Hypothetical scenario. You go to the movies and buy popcorn and drink.

[Locut0s]

I say hypothetical cause I'm guessing most here would skip the trip to the concession stand. Let's just say you want to this time.

How much do you expect to pay? I want to see if the prices in the US are similar to here in Canada.

Here a typical ticket for a single adult seems to be about $12- $15. And getting popcorn and a drink will set you back another $10 to $15 on average I'd say. So you are looking at up to almost $30 for one person with food and drink. Is the US about the same?

[MrScorpio]

1. It all depends on if I'm alone or not

Or whether I'm hungry or thirsty. I usually like to eat before a movie

[Rhythm]

2. That's about the same as here...

I took the kids (adolescent age, so no discount) to see the first installment of "The Hobbit" earlier this year, and it was about $70 for tickets/pop/popcorn for the 3 of us...

[Locut0s]

5. Indeed sounds about the same...

The markup on the concession stand stuff is nuts. But popcorn has always been part of the experience for me

[marzipanni]

3. Matinees, and Tuesday discount days

Matinees are cheaper! $8.50 and since DH and I are 60+ we get the senior rate, $8.00 even for the later shows. woo-hoo!
Adult tickets, non-matinee, are $11.00.

Sometimes I get the kid's snack tray- a little cardboard tray which includes a small drink, a decent serving of popcorn, and a candy of some sort for~$4.50.

When my son and his friend have gone with me they get a bucket of popcorn to share and two medium drinks for around $13.00.

[Locut0s]

4. Yeah sounds like prices are similar then...

Hard to imagine what the markup must be on a bucket of popcorn and 2 drinks. I mean for the theatre the cost of the popcorn and soda has to be a dollar or less I'd imagine. Turning around and selling it for $13 or more, lol. And yet I still pay for it haha.

[Chan790]

11. Markups.

A one gallon container of popcorn is approximately a half-cup of kernels. (cost: about $0.20)
Fake butter...mostly oleoresins of palm oil. (Vegan fake butter is cheaper and "butterier" than the real thing.) Assume 1/4 cup (cost: about $0.30)
Quart of Coca-Cola...(cost: exactly $0.25)

Factor in labor and electricity and permitting--your $1 is approximately accurate.

Note though that microwave popcorn is barely more cost efficient than movie popcorn. For home use, buy an air-popper (<$15) and a bag of kernels. The air-popper will pay for itself in under 1/3 bag of kernels in savings over the cost of microwave popcorn...a box of microwave-popcorn costs $3 and contains 2-4 bags of popcorn. (on average it takes 2 boxes to equal the movie bucket) A 1# bag of kernels costs $3.25 and contains ~22 servings.

[pinboy3niner]

6. Look up your theater's online site and navigate to their specials

That should show you their ticket discounts (i.e. discount days, family days, senior and military discounts, etc.) and other ticket and concession promotions.

Cinemark sends me a concession coupon every week. I signed up at the local theater's website to receive coupons by email.

The offers vary, but the most common ones are for either a free small popcorn with purchase of a drink or a free drink with popcorn. They can also be upgraded to larger sizes by paying the price difference. The coupons are redeemable either on smartphone or by printing them.

Cinemark's 'Values' tab is an example of offers you may find at your theater's website: http://www.cinemark.com/values-discounts.aspx

[Tobin S.]

7. The last time I went to a movie theater

I went to a matinee show with my wife and my niece who is a child. We dropped about $50 in there on tickets and snacks.

[Callalily]

8. We have $5.00 Tuesdays

at the "big" movie theatre - current run movies. At the budget theatre (older runs) on a regular night the fee is $3.00 and on Tuesdays $1.75.

Popcorn is extremely expensive at both places, but sometimes one just has to "cough up the dough".

[Hangingon]

12. We have, $5 Tuesdays too.

Popcorn is free - bring your own bowl.

Spelling

[Callalily]

17. FREE popcorn!

Amazing - and what a grand idea!

[Iggo]

9. That sounds about right.

Suburbs of SoCal, southeast of Los Angeles, right up next to Orange County.

Ticket 12 bucks, med root beer and a small un buttered popcorn about 9 bucks.

(However, I buy my tickets in discount packages from AAA, and those are only 8 bucks apiece.)

[OriginalGeek]

10. Just went to Hobbitses yesterday

In looking for a show-time that worked for us I noticed that the theater we went to was only 7 bucks a ticket but one about 5 miles away was trying to get $11.50 for nearly the same time. We used to go to the more expensive theater all the time until the cheaper theater refurbished completely - new screens, new leather (pleather maybe? not cloth.) reclining seats and new nachos but didn't raise their ticket prices much. The refurb theater is consistently 3~5 bucks cheaper at all show-times than most of the other theaters around and just as nice (if not nicer).

My wife went and got a medium popcorn and a large drink and I think that was some deal for under 10 bucks. I'll update if I find out different.

[Globulus]

13. We have a second-run theater that charges $2.50 per ticket. Popcorn is $4 for a tub with refills.

They don't charge extra for the fake butter squirts.

So for $19 six of us can watch a movie with more popcorn than we can eat, roughly four microwave popcorn bags. We take in brown paper lunch bags to split it up and sneak in drinks in our jackets. It is never crowded so you can always get seats together and pull out a flask of whiskey without drawing attention. I like that place.

[Stuart G]

14. Why??? So Much????

Ans..A huge amount of the ticket goes to the distributor and the film makers..The movie theaters get a very small percentage of the
ticket. So they usually charge a whole lot for the extras to make profit... ................one more interesting fact

Even with the above..60 percent of movies lose money..some lose a whole lot of money. 20 percent come out even, and only 20 percent make a profit. WHY?? Production costs are enormous. Especially with all the special effects and so on. Some dramas are much less expensive, but do they make money? Many films brake even only with sales and rentals on the net and at stores. The economics of the movie business suck....but..say 50 bucks for a family of four at a matinee. Let's try that same family at a major league baseball game?
WELL>>>>>>>>>>maybe 2 or 300 dollars. Haven't been to a pro football game in 50 years..Haven't got a clue on that..Just trying to tell the truth and put things in perspective.....(oh, going to most parks is free..) but one beach in Evanston Illinois charges 5 bucks on a nice summer day for all........

[Packerowner740]

15. Ticket prices here at Cinemark are $9.25 or $6.25 for matinee but I save $3 for senior

A large drink and popcorn combo is $10.50 but I bought a refillable large cup at the beginning of the year and refill it for $3. I also use their cinemode on my smartphone and usually get a free drink or small popcorn for the next movie.

Another way to save money is to look for free sneak previews. Sign up at advanced screenings.com and you can get free tickets for upcoming movies before the general release.

[RebelOne]

16. I don't go to movies. I wait for the DVD to come out.

And then I make my own popcorn, and I can get as much extra butter as I want. It is much cheaper.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Same here.

Don't think they serve wine at the movies either.

[a la izquierda]

20. Some of the very nice theatres in the States do.

And I've been to a few in Mexico that serve beer and have waiters.

[a la izquierda]

19. I went and saw Anchorman the other day...

It was terrible, btw. I went to a matinee. It was $5.50. I do not eat popcorn (I puked after eating movie theatre popcorn a few years back).
Movies are thus generally cheap if I go to the Cinemark for a matinee.