent instead of 70 percent then theaters would be able to lower their concession prices, and a night at the movies will finally be affordable.

So the next time you go to the movies with friends, just think, “yes I am paying all this money just to see the new sequel to my favorite movie, but it is not necessarily the theater’s fault.”

By shoveling a handful of $8.00 popcorn into your mouth, consider you are helping your local theater stay in business.

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