View Poll Results: Do you eat at the theater?
Yes, I always stop at the concession stand
24
32.88%
Yes, I go to theaters that serve meals
4
5.48%
Yes, I sneak in food
20
27.40%
No, never
19
26.03%
Only a drink
6
8.22%
Voters: 73. You may not vote on this poll
Do you eat at theater?
01-14-13, 11:52 AM
#101
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Do you eat at theater?
Occasionally popcorn, or candy I brought in, but never real food. Just too inconvenient and messy to try to eat a meal in a dark theater. But I'm not really a spur of the moment moviegoer, either... we plan it 2-3 hours ahead of time and can take care of eating or whatever before we go.
01-14-13, 01:04 PM
#102
DVD Talk Gold Edition
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Re: Do you eat at theater?
I think the percentage of people who sneak food in among an average audience is pretty small. Most people buy their crap at the concession stand. I would buy at the concession stand if they offered some decent food at reasonable prices (yogurt, bagel, fruit, coffee, baked goods, sandwiches, etc.). But most concession stands offer garbage at high prices and with long lines because the management is so poor at these places. You'd think that if a manager would pay enough to hire experienced food service personnel he'd easily make back the extra money he pays out with increased sales. (If you serve more customers more efficiently in the limited time before a movie starts, you'd make more money, right?)
But, if I go to a move in the suburbs, I am more likely to just buy a snack there as opposed to driving to a CVS before heading over. I imagine, theaters in isolated areas do not have nearly as much food snuck in.
01-14-13, 10:01 PM
#104
Moderator
Re: Do you eat at theater?
if it's a Regal - I try not to eat, since their concession pricing is ridiculously high IMO, but generally yes, I'll consume popcorn. If it's screening before noon and I'm at Tysons, I wont and just wait to go to Panda Express afterwards ... 
01-15-13, 02:09 AM
#105
DVD Talk Godfather
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Re: Do you eat at theater?
The concession stands at the theaters I go to always seem fairly busy, even with the high prices. It would certainly be curious how many more people would actually decide to buy food or drinks if everything was $2-3 cheaper and if it that was actually enough of a deterrent on people buying concessions. That and whatever cost it would be to higher more employees to handle any increase in concession lines. Obviously cheaper would be better for me, but since I also recall hearing how little theaters make on actual ticket sales as well, i'm not surprised. I don't see it much different from the higher costs people pay for a beer at a bar versus at home.
The current system seems to be good enough to keep some movie theaters in business.
On this point, while 90% of the time I go specifically knowing what I want, I can see why others might look and see if there's any specials going on, a new product that they might want to try, or maybe there's 3 or 4 people in the car that all have to decide and order. I think for a lot of people swinging through the drive thru might just be a quick impulse thing so they weren't even thinking about what they wanted. Calling it stupidity is unnecessarily harsh.
That said, I HATE the concessions menus at Regal chains that flip out the menu screens to show ads. That makes the ordering process a lot longer.
