I just now realized that the acronym for Passing On Popcorn would be, in fact, POP.  You’ve got to love secret irony.

Anyway, it’s a little bit obvious when you think about it, and it’s probably not much of a surprise to note that ticket sales for movies seem to be holding steady or going up slightly, but concession sales are down across the board.

Don’t suppose it has anything to do with the ridiculous prices and poor variety, does it?  Well, let’s see what the word is from Studio Briefing:

Ticket sales may not have been affected by the current economic downturn but concessions are likely to take a big hit, the Hollywood Reporter noted today (Tuesday), citing quarterly reports from Carmike Cinemas and Cinemark Holdings filed on Monday. Carmike said that in its most recent quarter concession revenue was down 8.3 percent while Cinemark said that it was down 4.7 percent in its U.S. operations. Each company forecast solid fourth quarter results, however. Cinemark CEO Alan Stock observed, “As we head into the fourth quarter, the domestic industry’s box office was up approximately 17 percent for the month of October, and we feel consumers will continue to seek affordable entertainment options during these challenging economic times.”

So you may be off to get a seat at a movie like, say, The Dark Knight, but chances are you’re not buying popcorn or jujubes or a soda with it.  And frankly, I can’t blame you.

Consumer confidence, as we’re all aware by now, is crashing through the floor and making companies–and their employees–everywhere downright uncomfortable.  People are not shelling out any more cash than they have to these days, and it’s cutting into sales of all the various goods and services out there.  Oh, sure, people are still going to the movies (we’re broke, not ANDROIDS, for crying out loud) but they’re thinking twice about that trip to the snack bar, the only place on earth where you can pay triple retail value (or more!) for a twenty ounce soda.

It’s not a surprise.  Given the choice of paying three bucks for a twenty-ounce soda (again, or more), going without, or ignoring posted signs about outside food and beverage and bringing in your own, chances are most moviegoers not on expense accounts or similar will choose to do one of the latter two.

As a personal aside on this, I remember once back in high school, I went to see a movie with my then-girlfriend.  It was a weird night, we couldn’t get out until late and we figured by the time we could manage to get dinner and get done with it we’d miss the first fifteen, twenty minutes of the movie we wanted to see.  This was in a time BEFORE huge blocks of commercials before a movie, mind you, so showtimes were showtimes, not times the commercials started.   It being winter at the time I proposed a thought that actually went over well–we would get Subway, and I would sneak the sandwiches into the movie with us in the inner pockets of my rather hefty outerwear.

So that night, we ate Subway while watching Enemy of the State.  It was AWESOME.

And yes, I AM a genius.

But anyway–it’s a lesson the theatres could stand to learn.  I understand you make next to nothing off the movie tickets themselves by the time you pay the studios’ egregious rental fees, but come on…three bucks for a Coke is just RIDICULOUS.  I can go back to Subway for what you’re charging for popcorn , and since the advent of the five dollar footlong, that’s no longer an exaggeration!

Either give people some better choices or watch your bottom line continue to shrink until consumer confidence picks back up in a couple years at the rate we’re going.  Your call.

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