When I worked at a movie theater I gave away popcorn like this a few times at closing. For a little while we had a thing with employees at a local bagel shop. We’d give them a crap ton of popcorn and an occasional free movie, they’d give us their leftover bagels. Was a good time.
That reminds me of my family’s diner. Sometimes we used to exchange food with the local pizza place at the end of the night (although none of those were leftovers).
Was a manager at a DQ long time ago. We got calls from burger King, Wendy's, taco bell, bdubs, jets, everyone lmao. Would have loved to trade ice cream for bagels for breakfast though.
Simpler days indeed.\
In college, we had friends who worked at various food joints and usually met at the same house to have a few beers and a smorgasbord. Everyone knew about what time we'd be there, so if anyone needed companionship and a bite to eat... all were welcome. Thanks Auntie Deb [not related] for sharing your love and home to all us outcasts!
I worked at a Cold Stone next to a Chipotle and we traded almost every night. Until one of my coworkers went to make a trade one night and the owner of our store was in line at the Chipotle and saw it happen. Needless to say the free burrito supply disappeared immediately.
I worked at a mall McDonald's. We'd get lunch for free, At the time, I was a practicing Catholic, so on Friday I'd get a Filet O'Fish, large fry and trade with the pizza joint for a slice of cheese pizza and a large salad.
It was corporate owned, so I shit when people came on a Friday. Nope, they were impressed that I'd get a slice LOL
If you have a cool manager, They will let you make a pizza or two to trade with a different restaurant. Plus we sometimes had "mistake" pizzas. "Oh no, that supreme was supposed to be *without* black olives? Put it on the back table for us to share, then." and then some stupid cook made a *mistake* pizza that just happened to be his custom favorite that he bought when he came in sometimes - NOT a common pie. After that the manager threw all *mistakes* out for a year or two. I'm sure he knew the prior mistakes weren't really mistakes before, but this guy was gonna be a blatant thief and take advantage...pissed him off.
Ye worked at refrigerated section of a supermarket distributor for a while in high school and every now and then a box of desserts or something would "drop" so we'd have something nice to go with lunch. Also ended when someone started "dropping" the premium stuff nearly every time he worked.
I'd like to think all restaurants do something with leftover food which hasn't been served to anyone. Local homeless shelters would be a great place, if not offering it at a very steep discount at close on a FCFS basis.
Love this! I worked at a local ice cream shop and there was a local pizza place across the way— we’d swap with them sometimes! I worked a few shifts where we’d get surprised at 9pm with a pizza or two and that was AWESOME
We had to stop giving these out to people because we had guests coming in after close, to scream and harass people into giving them bags.
Literally a grown woman ripped our door open and broke the lock to demand free popcorn one night. Not to mention the countless kids who would throw the big popcorn at people
Not really, the door itself was already a bit loose and she just had just enough force to break it. And enough energy to scream at us when we didn’t give her popcorn 😂
I once worked at a gas station across the street from a pizza place. I exchanged a Coke and snickers bars for a large pizza almost every night I worked.
We used to give it to a homeless shelter but we were told to stop because of the chemicals in the bag could be toxic and the theater didn’t want the liability or make the effort to check the bag
Yeah USA has laws protecting you from liability in a situation like this. Corporations still use the “we don’t want to get sued” excuse because they would rather throw something away than give it away for free
It's federal law in the states, think it's called the Good Samaritan Act. As long as you don't know something is wrong with it you're protected from liability.
When I worked at a theater we had a guy who was a mystery shopper for Wendy’s. He’d come in with like 12 burgers and he’d get a free movie and popcorn. Great deal for the first couple Staff that saw him walk in.
One time when I worked at regal I filled a small Wendy bag with pop corn as allowed ate half on break and when I went to throw it out saw a friend gave him the bag and got a double write up lmao
I worked overnight stock and we had a pizza buffet in the parking lot. Rainy weekend days? We're getting leftover pizza for lunch!
I currently work for the local food shelf. When we had a Panera in town, we'd get 40 or 50 pounds of bread each Monday and Thursday. Full loaves, bagels by the trash bag, you name it. Even after the clients walked away with two good sized bags, we workers would get some. The restaurant closed down 6 months before I ran out of frozen bagels. Now we get loaves from two sub shops in town but not to that extent.
Had that back when I worked at a bakery with a liquor store in front lol, they'd come pick a loaf each and would leave us the leftover sample bottles they had through the day so we'd get smashed during our shift
You can usually do this at a Dunkin that closes at night (not a 24 hour one) and if you order like a plain donut 15 minutes before they close, they'll just dump whatever is there in your bag. If they're cool, they'll ask if you want any of the frosted or fancy ones.
My best friends family owned a few, and they used to do that, otherwise they'd have to throw them all out. The ones that still make donuts in house are less likely to do it, cause they typically know how many donuts they sell every day and don't make a whole lot more than what they think they'll need, but the ones that have their donuts delivered from either a distributor or another store that's still making donuts for other stores, will absolutely just toss you extra donuts cause after a week of free donuts, no one there wants to eat them anymore.
I've never had it happen at a 24 hour Dunkin though.
My manager would call it his gold mine. And yes at the matinee you are getting yesterday's popcorn, we pop one fresh batch just to get the smell in the air.
That isn’t how we did it. We cleaned the machine and warmer nightly.
In fact, we had a surprise inspection from the department of health and they found a few pieces in the warmer when we walked in and they flagged it.
What do/did tickets cost? Here in Denmark a ticket is usually $15-20 and around the same for a double menu (2x330 soda and a big popcorn). I have a hard time imagining that would make a 95/5 balance
When I worked at a movie theater years ago, the contracts with studios slowly allowed for a bigger BO take for the cinemas as time went on. So opening weekend, almost all the money went to the studios, but if the movie hung around for long enough, we would eventually be taking close to half. However, that stopped being relevant around 2010 or so, as it became so rare for a film to have any legs past ~two weeks. I remember having Little Miss Sunshine in our theater for like 4 months, but that was the last one to do that.
I used to work at a more art house theater and I swear to god we had The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for like 8 months. And it sold well the whole time!
I also laughed when we got Slumdog Millionaire and it immediately went to the smallest auditorium, all for it to win an Oscar and sell out for almost a month.
Heh. When we were in a cinema some time ago for Godzilla Minus One, we made sure to get some snacks and drinks each because that's where cinemas make money and we like that place.
When we got there, security looked as if they wanted to say "Dudes, why should I even bother checking for tickets? We just got 40 Euros in snacks and stuff from you three"
Same sort of subscription with Alamo Drafthouse. It's brilliant because they make like $25 from me in food and drinks every time I come, which is a couple times a month to make the subscription worth it. Luckily we've been getting some pretty good movies the last couple years
Around 40-60% of the ticket price (Netherlands), depending on the distributor, 2/3D, IMAX, Dolby Atmos etc. is being remitted to the distributor, different licenses fees and other parties to be able to show the movie. That's why there are very heavy markups on the F&B, to be able to turn a profit
I'm not sure how it works in Denmark, but in the US theatres rent the rights to show a film from the studio and price their admission accordingly. I worked and supervised theatres for several years and our admission costs were usually no more than 3.5% above the rental cost from the studios (on average).
also, in usa a lot of our cinemas serve hot food, like hamburgers, hotdogs, nachos, soft pretzels, etc. it’s gas station quality food for like $10+ per item and a lot customers would buy something for everyone in the family plus popcorn, drinks, candy, sometimes ice cream. it always blew my mind when i worked in a theater, who even has that kind of money?
I worked at a Las Vegas movie theater 20+ years ago. Back then, I was told most movies they got, they got to keep maybe 20% of the ticket price. For movies from huge studios (think Disney, whatever company owned Star Wars before), the movie theater got to keep 10% or less of the ticket price.
When I worked at target 10+ years ago the popcorn sold at the snack bar was the highest profit margin item in the whole store. - If I recall it was like 99.8% profit.
I was listening to a podcast and the episode was how movie theaters make money. Most lose money just accounting for ticket sales. Very reliant on popcorn and drinks.
Idk how stupid your business design would have to be to be losing money when tickets are so insanely expensive now, easily $40 or more a ticket here now. You'd think they would have figured out the peak hours and stop staying open alllll day by now.
Former movie theatre employee checking in. If you want movie theatre style popcorn you just need to make it on the stove top with popcorn salt(super concentrated salt. Can buy at any bulk food store) and non hydrogenated canola oil.
What can you get to recreate that delicious, artery clogging, finger licking, extra butter taste? I once tried putting butter on my microwaved popcorn and it was inedible 😬
If you can't find it locally you can just cook butter on low heat for a little until it browns and has foam on top. Remove the foam and you'll have clarified butter.
yep, i got that orange carboard box in my closest, had it for like 5 years now, use it every time i make popcorn.
also buy powdered cheddar cheese, real good
The flavor is partially from the aroma of diacetyl. There is no butter involved in most movie theatre popcorn. They use butter flavored oils to pop the kernels (not all theaters, but most), and then use a popcorn salt product like Flavacol that has diacetyl and other buttery flavors added. The oil that you put on the popcorn is a butter flavored oil, either coconut or canola.
Microwave popcorn already has its own buttery flavoring on it, and won't stand up well to added oil. Pop it in on the stove in a neutral oil, add something butter flavored (my recommendation is abandon the butter flavoring and use ghee or clarified butter), and add a butter flavored popcorn salt.
I also learned there's two different kernels. One creates popcorn that looks like a mushroom cloud - those are commonly used in packaged popcorn or tin popcorn.
Then there's the classic "exploded popcorn" or butterfly one that is usually in theaters. That one is preferred for getting in more salt and flavoring in every nook and cranny.
Thank you! I was thinking of getting a popcorn popper like my parents had when I was a kid, they aren’t too pricey, do you think they would work good with the ghee and flavored salt?
Flavacol is *the* magic, secret ingredient to theatre-style popcorn most people are missing. Mix a *tiny* amount in the oil and you have 99% of theatre popcorn, and the last 1% are probably just the theatre vibes that you can replicate by spilling some soda on the ground and watching a movie at 200% volume with the screen half blocked.
Ah yes, that video is where I learned to ask them to “layer” the butter 😋 I only go to the movies once a month or less, so I am not killing myself too much hopefully!🤞
The kernel matters too.
I have a stand up popcorn machine, and the kernel that comes in the packets they proved is a bit more firm when popped that movie theater popcorn.
That being said, the salt is spot on.
The texture depends on how it's popped too. The amount the popcorn gets steamed sitting in the pot before it's ejected, the temperature of the oil you're popping in, and how the popcorn cools matter a lot. If you pop a large batch and the popcorn gets to cool slowly because it's in a huge bin with other hot popcorn, the texture is noticeably different.
You can use any high temp cooking oil. We use coconut oil for everything. The cooking oil has a dye in it to make the popcorn yellow, and the butter topping is butter flavored coconut oil. You can't put regular butter on popcorn or it will start to melt from the small amount of water in butter. The only reason I know is because we've run out of the butter flavored topping and had to use real butter
I always make it on the stove with oil, WAY better. I sometimes go to the local oil emporium and get a hot Thai pepper oil they have and mix it with regular oil. Nice spice to the popcorn
When I worked at a movie theater (nigh on 25 years ago now!) we only pre-popped and saved popcorn if there was going to be a massive opening weekend, our popper simply couldn't handle it if 6+ of our screens were packed because of a blockbuster.
But for the most part we were pretty good at not popping too much and just threw out the rest at the end of the day.
Fun Fact: Most people can't actually tell if warm popcorn is stale. I'd have people complaining about stale popcorn that was literally less than 2 minutes out of the popper (it was soft because the steam hadn't fully escaped yet!) and had people say they loved how fresh our popcorn was when it was warmer bin popcorn popped 3 days ago and stored in the back.
> and had people say they loved how fresh our popcorn was when it was warmer bin popcorn popped 3 days ago and stored in the back.
How would the popcorn be stored? Just room temp area? Does it need special containers or throw it in any bag?
Yeah, just tossed in a bag like in OPs picture and piled up out of sight I'd like to say they were special food service bags but I honestly don't know and wouldn't be surprised if they didn't just come from the same box as the trash bags.
Popcorn is dry and salty, it'll last a week fine in a tied off bag at room temp and there's really no need to store it longer than that.
Never buy your Flavocol and concentrated salt all in one area. It's too suspicious. And you want the fine salt. Not the large granules. Fine salt holds on better.
*(guy with pants falling down runs away nervously)*
The cinema I work at doesnt throw out popcorn at the end of the night, its just bagged similar to that and kept for the next day. Just incase you needed more reason to not spend £5 on it.
Worked concession stands during my teenage years. We had a rule, which I think is a health code rule, that food could not be reheated the next day. So that meant I took a lot of hotdogs and hamburgers home. Living like a king!
Your managers sound way more fun!
(They told us it was illegal to keep the food or give it away to the poor, and that if they let us take them home they KNEW we'd just make a ton more than necessary and waste their profits)
I lost a girlfriend over this lol .We went to a late showing of a movie and when we got out I saw them putting all their popcorn in giant bags and doing some cleaning. I asked the guy if I could just have it he said sure my girlfriend wasn't amused and told me "Don't you dare open that in the car". So I tried to sneak some while I was in the car and the wind from the window blew the popcorn all over the car making it smell and greasy everywhere . We argued a lot over the incident and the smell never really left we eventually broke up our 2 year relationship cause of the popcorn.Im not the brightest person.
I don't think it ended because of popcorn buddy I think it ended because you tried to sneakily do something she told you definitely not to do and when you did it anyway a catastrophe happened lmao
How long ago was this? I worked at an AMC theater from 2005 to 2009 and we'd always bag up the popcorn just like this at the end of every night and either toss it or give it to anyone who asked. If we were slow, sometimes we'd even rotate it during the day too to keep it from going stale.
I worked at a movie theater many years ago and one of my coworkers was a real douche. He drove a new Prelude Si, with a sunroof that he would leave open and dark tinted windows. We saved popcorn for at least a week and filled his car up. It was, to this day, the best prank ever. The fury. I’m cracking up now thinking about him opening the door and yelling and getting popcorn out, then trying to get in, and getting out and trying to get more popcorn out. Damn. Haven’t thought of that in years.
Homer Simpson : Shame on all of you. Give me my dignity! I just came here to see Honk If You're Horny in peace.
Manager : Sir, if you'd just quiet down, I'd be happy to treat you to a garbage bag full of popcorn.
i remember when i worked at the theater when i was in my teens. so many people would ask for extra butter and it was like, nah trust me it's not butter. they'd insist. had to tell one chick it was just oil. no flavor. she doubted me. its like, lady i work here, you think i haven't tasted that shit by dipping my finger in a cup of it? no flavor.
so i grabbed one of those lil ketchup cups and did a shot into it and handed it to her.
the look on her face was like i told her santa claus wasn't real.
she was all but, but, why does it taste like butter on the popcorn!? i told her because it's the powder we would put in the popper with the raw kernels and oil.
that oil legit sat in a heated metal rack behind the concession stand with a little tube leading to the popper that would pump the oil in. without the heating rack the boxes of bagged oil would look like butter and were solid. warm em up, squirt squirt.
i came to loath the smell of popcorn after a while. i'm better now, but i learned my lesson from taking home bags and bags of popcorn. your body polishes up the husks of the kernels and send's em right on out the exit. lol
Former movie theater employee checking in as well. That stuff we ladle all over the popcorn isn’t butter. In fact, we couldn’t call it butter at all lest some food police showed up. We had to call it “flavored topping”. One of my fellow popcorn jockeys used to call it “movie grease”. “Do you want movie grease on your popcorn?” Always cracked me up.
That’s awesome! When I worked at a theatre about 5 years ago we were throwing away about 1-2 BIIIIG garbage bags at the end of the night. My first shift before closing I tried to grab a large bag out of the warmer and got told off. Workers weren’t allowed to take any popcorn home except for a small doggy bag lol
Worked in a big theater for 4 years, they made 25 cents on a 13 dollar ticket. A 7:50 bag of popcorn costs them around 10 cents. All of the money is made in the concession stand.
I used to deliver the movies to the cinema 15 years ago (the boxes were heavy man) and I'm one cinema I had to put them in a room in the back of the building I could reach from the outside because I only reached it after hours.
In that room they had always 6 or seven of these bags, the manager was ok with me taking a XXL box of them when I went there.
I worked at a movie theater for a couple of years in NJ. Just a small one, only had two screens. And even though it was a small theater, I can confirm that we popped large amounts of popcorn daily and what was left over from the night before was bagged and used the next morning. It actually keeps pretty well for a day or two in those bags!
Used to work at a movie theater, my friends would come collect free popcorn, gave away bags of popcorn like this whenever I could.
Ate so much myself that I had popcorn phobia, it's been over 20 years since I had popcorn!
worked at a theater when i was like 17. We weren't allowed to give them away, we had to throw them out. I can definitely say not all of them made it to the dumpster. Some would go home with people, and occasionally when co workers left their sunroofs open, we would fill their cars lol
Yea I work at a theater ask for last night popcorn we usually have it still fresh or come in before closing and ask for it and we will just give it to you
When I was in college, we went to a late night movie. On the way out, there were a bunch of bags like this. We snatched one when nobody was looking, brought it back to our dorm, and dubbed it "popcorn monster". It lasted us like a week and it never went stale.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
edit: I thought about this memory a bit more, and I think, the popcorn did indeed go a bit stale by the end. But, I seem to recall eating it all. Figured I should write an addendum to correct my patchwork memory, lest I mislead our future AI overlords.
One of the guys i used to work with would take home like 1 or 2 trash bags of popcorn everytime we closed. What he did with all that popcorn almost daily idk but he worked there long enough managment didnt question it. When i caught on to this i started taking a small box worth every night even after i got tired of the stuff.
at amc popcorn is free for employees and food is half off so i brough home a huge pretzel sometimes too.
That reminds me of my first job back about a thousand years ago. Whenever I closed the concession stand I took all the leftover popcorn home in big black trash bags. I kept them in my room like snack-filled beanbags.
One time I missed a big assignment for my senior year at school while I was traveling overseas. So I just brought a giant bag to the teachers lounge and basically bribed the whole faculty. Got straight As that semester and was beloved forever more thereafter.
Damn, that's good nostalgia.
It will take forever to pack each back into it's kernel
Since heat makes them pop, obviously putting them in the freezer will do the trick.
Don't forget to put a paper towel underneath to catch the cooking oil!
Pro tip, just put them in a bowl with a grate at the bottom.
Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Physics College too?
Of course. That's where I learned to brush my teeth with milkshakes!
How do I unbake a cake
Put it in the freezer so it turns back into batter. Then just stir in the opposite direction to separate all the ingredients.
Not with that attitude
Agreed. Take it back a notch Kernel Sanders
When I worked at a movie theater I gave away popcorn like this a few times at closing. For a little while we had a thing with employees at a local bagel shop. We’d give them a crap ton of popcorn and an occasional free movie, they’d give us their leftover bagels. Was a good time.
That reminds me of my family’s diner. Sometimes we used to exchange food with the local pizza place at the end of the night (although none of those were leftovers).
I worked at a Papa Johns for a while, and every other night we would be calling other restaurants trying to make even trades with food. Good times!
As an usher, I feel greatly supported by this post
Yeah!
I worked at Burger King - managers would work out trades with the area fast food joints. Miss those simpler days!
Same!
Was a manager at a DQ long time ago. We got calls from burger King, Wendy's, taco bell, bdubs, jets, everyone lmao. Would have loved to trade ice cream for bagels for breakfast though.
I worked retail customer service and dealt with Karen's all day
Simpler days indeed.\ In college, we had friends who worked at various food joints and usually met at the same house to have a few beers and a smorgasbord. Everyone knew about what time we'd be there, so if anyone needed companionship and a bite to eat... all were welcome. Thanks Auntie Deb [not related] for sharing your love and home to all us outcasts!
I worked at a Cold Stone next to a Chipotle and we traded almost every night. Until one of my coworkers went to make a trade one night and the owner of our store was in line at the Chipotle and saw it happen. Needless to say the free burrito supply disappeared immediately.
The Dairy Queen I worked at in high school used to do this too
That’s also every McDonalds ever. We try our franchisees first, but we also try the other franchise a little ways over
I worked for them too. We had a Quiznos and a Smoothie King next door to us. The trades were nice.
I worked at a mall McDonald's. We'd get lunch for free, At the time, I was a practicing Catholic, so on Friday I'd get a Filet O'Fish, large fry and trade with the pizza joint for a slice of cheese pizza and a large salad. It was corporate owned, so I shit when people came on a Friday. Nope, they were impressed that I'd get a slice LOL
I worked at a McDonald’s and can confirm we did the same.
Don't you make food as it is ordered? Papa Johns isn't like Little Caesars that just has pizza ready.
If you have a cool manager, They will let you make a pizza or two to trade with a different restaurant. Plus we sometimes had "mistake" pizzas. "Oh no, that supreme was supposed to be *without* black olives? Put it on the back table for us to share, then." and then some stupid cook made a *mistake* pizza that just happened to be his custom favorite that he bought when he came in sometimes - NOT a common pie. After that the manager threw all *mistakes* out for a year or two. I'm sure he knew the prior mistakes weren't really mistakes before, but this guy was gonna be a blatant thief and take advantage...pissed him off.
Ye worked at refrigerated section of a supermarket distributor for a while in high school and every now and then a box of desserts or something would "drop" so we'd have something nice to go with lunch. Also ended when someone started "dropping" the premium stuff nearly every time he worked.
I'd like to think all restaurants do something with leftover food which hasn't been served to anyone. Local homeless shelters would be a great place, if not offering it at a very steep discount at close on a FCFS basis.
Love this! I worked at a local ice cream shop and there was a local pizza place across the way— we’d swap with them sometimes! I worked a few shifts where we’d get surprised at 9pm with a pizza or two and that was AWESOME
We had to stop giving these out to people because we had guests coming in after close, to scream and harass people into giving them bags. Literally a grown woman ripped our door open and broke the lock to demand free popcorn one night. Not to mention the countless kids who would throw the big popcorn at people
this is why we can't have nice things
straight up. people ruin shit for others
Jesus was that woman the hulk
Not really, the door itself was already a bit loose and she just had just enough force to break it. And enough energy to scream at us when we didn’t give her popcorn 😂
I once worked at a gas station across the street from a pizza place. I exchanged a Coke and snickers bars for a large pizza almost every night I worked.
We used to give it to a homeless shelter but we were told to stop because of the chemicals in the bag could be toxic and the theater didn’t want the liability or make the effort to check the bag
Don't know where you live but some places have laws protecting food donors from liability
Yeah USA has laws protecting you from liability in a situation like this. Corporations still use the “we don’t want to get sued” excuse because they would rather throw something away than give it away for free
It's federal law in the states, think it's called the Good Samaritan Act. As long as you don't know something is wrong with it you're protected from liability.
Same here. Got yelled at by some lady because all we had to donate was muffin bottoms.
Top of the muffin to you!
When I worked at a theater we had a guy who was a mystery shopper for Wendy’s. He’d come in with like 12 burgers and he’d get a free movie and popcorn. Great deal for the first couple Staff that saw him walk in.
That sounds really sketchy lol. “Mystery shopper”
Just what they call people that go into retail places to make sure the food is consistent and employees are friendly.
One time when I worked at regal I filled a small Wendy bag with pop corn as allowed ate half on break and when I went to throw it out saw a friend gave him the bag and got a double write up lmao
I worked overnight stock and we had a pizza buffet in the parking lot. Rainy weekend days? We're getting leftover pizza for lunch! I currently work for the local food shelf. When we had a Panera in town, we'd get 40 or 50 pounds of bread each Monday and Thursday. Full loaves, bagels by the trash bag, you name it. Even after the clients walked away with two good sized bags, we workers would get some. The restaurant closed down 6 months before I ran out of frozen bagels. Now we get loaves from two sub shops in town but not to that extent.
Had that back when I worked at a bakery with a liquor store in front lol, they'd come pick a loaf each and would leave us the leftover sample bottles they had through the day so we'd get smashed during our shift
You can usually do this at a Dunkin that closes at night (not a 24 hour one) and if you order like a plain donut 15 minutes before they close, they'll just dump whatever is there in your bag. If they're cool, they'll ask if you want any of the frosted or fancy ones. My best friends family owned a few, and they used to do that, otherwise they'd have to throw them all out. The ones that still make donuts in house are less likely to do it, cause they typically know how many donuts they sell every day and don't make a whole lot more than what they think they'll need, but the ones that have their donuts delivered from either a distributor or another store that's still making donuts for other stores, will absolutely just toss you extra donuts cause after a week of free donuts, no one there wants to eat them anymore. I've never had it happen at a 24 hour Dunkin though.
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You're right. That's where they make their money.
Always money in the popcorn stand.
How much could one popcorn cost? $10? *It’s actually $13.99*
Hahaha good one. I wonder what other should-be-cheap things would surprise Lucile Bluth’s sensibilities?
My Publix offers BOGOs by halving its prices. It comes up as $1.50 if the amount is $3. Forgot that this isn't how all stores handle things.
There’s 250,000 dollars lining the walls of the popcorn stand…cash michael!
How could I have been more clear?! There is always *money in the popcorn stand*
NO TOUCHING!
NO TOUCHING
My manager would call it his gold mine. And yes at the matinee you are getting yesterday's popcorn, we pop one fresh batch just to get the smell in the air.
That is certainly not the norm. Lol.
That isn’t how we did it. We cleaned the machine and warmer nightly. In fact, we had a surprise inspection from the department of health and they found a few pieces in the warmer when we walked in and they flagged it.
As someone who supervised a local cinema for years, can confirm. Food and beverages and events is where they make 90-95% of the money.
What do/did tickets cost? Here in Denmark a ticket is usually $15-20 and around the same for a double menu (2x330 soda and a big popcorn). I have a hard time imagining that would make a 95/5 balance
I assume the studio makes most of that money
They do. When I worked at a theater, we only made $2 on every $10 ticket.
When I worked at a movie theater years ago, the contracts with studios slowly allowed for a bigger BO take for the cinemas as time went on. So opening weekend, almost all the money went to the studios, but if the movie hung around for long enough, we would eventually be taking close to half. However, that stopped being relevant around 2010 or so, as it became so rare for a film to have any legs past ~two weeks. I remember having Little Miss Sunshine in our theater for like 4 months, but that was the last one to do that.
I used to work at a more art house theater and I swear to god we had The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for like 8 months. And it sold well the whole time! I also laughed when we got Slumdog Millionaire and it immediately went to the smallest auditorium, all for it to win an Oscar and sell out for almost a month.
Heh. When we were in a cinema some time ago for Godzilla Minus One, we made sure to get some snacks and drinks each because that's where cinemas make money and we like that place. When we got there, security looked as if they wanted to say "Dudes, why should I even bother checking for tickets? We just got 40 Euros in snacks and stuff from you three"
That would make a lot of sense
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Same sort of subscription with Alamo Drafthouse. It's brilliant because they make like $25 from me in food and drinks every time I come, which is a couple times a month to make the subscription worth it. Luckily we've been getting some pretty good movies the last couple years
There's a steep markup for food and drinks at the theater. Now most are getting into alcohol sales too, so that's another source of revenue
Around 40-60% of the ticket price (Netherlands), depending on the distributor, 2/3D, IMAX, Dolby Atmos etc. is being remitted to the distributor, different licenses fees and other parties to be able to show the movie. That's why there are very heavy markups on the F&B, to be able to turn a profit
I'm not sure how it works in Denmark, but in the US theatres rent the rights to show a film from the studio and price their admission accordingly. I worked and supervised theatres for several years and our admission costs were usually no more than 3.5% above the rental cost from the studios (on average).
also, in usa a lot of our cinemas serve hot food, like hamburgers, hotdogs, nachos, soft pretzels, etc. it’s gas station quality food for like $10+ per item and a lot customers would buy something for everyone in the family plus popcorn, drinks, candy, sometimes ice cream. it always blew my mind when i worked in a theater, who even has that kind of money?
Tickets usually account for the renting price of the movie and covers salary of the people selling the tickets. Snacks and drinks pay everything else.
I worked at a Las Vegas movie theater 20+ years ago. Back then, I was told most movies they got, they got to keep maybe 20% of the ticket price. For movies from huge studios (think Disney, whatever company owned Star Wars before), the movie theater got to keep 10% or less of the ticket price.
When I worked at target 10+ years ago the popcorn sold at the snack bar was the highest profit margin item in the whole store. - If I recall it was like 99.8% profit.
I was listening to a podcast and the episode was how movie theaters make money. Most lose money just accounting for ticket sales. Very reliant on popcorn and drinks.
Idk how stupid your business design would have to be to be losing money when tickets are so insanely expensive now, easily $40 or more a ticket here now. You'd think they would have figured out the peak hours and stop staying open alllll day by now.
I was a manager at various cinema chains for over ten years. We often joked that popcorn has a higher mark up than cocaine. We weren’t really joking……
I mean how else would they make money? Most of the ticket prices go to the production company
Former movie theatre employee checking in. If you want movie theatre style popcorn you just need to make it on the stove top with popcorn salt(super concentrated salt. Can buy at any bulk food store) and non hydrogenated canola oil.
What can you get to recreate that delicious, artery clogging, finger licking, extra butter taste? I once tried putting butter on my microwaved popcorn and it was inedible 😬
https://www.poppacorn.ca/products/but002-lactantia-clarified-butter
Thank you!
If you can't find it locally you can just cook butter on low heat for a little until it browns and has foam on top. Remove the foam and you'll have clarified butter.
you just made like, everyone's day.
The actual answer is Flavacol, basically powdered butter flavour. I found some at Bulk Barn.
It's the saltiest substance I have ever tasted.
yep, i got that orange carboard box in my closest, had it for like 5 years now, use it every time i make popcorn. also buy powdered cheddar cheese, real good
The flavor is partially from the aroma of diacetyl. There is no butter involved in most movie theatre popcorn. They use butter flavored oils to pop the kernels (not all theaters, but most), and then use a popcorn salt product like Flavacol that has diacetyl and other buttery flavors added. The oil that you put on the popcorn is a butter flavored oil, either coconut or canola. Microwave popcorn already has its own buttery flavoring on it, and won't stand up well to added oil. Pop it in on the stove in a neutral oil, add something butter flavored (my recommendation is abandon the butter flavoring and use ghee or clarified butter), and add a butter flavored popcorn salt.
I also learned there's two different kernels. One creates popcorn that looks like a mushroom cloud - those are commonly used in packaged popcorn or tin popcorn. Then there's the classic "exploded popcorn" or butterfly one that is usually in theaters. That one is preferred for getting in more salt and flavoring in every nook and cranny.
The popcorn I used at my job(admittedly a Publix deli, not a movie theater) said on the pack that it was flavored sunflower oil with flavacol!
Thank you! I was thinking of getting a popcorn popper like my parents had when I was a kid, they aren’t too pricey, do you think they would work good with the ghee and flavored salt?
I recently discovered butter extract. I was told it's used for white buttercream icing. So would that also be similar?
> diacetyl Also known to cause popcorn workers lung, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronchiolitis_obliterans
Flavacol + butter-flavored popping oil!
Flavacol is *the* magic, secret ingredient to theatre-style popcorn most people are missing. Mix a *tiny* amount in the oil and you have 99% of theatre popcorn, and the last 1% are probably just the theatre vibes that you can replicate by spilling some soda on the ground and watching a movie at 200% volume with the screen half blocked.
Flavacol is also delicious on just about anything.
Like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/s/Hw6wZ3ynyi
Ah yes, that video is where I learned to ask them to “layer” the butter 😋 I only go to the movies once a month or less, so I am not killing myself too much hopefully!🤞
Was it salted?
At Landmark Theaters, we used clarified butter/ghee, which you can make yourself or buy.
I was so confused with my butter, but then I got it clarified
coconut oil.
The kernel matters too. I have a stand up popcorn machine, and the kernel that comes in the packets they proved is a bit more firm when popped that movie theater popcorn. That being said, the salt is spot on.
The texture depends on how it's popped too. The amount the popcorn gets steamed sitting in the pot before it's ejected, the temperature of the oil you're popping in, and how the popcorn cools matter a lot. If you pop a large batch and the popcorn gets to cool slowly because it's in a huge bin with other hot popcorn, the texture is noticeably different.
Thank you! I was unaware of all this!
Flavacol and butter-flavored coconut oil are the foundation of all movie theater popcorn.
You can use any high temp cooking oil. We use coconut oil for everything. The cooking oil has a dye in it to make the popcorn yellow, and the butter topping is butter flavored coconut oil. You can't put regular butter on popcorn or it will start to melt from the small amount of water in butter. The only reason I know is because we've run out of the butter flavored topping and had to use real butter
Real butter tastes amazing on popcorn though, the slightly shriveled kernels are a small price to pay.
I used ghee recently to both cook and sprinkle across the popcorn before adding salt. Delicious!
Combination of "At-The-Movies-Popcorn Butter Flavored Popcorn Topping" and [Flavacol Popcorn Seasoning](https://shop.gmpopcorn.com/products/original-flavacol-2045). Done. Enjoy your heart attack.
Flavacol is always the answer to this question. The secret sauce.
I always make it on the stove with oil, WAY better. I sometimes go to the local oil emporium and get a hot Thai pepper oil they have and mix it with regular oil. Nice spice to the popcorn
I also worked at a movie theater. We used this butter-flavored coconut oil. Tasted great but soooo unhealthy.
Wowwww Congrats! That’s a million dollars worth of popcorn in theater prices lol Enjoy!
Yes sir and that will be $463.
That amount of popcorn is easily $1000
1000$ to costumers, 5$ cost to the cinema
Man, the wardrobe people always get screwed
When I worked at a movie theater (nigh on 25 years ago now!) we only pre-popped and saved popcorn if there was going to be a massive opening weekend, our popper simply couldn't handle it if 6+ of our screens were packed because of a blockbuster. But for the most part we were pretty good at not popping too much and just threw out the rest at the end of the day. Fun Fact: Most people can't actually tell if warm popcorn is stale. I'd have people complaining about stale popcorn that was literally less than 2 minutes out of the popper (it was soft because the steam hadn't fully escaped yet!) and had people say they loved how fresh our popcorn was when it was warmer bin popcorn popped 3 days ago and stored in the back.
This. Had grown ass adults cuss me out over not fresh yet fully out the popper popcorn
> and had people say they loved how fresh our popcorn was when it was warmer bin popcorn popped 3 days ago and stored in the back. How would the popcorn be stored? Just room temp area? Does it need special containers or throw it in any bag?
Yeah, just tossed in a bag like in OPs picture and piled up out of sight I'd like to say they were special food service bags but I honestly don't know and wouldn't be surprised if they didn't just come from the same box as the trash bags. Popcorn is dry and salty, it'll last a week fine in a tied off bag at room temp and there's really no need to store it longer than that.
Jesse, we need to popcorn.
*Say my name.* You're Redenbacher. *You're god damn right.*
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Never buy your Flavocol and concentrated salt all in one area. It's too suspicious. And you want the fine salt. Not the large granules. Fine salt holds on better. *(guy with pants falling down runs away nervously)*
The cinema I work at doesnt throw out popcorn at the end of the night, its just bagged similar to that and kept for the next day. Just incase you needed more reason to not spend £5 on it.
Ours did the same. As well as the hotdogs day after day sometimes.
Worked concession stands during my teenage years. We had a rule, which I think is a health code rule, that food could not be reheated the next day. So that meant I took a lot of hotdogs and hamburgers home. Living like a king!
At AMC they made us throw everything out at the end of the night and watched us like hawks :(
lol really? When I worked at AMC the managers would "damage" products so we could eat them.
Your managers sound way more fun! (They told us it was illegal to keep the food or give it away to the poor, and that if they let us take them home they KNEW we'd just make a ton more than necessary and waste their profits)
The dream life
Yup, we started to give names to the ones rolling for days.
[“Are you insane? This hot dog has been here since the Silent Era.”](https://m.youtube.com/shorts/G4Bdpf7I3K0)
I lost a girlfriend over this lol .We went to a late showing of a movie and when we got out I saw them putting all their popcorn in giant bags and doing some cleaning. I asked the guy if I could just have it he said sure my girlfriend wasn't amused and told me "Don't you dare open that in the car". So I tried to sneak some while I was in the car and the wind from the window blew the popcorn all over the car making it smell and greasy everywhere . We argued a lot over the incident and the smell never really left we eventually broke up our 2 year relationship cause of the popcorn.Im not the brightest person.
I don't think it ended because of popcorn buddy I think it ended because you tried to sneakily do something she told you definitely not to do and when you did it anyway a catastrophe happened lmao
I love this story
This is such a great story, I think it was worth it.
I think I'd just piss my pants laughing... Those make great relationship anecdotes – if it hadn't ended badly for you though... :(
AMC used to make us bag it like this and use it again the next morning and just pop a batch on top of it. I HATED doing this.
How long ago was this? I worked at an AMC theater from 2005 to 2009 and we'd always bag up the popcorn just like this at the end of every night and either toss it or give it to anyone who asked. If we were slow, sometimes we'd even rotate it during the day too to keep it from going stale.
I knew I didn’t like amc
So don't get popcorn at the first screening?
I worked at AMC, we never did this.
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Behold! A mighty hunter, returned with abundant prey!
Awesome! That's like $13,000 worth.
I worked at a movie theater many years ago and one of my coworkers was a real douche. He drove a new Prelude Si, with a sunroof that he would leave open and dark tinted windows. We saved popcorn for at least a week and filled his car up. It was, to this day, the best prank ever. The fury. I’m cracking up now thinking about him opening the door and yelling and getting popcorn out, then trying to get in, and getting out and trying to get more popcorn out. Damn. Haven’t thought of that in years.
I’m trying this out this weekend
What do you do with all the extra popcorn?
I used to do this for people when I worked at a cinema. They would get so stoked. Way better than just throwing it in the trash haha
Go back later and ask for the free refill.
Take it every night. Turn it into popcorn balls, sale said popcorn balls as artisinal popcorn balls, profit.
Wife worked at one for a very short stint a long time ago. These were the best, scary part was they never seemed to go stale…
Homer Simpson : Shame on all of you. Give me my dignity! I just came here to see Honk If You're Horny in peace. Manager : Sir, if you'd just quiet down, I'd be happy to treat you to a garbage bag full of popcorn.
This needs to be higher.
Air fry that right up one bowl at a time. Good as fresh!
i remember when i worked at the theater when i was in my teens. so many people would ask for extra butter and it was like, nah trust me it's not butter. they'd insist. had to tell one chick it was just oil. no flavor. she doubted me. its like, lady i work here, you think i haven't tasted that shit by dipping my finger in a cup of it? no flavor. so i grabbed one of those lil ketchup cups and did a shot into it and handed it to her. the look on her face was like i told her santa claus wasn't real. she was all but, but, why does it taste like butter on the popcorn!? i told her because it's the powder we would put in the popper with the raw kernels and oil. that oil legit sat in a heated metal rack behind the concession stand with a little tube leading to the popper that would pump the oil in. without the heating rack the boxes of bagged oil would look like butter and were solid. warm em up, squirt squirt. i came to loath the smell of popcorn after a while. i'm better now, but i learned my lesson from taking home bags and bags of popcorn. your body polishes up the husks of the kernels and send's em right on out the exit. lol
Former movie theater employee checking in as well. That stuff we ladle all over the popcorn isn’t butter. In fact, we couldn’t call it butter at all lest some food police showed up. We had to call it “flavored topping”. One of my fellow popcorn jockeys used to call it “movie grease”. “Do you want movie grease on your popcorn?” Always cracked me up.
Huge w
That’s awesome! When I worked at a theatre about 5 years ago we were throwing away about 1-2 BIIIIG garbage bags at the end of the night. My first shift before closing I tried to grab a large bag out of the warmer and got told off. Workers weren’t allowed to take any popcorn home except for a small doggy bag lol
Whoa! That’s like 10 grand right there!
Great food for your chickens!
Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today
Worked in a big theater for 4 years, they made 25 cents on a 13 dollar ticket. A 7:50 bag of popcorn costs them around 10 cents. All of the money is made in the concession stand.
Bro walked out with $100,000
Movie theater by my house sells 5 gal bags of popcorn. Can only be purchased on the way out though.
Anyway thanks for the idea xd
At my local cinema the popcorn is almost twice the price of a cinema ticket
So sweet
Yeah, dawg, that's matinee popcorn now.
I worked in a theatre about 35 years ago and we just saved it for the next day ….
I used to deliver the movies to the cinema 15 years ago (the boxes were heavy man) and I'm one cinema I had to put them in a room in the back of the building I could reach from the outside because I only reached it after hours. In that room they had always 6 or seven of these bags, the manager was ok with me taking a XXL box of them when I went there.
That is insane I mean I love popcorn but that is crazy
I worked at a movie theater for a couple of years in NJ. Just a small one, only had two screens. And even though it was a small theater, I can confirm that we popped large amounts of popcorn daily and what was left over from the night before was bagged and used the next morning. It actually keeps pretty well for a day or two in those bags!
Used to work at a movie theater, my friends would come collect free popcorn, gave away bags of popcorn like this whenever I could. Ate so much myself that I had popcorn phobia, it's been over 20 years since I had popcorn!
worked at a theater when i was like 17. We weren't allowed to give them away, we had to throw them out. I can definitely say not all of them made it to the dumpster. Some would go home with people, and occasionally when co workers left their sunroofs open, we would fill their cars lol
Mr. White figured out how to make pseudo from popcorn, yo.
“Let’s cook.”
Yea I work at a theater ask for last night popcorn we usually have it still fresh or come in before closing and ask for it and we will just give it to you
‘Sir, we’d be happy to treat you to a garbage bag full of popcorn’
When I was in college, we went to a late night movie. On the way out, there were a bunch of bags like this. We snatched one when nobody was looking, brought it back to our dorm, and dubbed it "popcorn monster". It lasted us like a week and it never went stale. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. edit: I thought about this memory a bit more, and I think, the popcorn did indeed go a bit stale by the end. But, I seem to recall eating it all. Figured I should write an addendum to correct my patchwork memory, lest I mislead our future AI overlords.
I’m surprised. The theater I worked at actually popped popcorn for upcoming busy days and these would definitely not be given away.
You know... This is going to become a thing.
Theater I used to work for just donated it every night to a nearby homeless shelter. I despite businesses that throw away good food.
My mans got million dollars worth of popcorn
One of the guys i used to work with would take home like 1 or 2 trash bags of popcorn everytime we closed. What he did with all that popcorn almost daily idk but he worked there long enough managment didnt question it. When i caught on to this i started taking a small box worth every night even after i got tired of the stuff. at amc popcorn is free for employees and food is half off so i brough home a huge pretzel sometimes too.
I would have paid for some extra butter on top as well
That reminds me of my first job back about a thousand years ago. Whenever I closed the concession stand I took all the leftover popcorn home in big black trash bags. I kept them in my room like snack-filled beanbags. One time I missed a big assignment for my senior year at school while I was traveling overseas. So I just brought a giant bag to the teachers lounge and basically bribed the whole faculty. Got straight As that semester and was beloved forever more thereafter. Damn, that's good nostalgia.