BrainStuff Classics: Why Do Movie Theaters Sell Popcorn?

For millions of moviegoers, memories visiting the local theater automatically conjures the smell of popcorn. But this wasn’t always the case – so why, out of all snacks, did popcorn become #1 for film? Learn the history in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi brain Stuff.
I'm Lauren Vocabam and today's episode is a brain Stuff
classic presented by our earthWhile host Christian Sagar the question
of the day, why do movie theaters sell popcorn? Hey,

(00:22):
brain Stuff? It's Christian Sagar. When you see a movie
in the theaters, you expect certain things like a heck
of a good time, some amazing sound, and a story
played out on a gigantic screen. You also probably think
about popcorn. But that's weird, right, How of all the
snacks on Earth did popcorn become the mainstay of movie theaters. Well,

(00:45):
it starts with a bit of history. See, popcorn had
been around for ages, and it was a popular snack
at nineteenth century fairs and carnivals, especially after the invention
of the first steam powered popcorn pop or back in
eighty five. People love the crunchy, salty, inexpensive snack, and

(01:07):
movie theaters hated it. During the era of silent film,
these companies followed many of the same rules as traditional theaters,
and they did not want to be associated with a
loud food that could distract from the show. Additionally, there
was a little bit of a class consideration here, Since
audiences had to read the dialogue on the screen, they
had to be literate a k a. A better sort

(01:30):
of people with superior education. Allowing popcorn inside was, in
the opinion of these theater owners, kind of like throwing
sawdust on the floor and just saying, sure, just spit
wherever you want. Talkies or films with spoken dialogue emerged
in ninete and this brought movie theaters to the common folk.

(01:51):
Suddenly anyone could cough up some change, grab a seat,
and understand what was going on. This was also the
time of the Great Depression, when Americans from coast coast
pined for cheap, escapist entertainment. So the average Americans finally
found the cinema, and they brought their snack culture along,
and the depression affected theaters as well. Theaters with the

(02:12):
best chances of surviving were the ones that gave customers
what they wanted. If they wanted to eat popcorn while
watching a film, well so be it. At first, independent
vendors sold popcorn outside the theater, profiting from the casual
passers by as well as future movie patrons. Since corn
kernels were dirt, cheap, popcorn became even more popular, and

(02:37):
things escalated. Movie theaters allowed vendors to sell popcorn in
the lobby for a small fee. Eventually they cut out
the vendors entirely acquiring their own poppers. During World War Two,
popcorn sales saw another bump. Sugar was rationed, which made
many conventional sweet snacks and drinks more expensive, at least

(02:57):
that is when they were available at all. Popcorn, of course,
only required salt and popcorn kernels, neither of which were
hard to come by. But by then the association between
movies and popcorn was firmly established in the mind of
the American public. This association continues today. But there's another
wrinkle to the story. And you might be saying Christian, Okay,

(03:19):
popcorn was cheap in the depression or whatever, But what
happened when did it become so expensive? Good question. The
price hike really kicked in on all concessions back in
the nineties seventies. See contrary to popular belief, your local
movie theater doesn't actually make that much bank off the
films it screens. Instead, theaters use concessions to stay in business.

(03:43):
According to the Stanford Business School, concessions comprise only about
of a theater's gross revenue, but of its profits. This
makes sense when we consider how theaters must split ticket
revenue with distributors, but can pocket of whatever they managed
to sell at the snack counter. The bulk cost of

(04:04):
the ingredients is laughably small, and the profit margin is huge,
and don't forget, the stuff is still addictively delicious. Today's
episode was written by Ben Bolan and produced by Tyler Clang.
If you enjoy our show and want to support us
directly check out our online store at public dot com

(04:26):
slash brainstuff, and of course, for more on this and
lots of other popping topics, visit our home planet, how
stuff works dot com