Yeah, I guess I should. I just can’t quite understand how anyone could fail to realize how absurd it is for a movie theater to use its most prominent advertising space not for promoting its movie lineup, but for food offerings.
To me, this strongly suggests that this movie theater—which is part of a large chain—now sees its main product as food rather than movies.
I have absolutely no sympathy for that, and I can only applaud it when a company like that loses customers because of its own idiocy.
Movie theaters main products has always been food.
Movie theaters have never made money off the movies they show, they make their money off the food they sell. It has been that way for at least 50 years.
That may be so, but the popcorn with chemical “pee” has never been what pulls in customers. The movies were always the draw, even if food was the profit. Advertising that food seems short-sighted: who cares if you sell popcorn to a higher percentage of customers but you’re pulling in fewer customers
Not really “never”, but the standard movie deals have long called for the studios to get a 90% cut of the box for the first two weeks a movie runs, then it switches to a 50/50 split the rest of the way. Nobody seems to have noticed that this arrangement incentivizes movie studios to produce overhyped pieces of shit so that no good movie with serious staying power cannibalizes their own revenue stream. Just a total coincidence that most movies now are overhyped pieces of shit.
You’re right, but to the suits: what makes the profit is the drinks and the popcorn. Selling popcorn to a higher percentage of customers will make them more money, even if they sell less tickets, because the tickets don’t make money. Hell, sell less tickets with a higher proportion of popcorn sales and you can probably schedule less people/save on labor.
Who just walks past the movies and spontaneously decides to see a movie because they saw a poster for it at the movies?
I would wager pretty much no one. People plan to go to the movies to see a specific movie already. Advertising food and drinks is going to be more beneficial.
Well, I rarely plan to go to the movies—only on rare occasions, when I know a new movie I want to see is coming out.
I used to walk past the movie theater a lot, though, and see the posters and that’s how I found out about movies I didn’t know anything about or maybe knew of them but forgot. So it happened at least on occasion that I’d call some friends to go see the movie I’d just discovered by walking by the theater - on the weekend or something, not right away, of course.
I never really cared about the food options. Of course, I’d still buy popcorn and stuff, but a discount on it—after which the popcorn is still outrageously expensive—was just as little a motivation for me to go to the movies as any fancy seats or whatever. That’s all well and good, but it’s never been a reason for me to go to the movies. I went because of the movies—which I’d now have to research on my own, something I don’t do.
So: It may well be that I’m the exception. But in any case, I haven’t been to the movies since they replaced the posters with food ads. As I said, that’s simply because I don’t actively look up the lineup and therefore don’t realize that there might be a movie playing that would interest me—I certainly don’t care at all about the current popcorn prices, though.
I find it hard to believe that someone can be on Lemmy and not have any clue about what movies are currently out, coming out, or finds it too hard to type “what movies are on at the cinema” into DuckDuckGo or whatever the search engine of choice is on Linux these days.
I usually goto the theater for a specific show, usually buy the ticket online ….
BUT, there are times, such as when I didn’t get a ticket ahead of time and my show is sold out, where I’m in front of the theater deciding whether to go in. It I see an interesting looking movie, I might see that. If the food advertising worked, it would have the opposite of the intended effect “why don’t we goto a restaurant instead ?”
Food probably actually is their main products granted it’s been a very long time since I worked in a movie theatre but when I did they told us that of $14 or so of ticket price they only mate about 50c and that candy bar sales were actually their real business.
Yes, that’s true, of course, but you’re not going to sell much if you don’t promote the lineup that actually draws in the customers, would you?
I mean, before, all you had to do was walk past the movie theater to find out what was playing. Like many others, I walk past it very often, and I’ve often spotted a movie that interested me and then come back a few days later to watch it.
Now I have to actively check their website to find out what movies are currently playing, which I don’t do very often.
The theater operators must be fully aware of this—as well as of the fact that the food options they’re now exclusively promoting are so expensive that they’re more likely to deter potential visitors than attract them.
It’s as if an attractive tourist destination were to advertise overpriced tourist-trap restaurants instead of the sights that make the destination appealing in the first place—and that would at least make the inflated prices somewhat understandable.
That should be obvious to any marketer or, for that matter, the management in charge. Customers, of course, aren’t interested in which products yield the highest profit margin for the company, but rather in what they get for their money—after all, no one goes to the movies for the popcorn, but for the films themselves. I’d say anyone who doesn’t understand that is completely out of place in this business. The experience has to be the movie; everything else is just an afterthought.
DandomRude@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I guess I should. I just can’t quite understand how anyone could fail to realize how absurd it is for a movie theater to use its most prominent advertising space not for promoting its movie lineup, but for food offerings.
To me, this strongly suggests that this movie theater—which is part of a large chain—now sees its main product as food rather than movies.
I have absolutely no sympathy for that, and I can only applaud it when a company like that loses customers because of its own idiocy.
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Movie theaters main products has always been food.
Movie theaters have never made money off the movies they show, they make their money off the food they sell. It has been that way for at least 50 years.
AA5B@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That may be so, but the popcorn with chemical “pee” has never been what pulls in customers. The movies were always the draw, even if food was the profit. Advertising that food seems short-sighted: who cares if you sell popcorn to a higher percentage of customers but you’re pulling in fewer customers
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not really “never”, but the standard movie deals have long called for the studios to get a 90% cut of the box for the first two weeks a movie runs, then it switches to a 50/50 split the rest of the way. Nobody seems to have noticed that this arrangement incentivizes movie studios to produce overhyped pieces of shit so that no good movie with serious staying power cannibalizes their own revenue stream. Just a total coincidence that most movies now are overhyped pieces of shit.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’re right, but to the suits: what makes the profit is the drinks and the popcorn. Selling popcorn to a higher percentage of customers will make them more money, even if they sell less tickets, because the tickets don’t make money. Hell, sell less tickets with a higher proportion of popcorn sales and you can probably schedule less people/save on labor.
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Don’t argue with me man, argue with the chain. They clearly agree with my position.
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Who just walks past the movies and spontaneously decides to see a movie because they saw a poster for it at the movies?
I would wager pretty much no one. People plan to go to the movies to see a specific movie already. Advertising food and drinks is going to be more beneficial.
DandomRude@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well, I rarely plan to go to the movies—only on rare occasions, when I know a new movie I want to see is coming out.
I used to walk past the movie theater a lot, though, and see the posters and that’s how I found out about movies I didn’t know anything about or maybe knew of them but forgot. So it happened at least on occasion that I’d call some friends to go see the movie I’d just discovered by walking by the theater - on the weekend or something, not right away, of course.
I never really cared about the food options. Of course, I’d still buy popcorn and stuff, but a discount on it—after which the popcorn is still outrageously expensive—was just as little a motivation for me to go to the movies as any fancy seats or whatever. That’s all well and good, but it’s never been a reason for me to go to the movies. I went because of the movies—which I’d now have to research on my own, something I don’t do.
So: It may well be that I’m the exception. But in any case, I haven’t been to the movies since they replaced the posters with food ads. As I said, that’s simply because I don’t actively look up the lineup and therefore don’t realize that there might be a movie playing that would interest me—I certainly don’t care at all about the current popcorn prices, though.
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I find it hard to believe that someone can be on Lemmy and not have any clue about what movies are currently out, coming out, or finds it too hard to type “what movies are on at the cinema” into DuckDuckGo or whatever the search engine of choice is on Linux these days.
AA5B@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I usually goto the theater for a specific show, usually buy the ticket online ….
BUT, there are times, such as when I didn’t get a ticket ahead of time and my show is sold out, where I’m in front of the theater deciding whether to go in. It I see an interesting looking movie, I might see that. If the food advertising worked, it would have the opposite of the intended effect “why don’t we goto a restaurant instead ?”
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How do you know your show is sold out?
Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Food probably actually is their main products granted it’s been a very long time since I worked in a movie theatre but when I did they told us that of $14 or so of ticket price they only mate about 50c and that candy bar sales were actually their real business.
DandomRude@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, that’s true, of course, but you’re not going to sell much if you don’t promote the lineup that actually draws in the customers, would you?
I mean, before, all you had to do was walk past the movie theater to find out what was playing. Like many others, I walk past it very often, and I’ve often spotted a movie that interested me and then come back a few days later to watch it.
Now I have to actively check their website to find out what movies are currently playing, which I don’t do very often.
The theater operators must be fully aware of this—as well as of the fact that the food options they’re now exclusively promoting are so expensive that they’re more likely to deter potential visitors than attract them.
It’s as if an attractive tourist destination were to advertise overpriced tourist-trap restaurants instead of the sights that make the destination appealing in the first place—and that would at least make the inflated prices somewhat understandable.
That should be obvious to any marketer or, for that matter, the management in charge. Customers, of course, aren’t interested in which products yield the highest profit margin for the company, but rather in what they get for their money—after all, no one goes to the movies for the popcorn, but for the films themselves. I’d say anyone who doesn’t understand that is completely out of place in this business. The experience has to be the movie; everything else is just an afterthought.