Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Seger. When you see a movie in the theaters,
Speaker 1: you expect certain things like a heck of a good time,
Speaker 1: some amazing sound, and a story played out on a
Speaker 1: gigantic screen. You also probably think about popcorn. But that's weird, right,
Speaker 1: How of all the snacks on earth did popcorn become
Speaker 1: the mainstay of movie theaters. Well, it starts with a
Speaker 1: bit of history. See, popcorn had been around for ages,
Speaker 1: and it was a popular snack at nineteenth century fairs
Speaker 1: and carnivals, especially after the invention of the first steam
Speaker 1: powered popcorn popper back in eighty five. People love the crunchy, salty,
Speaker 1: inexpensive snack, and movie theaters hated it. During the era
Speaker 1: of silent film, these companies followed many of the same
Speaker 1: rules as traditional the eaters, and they did not want
Speaker 1: to be associated with a loud food that could distract
Speaker 1: from the show. Additionally, there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a class consideration here, since audiences had to read the
Speaker 1: dialogue on the screen, they had to be literate a
Speaker 1: k a. A better sort of people with superior education.
Speaker 1: Allowing popcorn inside was in the opinion of these theater
Speaker 1: owners kind of like throwing sawdust on the floor and
Speaker 1: just saying, sure, just spit wherever you want. Talkies or
Speaker 1: films with spoken dialogue emerged in nine and this brought
Speaker 1: movie theaters to the common folk. Suddenly anyone could cough
Speaker 1: up some change, grab a seat, and understand what was
Speaker 1: going on. This was also the time of the Great Depression,
Speaker 1: when Americans from coast to coast pined for cheap, escapist entertainment.
Speaker 1: So the average Americans finally found the cinema, and they
Speaker 1: brought their snack culture along, and the depression affected theaters
Speaker 1: as well. Theaters with the best chances of surviving were
Speaker 1: the ones that gave customers what they wanted. If they
Speaker 1: wanted to eat popcorn while watching a film, well so
Speaker 1: be it. At first, independent vendors sold popcorn outside the theater,
Speaker 1: profiting from the casual passers by as well as future
Speaker 1: movie patrons. Since corn kernels were dirt, cheap, popcorn became
Speaker 1: even more popular and things escalated. Movie theaters allowed vendors
Speaker 1: to sell popcorn in the lobby for a small fee.
Speaker 1: Eventually they cut out the vendors entirely, acquiring their own poppers.
Speaker 1: During World War Two, popcorn sales saw another bump. Sugar
Speaker 1: was rationed, which made many conventional sweet snacks and drinks
Speaker 1: more expensive, at least that is when they were available
Speaker 1: at all. Popcorn, of course, only required salt and popcorn kernels,
Speaker 1: neither of which were hard to come by. But by
Speaker 1: then the association between movies and popcorn was firmly established
Speaker 1: in the mind of the American public. This association can
Speaker 1: and use today. But there's another wrinkle to the story.
Speaker 1: And you might be saying, Christian, Okay, popcorn was cheap
Speaker 1: in the depression or whatever, But what happened when did
Speaker 1: it become so expensive? Good question. The price hike really
Speaker 1: kicked in on all concessions back in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: See Contrary to popular belief, your local movie theater doesn't
Speaker 1: actually make that much bank off the films it screens. Instead,
Speaker 1: theaters use concessions to stay in business. According to the
Speaker 1: Stanford Business School, concessions comprise only about of a theater's
Speaker 1: gross revenue, but of its profits. This makes sense when
Speaker 1: we consider how theaters must split ticket revenue with distributors,
Speaker 1: but can pocket of whatever they managed to sell at
Speaker 1: the snack counter. The bulk cost of the ingredients is
Speaker 1: laughably small, and the profit margin is huge, and don't forget,
Speaker 1: the stuff is still addictively delicious. Check out the brainstuff
Speaker 1: channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com