- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- Twilight, Inc., A Worldwide Craze
- Oprah to Leave Syndication in 2011
- Sony's E-Reader Shortage and the Digital Book Battle
- Salesforce.com Brings Facebook and Twitter's Social Capabilities to Businesses
- Sumner Redstone's Companies Face Off Yet Again
More Videos
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- Twilight, Inc., A Worldwide Craze
- Oprah to Leave Syndication in 2011
- Sony's E-Reader Shortage and the Digital Book Battle
- Salesforce.com Brings Facebook and Twitter's Social Capabilities to Businesses
- Sumner Redstone's Companies Face Off Yet Again
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Should Homeowners Be Able To Walk Away From Mortgage?
- Dubai World Set to Restructure About $26 Billion of Total Debt
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- Black Friday Sales Disappoint Investors; Amazon Up
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Oil Demand Sees Year-Over-Year Rise, First Since 2007
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis After 5 Seasons
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- We're Approaching a Market Bubble: Portfolio Manager
- Hershey Shares: What Options Are Saying
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- Dubai World to Restructure About $26 Billion of Debt
- Cramer: Dubai Can’t Sink These 6 Dividend Stocks
- Bove: 26 Banks May Need To Raise More Capital
- Lesson From Dubai: Start Cutting Risk In Your Portfolio
- Iranian Seizure of British Yacht Pushes Oil Above $77
- Should Homeowners Be Able to Stop Paying Mortgage?
- Buffett's Predictions For Next Year—And Every Year
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
Media Money
Text Size 
 |
iStock |
I'm talking popcorn, the greasy, over-priced, often-stale junk theaters make a fortune on. I personally don't believe in paying such a premium for the stuff that doesn't even taste that good, but my husband is a movie theater popcorn addict.
Big news: according to new economic analysis movies would be a LOT more expensive without those overpriced tubs of popcorn. In fact, the high price of popcorn (and other snacks) helps keep ticket prices down, allowing more people to attend.
UC Santa Cruz economis Ricard Gil explains that if a movie theater owner aims to be profitable purely based on ticket prices, he or she will deter a lot of moviegoers and sell a lot fewer tickets. Spread the revenue model to include concessions and boom ticket prices go lower and you sell a lot more concessions.
This isn't rocket science, but maybe it'll make you feel better when you pay a small fortune for some popcorn and a soda--you're subsidizing your own ticket. Gil says if movie popcorn were free (it's so cheap to produce, they could give it away for next to nothing)) your ticket would cost at least 25 percent more.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes