Will COVID-19 end theatrical movies

[The Darknight Detective]

I thought the conversation is about the survival of theaters, which makes concessions is a major issues.

What does that make the movie itself then? A major-major issue?

[luprki]

What does that make the movie itself then? A major-major issue?

The movie attracts the audience, the theaters and studios splits the gross. Once the audience is in the theaters most of them will buy concessions at a high price.
It just like theme parks, the real profit is in the concessions, not the tickets.

Example: a person buys a ticket for $10, theaters get approximately 50%
He buys a hot dog and a small soda for $15, theaters keeps approximately 80%
Where do theaters makes most of its profit? Obviously, at the concession stand.
Everybody don’t buy concessions, which is why ticket sales bring in more revenue, but concessions bring in more profit.

[Kirby101]

The movie attracts the audience, the theaters and studios splits the gross. Once the audience is in the theaters most of them will buy concessions at a high price.
It just like theme parks, the real profit is in the concessions, not the tickets.

The data I found is that around 33% are very likely to buy from the concessions with another 25% somewhat likely.

My experience in theaters is it is far from most.

[thwhtGuardian]

The data I found is that around 33% are very likely to buy from the concessions with another 25% somewhat likely.

My experience in theaters is it is far from most.

Yeah, the idea that theaters make more in concessions, or even as much as they do in ticket sales is a pure myth.

Is there a mark up?

Absolutely.

Is it enough to keep the lights on?

No way.

[Gaastra]

I buy a drink when i go to the movies. Plus free refills.

For box office news--

Black widow american box office crossing the $100m mark after just 4 days!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...h=1cfb2fa07343

Marvel still brings people into the theatres.

[choptop]

https://screenrant.com/movie-box-off...iction-report/

[luprki]

The data I found is that around 33% are very likely to buy from the concessions with another 25% somewhat likely.

My experience in theaters is it is far from most.

Still 58% are likely to buy concessions. Which is the majority.

[luprki]

Yeah, the idea that theaters make more in concessions, or even as much as they do in ticket sales is a pure myth.

Is there a mark up?

Absolutely.

Is it enough to keep the lights on?

No way.

It’s not about revenue, it’s about profit.

[thwhtGuardian]

It’s not about revenue, it’s about profit.

...You really just don't "get" reality do you?

It really doesn't matter that they make a buttload more margin percentage on a tub of popcorn than they do on a movie ticket if the amount of money they ultimately pull in from the tickets is larger than the total dollars they get from popcorn. Sure, that higher margin is nice and it certainly behooves them to try and sell as much popcorn as they can as it does add to their profitability but ultimately it's such a small part of their total income that it really isn't going to make or break their business.

And that's not an opinion, it's just a flat fact. As they are large publicly traded companis the three largest theater chains—AMC, Regal and Cinemark— regularly have to disclose their profitability reports to their shar holders and the public...and as it turns out each of these theater chains earned about 70% of its total revenue from ticket sales, only about 25% from concessions, and the remainder from other sources (such as on-screen advertising, rental of the theaters to third parties, gift card fees and the arcade games you might see in the lobby).

So yeah, the whole popcorn keeps them in business thing is a myth.

[thwhtGuardian]

Still 58% are likely to buy concessions. Which is the majority.

...it isn't.

You're really bad at this whole understanding numbers thing.

It's a ranked choice system with each tier being a less likely option than the last.

[Kirby101]

Still 58% are likely to buy concessions. Which is the majority.

That's not the way the survey worked. The 34% said they were very likely. The 25% were somewhat likely,, as opposed to somewhat unlikely.. it does mean all somewhat likely or very likely will actually buy something

[luprki]

...You really just don't "get" reality do you?

It really doesn't matter that they make a buttload more margin percentage on a tub of popcorn than they do on a movie ticket if the amount of money they ultimately pull in from the tickets is larger than the total dollars they get from popcorn. Sure, that higher margin is nice and it certainly behooves them to try and sell as much popcorn as they can as it does add to their profitability but ultimately it's such a small part of their total income that it really isn't going to make or break their business.

And that's not an opinion, it's just a flat fact. As they are large publicly traded companis the three largest theater chains—AMC, Regal and Cinemark— regularly have to disclose their profitability reports to their shar holders and the public...and as it turns out each of these theater chains earned about 70% of its total revenue from ticket sales, only about 25% from concessions, and the remainder from other sources (such as on-screen advertising, rental of the theaters to third parties, gift card fees and the arcade games you might see in the lobby).

So yeah, the whole popcorn keeps them in business thing is a myth.

I think you don’t understand the difference between revenue and profit.
This is from an old Time Magazine article:
https://business.time.com/2009/12/07...ession-stands/
A CNNMoney story that looks into the business of movie theaters plainly reveals that, from the theater owner’s perspective, customers are not at the movies to be entertained. Instead, customers are there to eat (and buy, obviously) soda and junk food, at seriously marked-up prices to justify the money the theater paid to the movie studios and distributors for the right to show the film. Without the hefty concession profits, there would be no movie theater business, even though tickets don’t seem especially cheap and the movie business has done better than most in the recession.

That's not the way the survey worked. The 34% said they were very likely. The 25% were somewhat likely,, as opposed to somewhat unlikely.. it does mean all somewhat likely or very likely will actually buy something

That’s what I said. The sum is 58%

[luprki]

Here’s another old article from CNNMoney about how theater need concessions to stay open:
https://money.cnn.com/2002/03/08/smbusiness/q_movies/

This is not my opinion, it’s opinions from people who are actually in the movie theater business.

[thwhtGuardian]

I think you don’t understand the difference between revenue and profit.
This is from an old Time Magazine article:
https://business.time.com/2009/12/07...ession-stands/
A CNNMoney story that looks into the business of movie theaters plainly reveals that, from the theater owner’s perspective, customers are not at the movies to be entertained. Instead, customers are there to eat (and buy, obviously) soda and junk food, at seriously marked-up prices to justify the money the theater paid to the movie studios and distributors for the right to show the film. Without the hefty concession profits, there would be no movie theater business, even though tickets don’t seem especially cheap and the movie business has done better than most in the recession.




That’s what I said. The sum is 58%

The sum isn't 58%, like I said it's a tiered choice system with each choice being a smaller percentage. Very likely means they buy concessions 60% of the time and somewhat likely is at least 30% of the time...so 34% of people get food 60% of the time, which is roughly 20% of total tickets and then 25% of people buy food 30% of the time which is roughly 7.5 of the total population which together is 41.5% percent of people buy food...and that's just an informal survey so a grain of salt should be taken with that as the alternative to the question is to say that you're smuggling in food which is perceived as negative so how many of those people that answered yes did so because they didn't want to admit to sneaking in food?

And your article? It's based on the myth, not the fact presented by the actual earnings statements from AMC, Regal and Cinemark. You'll see lots of articles taking the myth at face value but that's nothing new...but you can't lie on your earnings reports and in those reports ticket sales are where 70% of their money comes from.

Like I said, they certainly make more profit per bucket of popcorn sold which is why it behooves them to push those items hard because pound for pound they make a higher percentage of profit for each unit sold...but when you sell more tickets than you do those more profitable food items it ultimately doesn't matter that they make more on those food items than tickets due to the economy of scale involved.

[luprki]

The bottom line is “very likely” and “somewhat likely” is still likely, there is no getting around this. No matter how you calculate it, more people buy concessions at the movies. But we really don’t need numbers to know this anyway, just walking into a multiplex and see with your own eyes.

The articles are not based on myth, the information is coming from industry insiders and theater owners. Again earnings is not profit.

Movie theaters are also retailers that need to sale their inventory to as many people as possible. The more people going to the movies the more people will buy popcorn, and vice versa.