Prices of snacks at the cinema

[Moominfan]

Doesn't matter how often I go, I don't think I'll never not be shocked at the prices. My friend pointed out today if they charged a little less maybe more people would buy from them. Instead of being a cheapskate like me that brings their own snacks.

Earlier this year, 3 chain cinemas confirmed you do not have to purchase their snacks.

And our local chain cinema has a policy of only hot food and alcohol that is purchased on site may be eaten. Nothing about cold snacks except they reserve the right to refuse any other food. I suspect as long as it's not smelly, you'll be fine.

It's fab for me as a parent on a budget. If we go at the right times we get free cinema tickets and our snacks come from the supermarket deals next door. Can spend a tenner for a family of 6 to see a film.

The cinema are fine with you bringing your own cold snacks.

There was a Viz joke where someone wrote in and complained that the local cinema wouldn't take a £50 note for the snacks, and they had to use a £10 and two £20 notes instead ...

feelingverylazytoday

The funny thing is, even if you take that bit out of my comment, the point is unchanged.

But as far back as I remember, snacking has been a part of going to the cinema. A choc ice is still a snack!

@Smellslikebiscuits oh I see! Was definitely too good to be true! I often take my own drink nd snacks when I go to the baby showings, just because it's less stuff to juggle.

Vue do three items for £10.99 I don’t think that’s too extortionate. I do a combo of taking my own or treating myself there - the latter usually if it’s a longer film or one I’ve been particularly looking forward too. Nothing better than bedding down on the cinema 😃

But that’s £44 for a family of 4...

The Odeon have lowered the price of all their cinema tickets to a fiver.
Which is pretty cheap
I have a limitless card - 17.99 a month for all the films I want, and I typically go 2 or 3 times a week.
So they are making very little from cinema tickets and are hoping that people will buy more snacks because of the cheap tickets. Which is fair enough, because you have the choice.
Doesn't work on me though. in the 4 years I have had a limitless card I haven't bought snacks more than three or four times. And only then because I am with someone else who does
Yes the snacks are expensive, but the cinema is a much better experience than watching at home, and you don't have to buy. I swapped my TV for a cinema card and have never regretted it

If they don't make much from the ticket price, how come my local cinema charges £3.50 max and asks that ppl buy snacks from them to keep them open?

3.50pp for a premium seat is a bit different to 11.00pp or whatever odeon charge.

And I think the medium deal of 2 medium drinks and popcorns is about £13.

We prefer to go to our local independent cinema which charges £4.50 per person to see the film and has reasonably priced popcorn and drinks which I will happily buy to help their profits. We go quite often as it's a fairly cheap outing to do with the kids.

The Odeon charges a fortune for tickets so if we do go there ( which is very rarely ) we take our own drinks and snacks as the prices really are quite shocking.

Where I used to live my local cinemas were between 3 and 5 for a ticket (including Odeon and cineworld). If cinemas are only making 50p on tickets that are normally £8 those cinemas must be losing up to £5 a ticket.....

Another local cinema charged £3 for popcorn, £5 for a ticket, normal Tesco prices for chocolate/sweets etc, again if they can do it I doubt it's about 'so little overheads'

There is a tescos next to my local cinema so I will nip in there and buy a bag of popcorn and a few cans of gin and tonic first.

But that’s £44 for a family of 4

Not if you share. My friend and I got two drinks and a popcorn between is. And I certainly wouldn’t give my seven year old the three items to himself.

The Pound Shop is the Cinema's best friend!

It is as far as I'm concerned, though...the prices are ridiculous.
If I'm going to the pictures, i always make a wee detour via the Pound Shop.

Smuggling your own food and drink into the cinema and then smugly declaring it's the cinemas fault for charging more than you want to pay is a bit....i don't know, its not exactly dishonest (depending on the cinemas policy on outside food and drink) but it is a bit like putting a bottle of wine in your bag when you go out to dinner and swigging it in the toilets because "the restaurant charges so much for wine, I can get a bottle of red for six quid in tescos. Now maybe if it was only seven quid in the restaurant, more people would drink wine...."

Odeon and vue cinemas allow snacks to be brought in, so no. Not necking popcorn in the loos

I run an independent cinema and while it is true that cinemas don't make much on tickets the 50p comment seems very low...
Basically if a film is taken on release the distributor takes between 50-60% of the total ticket price with the cinema retaining the rest. This drops depending on how long the film has been out.

We do need sales of food and drink to stay in business as it would not be possible on ticket prices alone to pay for all the expenses: rent, heat, light, wages, etc. We work hard to keep our prices down to encourage sales but cannot possibly meet the same as the supermarkets who buy in a much larger quantity and so can drop the price to such a low level

I've just looked up the price to see The Joker at my local cinema tonight... £12.25 per adult. Deluxe cinema, 2D showing (not that I can watch 3D anyway).

No way am I buying anything extra within the cinema when one person watching the film costs more than buying the DVD only 3 months later. On the couple of trips a year we go to see something we really want to see (because it's really not worth taking a punt on anything you're not guaranteed to love at that kind of price) we stock up in the supermarket first.

For DH and I to book a babysitter and go to watch a film, we would barely scrape change from £50 without any extras.

We used to go a lot pre-DCs when tickets were about £5-6 pounds each. Now the cost is barely justifiable. Plus I have a reclining seat at home and don't get my eardrums blasted out by excessive volume which ruins films.

@Moominfan but the chain cinemas has repeatedly said they don't mind people taking their own food in, so it's not smuggling. I wouldn't to an independent as their ticket prices tend to be lower anyway (can usually get a ticket, popcorn and a drink for the same price as a chain ticket alone), but to a chain I would. I do like something to snack on as the cinema is such a rare treat now I like to make something of the experience.

but it is a bit like putting a bottle of wine in your bag when you go out to dinner and swigging it in the toilets because "the restaurant charges so much for wine,

People do that too. But then restaurants did charge to open a bottle of wine you bought with you ("corkage" ?)

I have a Cineworld card so get 25% off snacks and I take my own bottled water. Going to the cinema works out a cheap evening/afternoon out for me, a lot less expensive than going out for a meal although sometimes I do both.

I would pay extra to go to a snack-free showing. Seriously. I glare at someone at just about every film I go to these days because they are rustling their crisp packets and popcorn, or crunching sweets or slurping their drinks, even during quiet or emotional moments. It drives me so demented DH is on the verge of refusing to see any more films with me at all.

Eat in the cinema if you like, but don't be surprised if a mad-looking middle-aged woman glares at you and asks you to stop making so much noise.

we are in our cinema 3 times or more a week as its only 3.50 a ticket,not once have i bought their snacks

we got to pound stretchers or home bargains and walk in with a full bag

Agree LadyPeter I can’t stand all the rustling when you are trying to concentrate on the film.

In the ‘old days’ there was a proper interval when the ice creams were sold, much more civilised .

We have a community cinema that charges less than a fiver for tickets, is run by volunteers and uses a gorgeous old art deco style building. It's a massive fixture in the community. I buy the snacks there.