Sneaky Ways Movie Theaters Get You To Spend More Money

Used to work at a cinema for 3 years. Couldn't care less about people sneaking their own food in. I even did it myself. And still do.

“Sir what’s in the backpack?” “That’s an AK47” “No next to that” “Ah, just a Snickers” “You can’t bring that in the theaters”

As someone who worked at AMC, this is pretty accurate. We don't care if you sneak in food, sometimes we usually don't even care if you aren't even being sneaky about it.

What I learned from this is • Bring your own food • Wear sunglasses to resist flashy marketing • Bring earmuffs to take a 15-20 minute nap before the movie starts • Get a membership only if you frequent movies often, and only use it for its discounts not points • Don’t download their apps

Free refills? Nobody gets up in the middle of the movie to get a refill. Genius.

I should build a dollar store next to my local cinema Id be able to retire in a few days

I work at a movie theatre, and have for nearly 2 years, and all of the stuff in this video is absolutely true. So yes we know the food is expensive, but we wouldn't be able to stay open otherwise.

I once snuck a big ass McDonalds order in AMC this lady at the door caught me hiding it in my bag. She still let me take it in. Thank you, lady.

The dollar tree knows what its doing by always being beside a movie theater

This is not “sneaky.” You’d have to be extremely clueless to realize that snacks are more expensive than a ticket.

The theatre I used to work at had rent of like five thousand dollars every couple of weeks. That was after they negotiated a discount. Also, the utility (air, water, electric) costs to keep the building running was crazy. For example, each projector bulb was almost a thousand dollars and that needed replacing every 800 hours or so with the projectors running 12 hours or more some days. Plus you have staffing costs and food costs for ordering and damaged foods thrown away. Not to mention the studios charge sending you the movie and showing it. There were some weeks we would be in the red as far as profit after everything. So yes it costs a lot for concessions, but a lot goes on behind the scenes that you purchase helps.

I think as time passes, theatre workers care less and less about people "sneaking" food in. I think it's cuz the workers are young people who also understand and empathize that the food at theaters are extremely overpriced. Just last week my group of 10 people brought in taco bell and kfc buckets lmao.

If you don’t sneak in your own snacks, you are living wrong

I get buying popcorn but who would buy the candy, like just sneak that in

The irony of concessions is that popcorn started as street food that vendors sold to patrons who were waiting in line to see the movies and theatres at that time didn’t allow snacks.

We all know it and I’m all for it. I go to the movies for the whole “experience”. If I just wanted to watch the film I would stream it at home.

“You can’t get in the theatre without spending money” Challenge accepted.

I've smuggled in alcohol, sandwiches and tons of candy. My theater never checks or cares.

The theater I worked at had dollar shows when the normal ticket prices were about 5-6 bucks. They literally made nothing on the ticket sale, but more than made up with it on concessions. They concessions were much higher than the nicer full priced theaters, and as I recall, the cost on a large popcorn or drink (which then, were about $5 and $3, respectively) was about 10 cents, including the product and the container. When I was scheduled to be an usher or ticket taker for the night, as long as you made some attempt to hide the fact that you were sneaking in food, I didn't care- the theater was making plenty of money on the people who bought stuff. One young girl walked past me without making an attempt to hide food and I had to stop her, because I could get in trouble for letting her in with obvious food. She literally started crying saying she didn't have money to buy anything and was too embarrassed to ask her friends who had already gone in the theater. I told her to go outside, to conceal it and not carry it through the lobby in plain sight, and I would let her in without issue. I will never forget the goofy smile she had on her face as she came back in and walked by me, like the two of us just pulled off the heist of the century.

The main theater chain in my area (Marcus Theaters) offers some nice discount deals of $5 Tuesdays and $6 student Thursdays for admissions and on those days they offer a free small popcorn which I take advantage of. They also send out coupons for food at times. I remember one time they opened up a new theater nearby and they sent everyone in my apartment a sheet of coupons and many people just threw them away in the trash nearby the mailbox so I grabbed a bunch of them and was able to get a bunch of free drinks, burgers and popcorn using those. I even got lucky with one of the free popcorn coupons and one of the workers gave me a plastic reusable refillable popcorn bucket instead of the paper non-refillable one lol.