Monday 4 April 2016

Cinema Prices

From the Daily Mail

A man who was outraged by the extortionate prices at his local cinema has gone viral with a furious rant over paying £70 for a visit, including £5.50 for Nachos. 
Dean McQuade, from York, expressed his outrage on the Vue Cinemas Facebook page, pointing out that someone earning £7.20 an hour, the national minimum wage for a 25-year-old, would have to work for 10 hours to afford a trip to the cinema with two children.
His views struck a chord with other disgruntled cinema goers who have liked the post more than 6,900 times. 

It's £26 to go to my local cinema for the family. So, you spent FOURTY FOUR QUID on crappy overpriced cinema snacks. I mean, we generally buy nothing, because one of the kids has an allergy, so we have to be careful what they can have. We take a few sweets in. When it's just me and the youngest, she has a popcorn, and that's it. Which is a lot more expensive than if I cooked it up myself, but I don't mind a little wasteful expenditure. Spending FOURTY FOUR QUID on cinema crap is just madness. You could buy a popcorn, take them for a treat to Burger King afterwards for less and still have change.


11 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

£40 for "cinema food" is stupid, but I'm never sure what the rules are on smuggling in your own stuff is. I took in a bottle of vodka to help me through 3 hours of LOTR my teenage sons wanted to see. It didn't help. It felt like 30.

Tim Almond said...

Mark,

I love those films. I've got the even longer special editions. That said, the Hobbit movies are like watching paint dry.

It's variable at cinemas. Some say you can bring your food in. Some don't. Cineworld just say you can't take in hot food or booze (and don't say that you can't take in sweets, or that you can't). That said, I think about half the people at the live opera screenings come with a bottle of wine.

The big thing is that cinemas aren't too bothered about sweets. It's drinks and popcorn where they make the serious money. A professor reckoned there's about a 900% markup on both.

Bayard said...

"When it's just me and the youngest, she has a popcorn, and that's it. Which is a lot more expensive than if I cooked it up myself, but I don't mind a little wasteful expenditure."

Popcorn is part of the experience, but otherwise, if you need to munch or drink something throughout a film, there's something lacking in the film AFAICS.

Tim Almond said...

Bayard,

But in general, people choose their food before they arrive.

And some people really load up. We used to do Saturday morning pictures. It was £1 a ticket (now £1.75, still a great bargain) and parents would come in with a ton of stuff. You're wondering if they had nachos instead of breakfast.

Graeme said...

It is possible to watch a film without consuming a 3 course meal...unless you wear a lot of bling

James Higham said...

Go to the cinema? What's that? I have some vague recollection of it in more pecunious days.

A K Haart said...

Saturday morning for two adults and Grandson is under £15 including his sweeties and my coffee.

Tim Almond said...

AK,

Saturday morning cinema is a great bargain. It works out about the same as a rental.

Steven_L said...

Didn't one of those cinema CEO's once admit "basically I sell popcorn" a few years back? If he'd added "to folk with more money then sense" he'd probably have got his P45.

Mike said...

Steven L,

Yep, I read that too. "Massive air-conditioned popcorn and soda parlours" was the phrase he used, I think.

Tim Almond said...

The cinema industry aren't exactly shy about that stuff. There's plenty of businesses out there that make money obliquely: games consoles and chromecasts are given away to sell games and movies, Google give away Android to make money from ads. Restaurants break even on food and profit from drinks. Strip clubs provide free strippers so you buy overpriced beer. Red Hat are a billion dollar company that gives away their version of Linux (and make money from support).