Taking Food to the Movies

I used to bring a snack. But I go halves with my friends on a big drink. I'm not going to ruin the stuff in my purse via condensation from a cold drink. I do have a budget. It's called, "5 Items or Less From The Dollar Tree Store". There are many rules regarding bringing in your own snacks to movie theatres when watching movies. Be aware that it is against every US movie theatres' policy that you agree to by purchasing your ticket. They can kick you out for it. In addition, a huge debate rages on about how movie theatres don't make any money from ticket sales, but instead via the concessions. *shrugs* If you are feeling guilty or don't want to get kicked out of the movie theatre and possibly banned, you can see if they have reward program. I belong to one and every Wednesday you present your reward card at ticket purchase and get a free small popcorn. Plus I earn points that can be redeemed. Saves my purse on wear and tear. :D

Yes, the food is expensive at the movie theatres. I can't even buy like I want to when I go to the movies. If, they will allow me to, I will bring my own snacks that I will buy. I do buy snacks from them, but not as much as I would want to. I am very limited when it comes to snacking..

The prices are so high at the concession stand I don't feel bad at all if i were to do that. My problem is we go to the movies on the spur of the moment and I rarely have anything stocked up to take to the movies. Wish I did. Sometimes we buy popcorn but so expensive. They now (where we are anyway) will refill your soda and popcorn after your initial purchase which helps save. I think next time I am at the store I will grab some snacks like trail mix, nuts or candy to have at home for when we decide to go. And while we are on the subject, why are the popcorn, snacks and drinks so high at the movies? The clerks are usually teens working for minimum wage, the cost of goods is really low especially for popcorn and soda. Wouldn't selling a bucket of popcorn for $2 still make them a healthy profit, and then there is the ticket price of $8+ per person. Even though I complain I still go to the movie theater on occassion and enjoy it. Just wondering why the concessions have to be so high in price.

yes i love taking food to the movies... usually, i go to mcdonalds and take out some food like cheeseburger, fries and cola.. if i feel like eating some light snack then i buy butter flavored popcorn, chips or hotdog in bun... but if i really don't have the budget, i just share the food with my hubby and enjoy the movie!

You're right. Popcorns, drinks and other food being sold in the theaters seem to be gold in price! What we do is that we buy snacks and drinks from the supermarket to bring inside the cinema. Thankfully, the cinemas here in our area are not too strict when it comes to bringing food inside. We don't actually spend a lot of money for food, just enough.

well i take water, popcorn for myself and water, biscut, juices for my 2 1/2 year old son. I mostly buy popcorn at the theater.

Hi Shar, Like your case, the "official" stand of the cinemas is that we are not allowed to bring our own food. What meanie! They claim their sticky food is not sticky but our not sticky food instead is sticky. Anyway I seldom eat in the cinemas. I normally do that before or after the movie. I also am in the opinion that if your eating disturbs others, then that is not very right. I might occasionally buy a hot chocolate and bring it in or something. Cheers!

Hello Shar19! I understand what you mean about being guilty of having to "smuggle" food into the theater. My boyfriend and I love going to the movies! More often than not, we would eat before entering the theater. Or, we would watch first then eat after watching the movie. We rarely bring food or even buy food in the movie house as that would be very expensive. It is not practical.

Lately, when going to the movies, I see to it that I have eaten something rather than bringing foods in the cinemas. Our cinemas lately would have rolling mini-snack bars where they offer drinks and popcord during cinema breaks.

I sometimes bring in candy, sometimes not, it depends on how much time I have before the movie and if I actually remember to bring something.

We buy our own snacks and drinks in the grocery store because the foods in theaters are somewhat expensive so we buy ahead of our viewing time. Also there are lots of choices of snacks that you can choose from the store. ^^,

Well for me and my sister it's a mix... what we do is buy the largest popcorn that they have and share it (we hardly finish it either way at the end) Same with the drinks (some might find that gross but each has her own straw)... As for candy yes im guilty of "smuggling" as you say it... but we usually end up buying at least one thing from the theater to chomp on... some people bring sandwiches but that i think is going a bit far lol

It depends.If I went to the cinema alone,I usually bought something like dried figs or raisins to eat and a bottle of milk tea to drink.If I went with my friends,sometimes we bought something sharing them,sometimes didn't.I don't like buy goodies at the movie theatre.So few snacks there and so expensive. I also felt guilty few years ago,cuz it's forbidden to bring our own snacks and drinks.But,many of them take their own snacks,so,I have used to do it now.

usually i dont buy the snacks.i think that going to the movie is a simple thing.i enjoy the film but not go to the cantees.the food by the concession counter is so expensive.anyway,i know some people get a hatbit like that.i only have a drink at most.

I only go about once every two years so I might buy something there but I do prefer to "smuggle" because, considering the length of time between visits, the prices really are noticeable to me. I don't think it is right that they should be able to charge so much on snacks which would cost quarter of the price somewhere else.

Since my kids were born I don't go to the movies very often. But whenever I have gone I like to bring my own snacks, so long as they will fit in my purse without looking obvious! LOL I finally went to the theaters last week and I did a little bit of both. I bought a few candy bars at the grocery store as well as a soda. However, the soda would not fit in my purse so I ended up buying a small soda at the concession stand along with a small popcorn. It came to just over $10 for these two items! Outrageous, but at that moment I did not care (if you read my discussion "have you ever done the unexpected?" you may understand). Anyway, when I told my husband about it, he told me that I should have gotten a kid's soda and popcorn. It costs half as much and comes with a box of candy. I'll have to remember that the next time I go as the small sized popcorn and drink were too big. I couldn't eat and drink it all!

I also don't like to do that due to high prices. However, my kids always force me to buy at least some minimum snacks.

Hi there Shar. When me and my girlfriend go to the movies we do take water with us from outside, because it would cost us about 80-90% of a ticket value extra to buy a lousy bottle of water in there. I think that those prices are way to high, and are really not worth it, especially in this times of financial crisis.

Well i use to bring my own food when i go to cinemas to save some money, food in the cinemas are more expensive than the grocery store. but i do sometimes dont bring food for i can concentrate more of the movie when i dont eat while watching. And at the same time i will got a lots of saving too.

When I lived in Los Angeles I would bring my own snacks and drinks to the movies. The town I live in now only has two movie theaters that aren't that expensive and have reasonable concession prices, I buy my snacks at the theater.