If they had any nutritional value whatsoever, I would live on Whoppers (the candy not the burger). Are you telling me I'm the only one?

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Chris, I once again agree with you totally. I think for normal movie theaters (unlike Alamo Drafthouse), deals like these can help increase their concession sales. To be honest, I was always one of those people who snuck in food...even when I worked at a theater. However, these days I like to screw them on ticket sales by buying senior or child tickets online or through those kiosks and then make amends by buying from concessions. Cause lets be honest, theaters make squat from tickets. Fight the enemy! Buy senior tickets!

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See, there is still a problem here in the way movie theater marketing is attempting to attract moviegoers. We've all become accustom to regular offerings: a nice venue, nice padded chairs, clean / attractive lobby, "good" concessions, etc. These chains think that they can take an EXISTING service that they (and every theater) offers, and improve upon it by some mean, and that is what will improve the system (and movies). But that's not the case.

What really needs to be done is an addition, a new attraction, or, dare I say, something "radical." These guys need to say, ok, everyone has what they want. They can get candy, stale popcorn, at our ripoff prices whenever they want. That's there, and will always be there. But we need to add something ELSE that will in turn cause them to buy it without actually changing those items.

Think about website advertising. It's a good reference. Website publishers know that people who stop by for one visit from Digg.com or anywhere big, don't click ads. The people who click ads are those who respect the site and know it well, come back often, and want to help it out. And THAT is what the theaters need to do to improve their service. If they add soemthing else, some other marketing idea that goes above the normal, then people will go with MORE of the normal: more popcorn, more tickets, more attendance, and the goal, more money.

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I work at an AMC Theater in Illinois - one which was a Loews - where the Clip's Picks Deal was tested.

I'd say it was one of the biggest sellers at our consession stand. It was 3 for 5 dollars or two dollars each, I guess they figured they could make more money on it though.

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They should adopt the "Regalator" style re-usable plastic cup. I love that sucker. Granted, its about time Regal Cinemas makes a universal Regalator that is acceptable at all Regal, UA, and Edwards Cinema locations since they own all of them.

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The reason is the theatre themselves only get a small percentage of the total ticket sales, definitely not enough to pay every employee there. Only the food distribution counts for absolute income, so they come down on employee's hard to upsell. I know this because I've done my time in hell. I blame the theatre's themselves for not having much to make a person want to buy from their concessions.

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Funny timing - just last week I polled my readers about sneaking candy into movie theatres:
http://candyaddict.com/blog/2006/08/27/smuggling-candy-into-theatres-poll-results/

Highly relevant to this post :)
Brian

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I have no pity for theaters and rarely buy concessions at the theater. I rarely sneak anything in beyond the gum I always have in my jacket or pocket.
At Superman Returns, I knew it was a popcorn flick so I got a bucket of popcorn, it had about a buck or two worth of popcorn, it cost 5.75, smallest one they had. I paid less for my meal after the movie. It's a rip off plain and simple.
I pay for the movie, I get the movie. If they want me to come to there theater and get concessions give me fresh and reasonablely priced food.
Most time the theaters I do feel sympathy for are the local art house ones and a bucket of popcorn there is 3 or less.
If one first run mainstream theater worked on volume rather than on mark up and lowered there concessions people would buy more, come more often with a family that wants food at the theater, and they could make money.
Pity a theater chain, yeah right, what are you nuts?

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beer after 9 PM!!!

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There is a guy here in Wichita, KS, named Bill Warren, who owns several theaters in this city and Springfield, MO, and is expanding into Oklahoma City, right now. He started out taking tickets for one of the chains, and just completely fell in love with the movie theater business.
His formula was actually, pretty simple. He opened one theater complex, showing late first- and early second-run movies, only charging a couple or three bucks for primetime showings, I think matinees were a buck 50. There was nothing offered at the concession stand that would cost more than $2.50. The popcorn, while very rarely fresh out of the popper, wasn't very old (I worked at a GCC theater in high school, and dated the bags of popcorn that I popped. My manager had me open a bag that was 5 weeks old, how's that for stale?), and they did actually run out, at which time you would see Bill run back and start the machine himself, to pop fresh corn.
That single theater provided enough profit to open a second complex, more screeens, more movies, more concessions, still, nothing over $2.50, and more money. He bank-rolled the profits from those two complexes and opened a first-run complex, with 13 or so screens. The next complex had 21 screens, with a balcony in the main theater that had a wait staff, full menu and bar. Tickets for the balcony were $15, but the food/drinks were still reasonable. The next complex was opened as part of the renovation of our downtown area (the locals call it "Oldtown"), 5 screens, wait staff, full bar and restaurant, and a sports bar attached if you'd like to hang out before/after the movie. The one thing that is killing him with this last complex, is that now movie companies are forcing him to NOT let patrons be served food once the movie has started. THANK YOU GEORGE LUCAS. Bill had the perfect (at least, for me) combination of creature comforts, and I will continue to patronize his establishments. His hard work and foresight at converted that second complex into an 'art' house, means that I can go watch a limited-release movie, many times the same day it opens in LA or NY, that may never get to St. Louis, Denver, or Dallas (and this is a city with 300k people).
That's what these chains need to understand. I go to movies to get away from the world. Don't get me wrong, I have a great job, wonderful kids, and all that, but if I'm going to invest the time in a movie, I want to be entertained and catered to. I shouldn't have to sit through 10-15 minutes of commercials, not movie trailers, mind you, but COMMERCIALS, when I'm paying to be there. The arcade just inside the main entrance would be space better served for something else, and I really don't care to hear the kid 3 rows down tell his friends about the new ringtone he got on his cell phone in the middle of the movie. Oh, and stale popcorn and a 42oz Diet Pepsi for 8 bucks.

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