Never mind the credit crunch, have you seen the price of popcorn?

 

I came across a receipt the other day from a trip the cinema. It was HUGE. But it wasn’t for tickets (although in most places, especially central London that receipt would be HUGE too). No, it was for popcorn and a drink. OK, it was a large popcorn (salt, only ever salt) and a medium drink. How much did that come to? £7.10, that’s what. The popcorn was £4.20. That’s not far off an hour’s minimum wage. And for something that, let’s face it, is mostly air.

So it got me thinking about whether cinemas really depend on huge margins from these sales (in the way we are always being told that restaurants make their money from wine) or are they just being greedy? More on that later.

In my research, I came across the news that Wearside MP Sharon Hodgson is to table a motion in the House of Commons after she condemned the "extortionate" prices charged by cinemas. The local paper went along to find out just how much and found that a family of four in Tyneside faces a £22 bill for sweets, drinks and popcorn at their local Boldon Cinema – and that is before the price of a ticket.

A medium coke will set film fans back £2.27, compared with 55p in many vending machines. It costs £3.70 for a bag of popcorn and £2.60 for a bag of sweets. So if a family of four has a coke each, shares two bags of popcorn and two packets of sweets then they face adding £22.40 to the £17 ticket charge. In total, a night out at the flicks can cost up to £40.

Ms Hodgson, MP for Washington West and Gateshead East, has also condemned cinemas which remove customers for attempting to eat sweets and drinks bought outside.And this is where the story gets even more interesting. Her criticism comes after postman Adam Glennon was approached by a security guard at a cinema in Stockport.

Extract from the Daily Mail: Preparing for a visit to the movies, Adam Glennon sensibly decided to stock up with his own supply of snacks rather than pay exorbitant cinema prices. But after buying a ticket to watch the sci-fi thriller Cloverfield, Mr Glennon was approached in the foyer by a security guard demanding to know what was in his plastic bag. When he searched it and found sweets, drinks and cola inside, the guard ordered Mr Glennon to hand over the bag and its contents. He refused and was then told he would not be allowed in to see the film with food bought elsewhere. So he had to leave.

Outraged at his treatment at Cineworld in Stockport, Mr Glennon, a 26-year-old postman, held a one-man protest outside the cinema, giving away free sweets and his own price-comparison leaflets.

Mr Glennon bought his snacks from a discount store near the cinema with his friend Darren Hadfield. He paid £5 to get eight packs of M&Ms, a multi-pack of crisps, a mixture of sweets and two bottles of cherry cola. If he had bought them at the cinema, two tubes of Pringles alone would have set him back £4.80 and he’d have paid £6.10 for two large drinks. Cineworld sells large packs of M&Ms – at £2.60 a pack.

Cineworld said it searches bags in case recording equipment is being smuggled in and, if food is discovered, will enforce its no-food policy. Spokesman Luke Roberts squeaks: "Cineworld terms and conditions outline that all food consumed on the premises must be purchased at one of our concessions, which is in line with most cinema chain policies. We do offer a full refund if a customer chooses to leave."

Oh dear. I’m available for media training, Cineworld. Just call.

Battling MP Sharon Hodgson has dismissed claims from cinema chiefs that reducing the price of confectionery and drinks would increase ticket prices and has urged the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the cost of cinema confectionery.

In February this year Her Majesty’s Sun researched the rip-off costs of ‘Popcon’ (love it) and found that cinema-goers must pay almost three times the normal high street price for sweets and drinks. It discovered that certain parts of the country face costs of almost twice those in Sharon Hodgson’s constituency.

• Popcorn (around £1.15 from a newsagent) costs anything from £1.50 in Gateshead, £2 in Brighton, £3 in Stockport and £3.95 in Leeds.
• Cola (60p in a shop) costs £1.20 in Gateshead, £1.75 in Brighton, £2.40 in Stockport and a shameless £2.95 in Leeds.
• Water (60p a bottle) costs £1.20 in Gateshead, £1.50 in Brighton, £1.90 in Stockport and, gulp, £2.50 in Leeds. It’s a cinema boys, not a rave.
• Ice cream (£1 in shop) is cheapest in Gateshead at £1.40, £1.95 in Leeds, £2.20 in Brighton and £2.60 in Stockport.
• And finally, a big bag of M&Ms (99p) costs £1.50 in good old Gateshead, £250 in Brighton and Leeds and £2.60 in Stockport.

The Sun has added its voice to call for the OFT to investigate these extortionate prices. But they are not the only ones seeing red over this.

Last summer, consumer campaigners at Which? researched the quality of food and drinks at cinemas. It found that the quality of food and drinks sold at cinemas scored the lowest satisfaction rating of any aspect of the movie-going experience, with just 7% of respondents saying they were "very satisfied" with it. Which? inspectors found food that was "packed with salt, fat and sugar" and "incredibly expensive". The study also found that customers were not happy with other aspects of cinemas, including picture and sound quality, comfort and condition of the auditorium, some "awash with popcorn and so sticky with spilled drink that our shoes stuck to the floor." 

In 2003 Stelios Haji-Ioannou declared a war on rip-off cinema prices, opening the first easyCinema in Milton Keynes. Following his company’s philosophy of high volume and low margins in ventures such as easyJet, the idea was that, by booking in advance on the internet, customers could pay as little as 20p per ticket according to how full the cinema was. This has since increased to 50p for some films and £4.50 for evening first-runs. But it’s a world away from other cinemas. Initially there was no popcorn on sale but this is now available and like drinks, costs £1.

Meanwhile, smaller, independent cinemas have gone the other way, offering tickets which include sofas and access to a full bar and snacks. Some Odeon cinema’s have a Gallery for over-18s with unlimited free soft drinks, tea and coffee, popcorn and nachos (personally I love cinema nachos – how can something so synthetic taste so good?).

Just to round off, there is some research from the esteemed Stanford and the University of California, Santa Cruz suggests by charging high prices on popcorn, cinemas are able to keep ticket prices lower. The study found that around 40% of a cinema’s profits come from food and drink because box office takings are shared with film companies.

"Popcorn, for example, because of the immense amount of popped bulk produced from a relatively small amount of kernels – the ratio is as high as 60:1 – yields more than 90 cents of profit on every dollar of popcorn sold. It also serves to make customers thirsty for sodas, another high-margin product. One theater chain executive went so far as to describe the cup holder mounted on each seat, which allows customers to park their soda while returning to the concession stand for more popcorn, as “the most important technological innovation since sound.”

I have a call out to the OFT to find out whether they are taking action on this.

In the meantime, there are cheaper ways to have during the credit crunch. Some of them even involve keeping your clothes on.

Have your say and leave a comment by clicking on the link below. What is the most you have paid for popcorn? Can you beat the £4.20 it cost me recently?

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