Darkfriend

I only go to the movies maybe 5 or 6 times a year (I can PAUSE a DVD if I gotta pee!!). Anyway one of the last movies I saw in the theatres was "LOTR: TTT" and as I ordered my popcorn I was asked if I wanted some "real" butter for 50 cents extra (Canadian hehe).

So I said: "You mean for the last 25 years I've been ingesting some vile nuclear butter?" She didn't respond so I took the "Non natural butter" like always . Later as I proceeded to shower my popcorn with "powdered stuff" (you know, the powdered crap that comes in BBQ, Sour cream and onion, vinegar and ketchup) I figured I was already poisoning myself so I let it go...

My favorite mix is ketchup and sour cream and onion, when I leave the theatre my fingers are all red

Do you have that disgusting yet tasty treat in the states?

They also serve nachos, pizza and submarines but I swear if I see a guy next to me at the theatre eating a filet mignon with a baked potato I'm gonna spill my fake butter along with my powdered stuff all over him

Cheers!!

fumanstan

That sounds gross

Goat3001

mcbg1

at the theater here, the butter isn't even included when you buy the popcorn, it costs like 50 cents extra

Get Me Coffee

They charge extra for butter?!!?!?!??!?!?!??!

jough

Most movie theatres use canola oil for their "butter" - movie theatres have never, until recently, served real dairy butter.

The reason is manyfold - it tends to go bad pretty fast, it's solid at lower temperatures (unlike canola oil which is still liquidy at room temperature) and of course, the main point - it's cheaper.

-- Jough

DarthMaul420

Wow! Good info!

I hate how they ask if I want butter, then just totally throw it on the top layer, soaking it to the point were the top is gross and the middle and bottom of the bag has none.

mcbg1

sadly, at my local theater , yes... they started doing this like a year ago and it really sucks

Robert

You should tell them to "layer" the butter. That means they fill the bag up 1/3 - 1/2 way up, squirt some butter, then fill the bag up all the way and top it off with more butter.

DarthMaul420

Hmm ... I do that at home. I'll give it a try next time I'm there. Hopefully the 16 year old working the counter doesn't spit in my food for having to do extra work lol.

jough

I guess I'm lucky - many theatres in the Philly area are offering self-serve butter - but of course this doesn't allow the aforementioned "layering" of butter, which I always prefer.

But to charge extra for it is just absurd. What the hell are they charging $4.50 for in the first place? Popcorn is practically free it's so cheap, and the "butter" is also about $2.00 a gallon, and that's at *retail* prices!

-- Jough

jough

And don't even get me started that they switched from a nice oil-tight bucket to those stupid bags that leak through many years ago.

tsohg

You are really paying for the bag not the popcorn (Especially if it has advertisments on it). I worked at a theater for about five years and I can tell you first hand that those bags and cups are EXPENSIVE but it is how the theater makes its money because it really doesn't anything for the sale of tickets (the owner gets a small cut) Also the switch from buckets to bags was due to waste a Star Wars or Matrix type movie would be full of buckets of popcorn 10-12 buckets will fill a trash can pretty quick meaning it takes longer to clean the theater between shows and the staff goes through more trash bags and the trash compacter has to be emptied more often. Bags are "easier" to clean up. Personally I think they are messier due to the butter leakage and some people like to dump their half full drink in the bag when the movie is over and DON'T get me start about other "fluids" that may find their way into the bag.

DarthMaul420

LMAO ... the many events and changes that unfold in our life!

Groucho

I recently asked the Popcorn Boy for real butter. He gave me a wink and took my popcorn under the counter for a few minutes, and returned it to me...no extra charge!

DarthMaul420

tsohg

^^
I've seen everything from vomit,blood, and 1 half of the "ingredients" used to create life

jough

Those bags don't cost $4.50. If they do, maybe I should get into the popcorn bag business.

And if the bags have adverts for movies on them, then the bag costs are subsidised by the film company, which means that the theatre pays *less* for them, not more.

I understand that concessions are how the theatre makes its money, and I don't really have *too* much of a problem with it - but don't pretend that I'm not getting hosed on the $5.00 Jujubees, okay?

I'm just saying, I'd rather pay the extra quarter for the nice bucket than have to deal with the bag that dumps half of your corn on the floor when you squeeze it ever so slightly.

Some theatres do offer the "super bucket" in only the inhumanly large size. Usually they'll offer a free refill on it, too, to make it seem like a better deal, but who's going to eat their body weight in pop corn (and salt) and then get up in the middle of the movie to get a refill?

-- Jough

tsohg

Yeah they do give or take about 1.50- 2.00

Not always true for really "big" movies we would have to pay a higher premium for the "privilage" to carry "their" bags this is not always the case but for some movies like ID4, and Mission Impossible the price of those bags were about $.75 higher than our normal company bags.

Hey, I never said you wasn't getting hosed but when in consumer market are you not paying more than what stuff "really" cost?

Me too but nobody in the theater business listens to the consumers. The amount of backlash we got over the switch was ugly but the powers that be didn't care.


Cause we can get those almost cheaper than the bags because they don't sell in large quantities when the place I worked for did do that we'de only sale less than 1000 during the whole summer (April-Sept.) and that depends on the number of "Blockbusters" there were for that particular summer.

JaxComet

So you're one of those dudes crunching popcorn and rattling candy bags when I'm trying to hear the movie!

jough

I never buy candy at a movie, but I will go to a crappy movie just for the popcorn at times.

-- Jough

Darkfriend

JaxComet, I'm a popcorn purist. I stay away from candy, nachos and pizza. One of my friends once added M&Ms in his popcorn full of butter and "powdered stuff"; he promptly puked half an hour later (but let's give him points for experimenting!).

And I chew my popcorn with my mouth closed

fumanstan

Those giant buckets rule. Me and a group of friends went to... i think it was American Pie 2 on release day and were waiting in line for maybe 30 minutes or so to get into the theater (waiting inside outside the doors). About 5 of us. We bought the extra large one... safe to say most of us were sick of it by the time it was halfway through. However one of my friends finished the rest of it, got it refilled, and by the end of the flick had finished the refill pretty much by himself. This from a guy who has also eaten 'a whole freakin chicken' and half a peking duck

fumanstan

I also bet my girlfriend that she couldn't finish it after my previous experience... won 10 bucks.

Hokeyboy

I'm suddenly having Fast Food Nation flashbacks. There's hardly anything "real" in the food you get from a concession stand, fast food joint, convenience store, supermarket, etc..