Why Do Snacks Cost So Much in Movie Theaters?

One reason snacks cost so much in movie theaters is exclusivity. If a customer gets hungry or thirsty in an average movie theater, he or she has only one option. It's not as if a hungry theater patron can pause the movie at some point and order a meal from a nearby restaurant. The theater's concession stand is generally the only sanctioned source for food and drink, so the theater's manager can legally place a substantial surcharge on sales. This is the same reason why snacks can also be more expensive at convenience stores or airports. The venue literally has a captive audience, and cheaper outside food can be confiscated without penalty.

Another reason snacks cost so much in movie theaters is the surprisingly low profit margin of an average theater. There are a substantial number of overhead costs associated with running a movie theater, including the salaries of the projectionists, concession workers, ticket sellers, ushers, managers and maintenance crews. Managers must also negotiate with distributors for the exclusive right to show popular titles. It is not unusual for a local movie theater to barely break even or even lose money on the movies themselves. They can offset many of these losses by increasing the prices of snack foods and drinks.

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Most movie theaters don't make much revenue off of ticket sales because the theater has to rent the film and pay dues to the studios that make the films. This means that the theaters make most of their money based off of sales at concessions.

The cost of renting the actual reel of film is very costly. Hence, why you have that really shitty theatre in town that shows older movies that were released a month or so prior. The cost of concessions is hiked up so that the theatre can make some kind of profit as ticket sales barely even cover "the nut" cost of renting huge & new Blockbuster titles.

As a former theatre owner, I am fond of saying that when a film makes money, the studios make the profit. When a film loses money, the theatres take the losses. I dare say no theatre makes any money on the films when you average every film they play. It is all concessions, concessions, concessions. Did you ever wonder why once you buy a ticket and enter a multiplex the theatre really doesn't care what film you watch, or how many movies you sit through wandering from auditorium to auditorium? Try it sometime. The longer you stay, the more you eat and drink generally. When I owned a theatre 30 years ago, the distributors had either flat rate percentages or what they called 90-10 deals. In our case is was 90-10-1500. The deal was each week of the run they would take 90% after the first $1500 house nut or weekly overhead. But there was always another percentage of 70% or 60%. Whichever was greater was what they took. So if the film never earned the $1500 nut, they would take 70% of whatever it did gross. Hence my line of when a film makes money, the studios make the profit. When a film loses money, the theatres take the losses.

My answer? Snack prices in movie theaters are so high because corporate America sucks! They just want your money!

I know why they cost so much and their high prices are why I never buy anything, I spend $7.25 for my ticket and that is it. Generally I eat before I go to the movies, I just rather not be eating while at the theater.