WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Do Movie Theaters Sell Popcorn?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.160
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi brain Stuff.

0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.160
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vocabam and today's episode is a brain Stuff

0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.360
<v Speaker 1>classic presented by our earthWhile host Christian Sagar the question

0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:22.640
<v Speaker 1>of the day, why do movie theaters sell popcorn? Hey,

0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.800
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff? It's Christian Sagar. When you see a movie

0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.120
<v Speaker 1>in the theaters, you expect certain things like a heck

0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.120
<v Speaker 1>of a good time, some amazing sound, and a story

0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.320
<v Speaker 1>played out on a gigantic screen. You also probably think

0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:40.120
<v Speaker 1>about popcorn. But that's weird, right, How of all the

0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:45.640
<v Speaker 1>snacks on Earth did popcorn become the mainstay of movie theaters. Well,

0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.599
<v Speaker 1>it starts with a bit of history. See, popcorn had

0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.839
<v Speaker 1>been around for ages, and it was a popular snack

0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.880
<v Speaker 1>at nineteenth century fairs and carnivals, especially after the invention

0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.800
<v Speaker 1>of the first steam powered popcorn pop or back in

0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 1>eighty five. People love the crunchy, salty, inexpensive snack, and

0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.160
<v Speaker 1>movie theaters hated it. During the era of silent film,

0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.800
<v Speaker 1>these companies followed many of the same rules as traditional theaters,

0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.000
<v Speaker 1>and they did not want to be associated with a

0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.880
<v Speaker 1>loud food that could distract from the show. Additionally, there

0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.200
<v Speaker 1>was a little bit of a class consideration here, Since

0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.959
<v Speaker 1>audiences had to read the dialogue on the screen, they

0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.360
<v Speaker 1>had to be literate a k a. A better sort

0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.480
<v Speaker 1>of people with superior education. Allowing popcorn inside was, in

0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.800
<v Speaker 1>the opinion of these theater owners, kind of like throwing

0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.800
<v Speaker 1>sawdust on the floor and just saying, sure, just spit

0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.800
<v Speaker 1>wherever you want. Talkies or films with spoken dialogue emerged

0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.080
<v Speaker 1>in ninete and this brought movie theaters to the common folk.

0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.520
<v Speaker 1>Suddenly anyone could cough up some change, grab a seat,

0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.400
<v Speaker 1>and understand what was going on. This was also the

0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.440
<v Speaker 1>time of the Great Depression, when Americans from coast coast

0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:05.120
<v Speaker 1>pined for cheap, escapist entertainment. So the average Americans finally

0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.160
<v Speaker 1>found the cinema, and they brought their snack culture along,

0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.440
<v Speaker 1>and the depression affected theaters as well. Theaters with the

0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.280
<v Speaker 1>best chances of surviving were the ones that gave customers

0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.160
<v Speaker 1>what they wanted. If they wanted to eat popcorn while

0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.200
<v Speaker 1>watching a film, well so be it. At first, independent

0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.880
<v Speaker 1>vendors sold popcorn outside the theater, profiting from the casual

0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.440
<v Speaker 1>passers by as well as future movie patrons. Since corn

0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:37.040
<v Speaker 1>kernels were dirt, cheap, popcorn became even more popular, and

0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.440
<v Speaker 1>things escalated. Movie theaters allowed vendors to sell popcorn in

0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.359
<v Speaker 1>the lobby for a small fee. Eventually they cut out

0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:48.480
<v Speaker 1>the vendors entirely acquiring their own poppers. During World War Two,

0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.440
<v Speaker 1>popcorn sales saw another bump. Sugar was rationed, which made

0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.200
<v Speaker 1>many conventional sweet snacks and drinks more expensive, at least

0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.359
<v Speaker 1>that is when they were available at all. Popcorn, of course,

0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.799
<v Speaker 1>only required salt and popcorn kernels, neither of which were

0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.600
<v Speaker 1>hard to come by. But by then the association between

0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.720
<v Speaker 1>movies and popcorn was firmly established in the mind of

0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:15.120
<v Speaker 1>the American public. This association continues today. But there's another

0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.400
<v Speaker 1>wrinkle to the story. And you might be saying Christian, Okay,

0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.160
<v Speaker 1>popcorn was cheap in the depression or whatever, But what

0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:27.040
<v Speaker 1>happened when did it become so expensive? Good question. The

0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.000
<v Speaker 1>price hike really kicked in on all concessions back in

0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>the nineties seventies. See contrary to popular belief, your local

0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.200
<v Speaker 1>movie theater doesn't actually make that much bank off the

0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:43.000
<v Speaker 1>films it screens. Instead, theaters use concessions to stay in business.

0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.840
<v Speaker 1>According to the Stanford Business School, concessions comprise only about

0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:52.040
<v Speaker 1>of a theater's gross revenue, but of its profits. This

0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.520
<v Speaker 1>makes sense when we consider how theaters must split ticket

0:03:55.560 --> 0:04:01.000
<v Speaker 1>revenue with distributors, but can pocket of whatever they managed

0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.440
<v Speaker 1>to sell at the snack counter. The bulk cost of

0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.640
<v Speaker 1>the ingredients is laughably small, and the profit margin is huge,

0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:18.359
<v Speaker 1>and don't forget, the stuff is still addictively delicious. Today's

0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.279
<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Ben Bolan and produced by Tyler Clang.

0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:23.280
<v Speaker 1>If you enjoy our show and want to support us

0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.080
<v Speaker 1>directly check out our online store at public dot com

0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.919
<v Speaker 1>slash brainstuff, and of course, for more on this and

0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.960
<v Speaker 1>lots of other popping topics, visit our home planet, how

0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:44.479
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com