Let's go out to the lobby By Stephen Shupe, Jayplay writer
Movie theaters survive on candy and 'corn
Natalie Portman and Zach Braff sit dripping in a shimmering swimming pool at night. Slowly they lean in until their faces partially block an underwater light in close-up, glowing in anticipatory ecstasy. The audience is gripped, and then ...
Chomp, crunch, munch. Sturp.
A patron — his ponytail and girth making him look like a cleanly shaved version of the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons — is in the back row adding his own effect to the soundtrack, smacking his lips as he downs a handful of buttery popcorn goodness. As the gentle strums of Iron and Wine collide with the sound of one man eating, you expect Portman and Braff to turn to the camera and say, "Hey buddy? Moment!"
Even when a movie resonates with audiences the way that Garden State did, movie houses still function as food factories. Call it the evils of capitalism or the death of art, but the proliferation of Raisinets and Reeses Pieces provide movie theaters with their main source of income. It's a necessary evil, but as Roger Ebert once noted, "An art form will forever be in a separate category if you can attend it while eating Twizzlers."
This is the nature of the business. Studios take up to 80 percent of box office grosses on opening weekend. If a film plays long enough, the theater will start to see a significant cut of the grosses. But this is the age of the one-week blockbusters (The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot), where movies have lost their longevity. This particularly hurts South Wind 12 Theatres, 3433 Iowa St., which has to make up for
playing so many movies for just a few weeks. Jon Ratzlaff, general manager of South Wind 12, says business has been especially slow since summer ended. Movies like First Daughter and Mr. 3000 barely survived their opening weekends, and playing box-office duds means relying more heavily on the sales of Milk Duds. Ratzlaff says South Wind 12 almost completely counts on concession sales to make a profit, and when you do the math, paying $5.75 for a student ticket and$ 5.25 for a large popcorn doesn't sound so unreasonable.
At Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St., business runs a little differently, because the theater works in conjunction with La Prima Tazza, 638 Massachusetts St., and Free State Brewing Co. 636 Massachusetts St. But Tim Griffith, concession manager at Liberty Hall, says any movie relies on money made at the candy counter. Liberty Hall has done well this semester, with the R-rated Garden State and the PG-rated Napoleon Dynamite both proving to have long shelf lives. Because most of the movies that play at Liberty Hall are rated R, the theater can tailor its business to an adult audience, providing Free State beer and mixed drinks along with the Gummy Bears and M&Ms. "It's not that our movies are all trash or porn, they're just for adults," Griffith says.
As for the guy in the back row munching popcorn during Garden State: He might be annoying, but the movie going experience wouldn't be possible without him.
Photo by Ginny Weatherman
Fun food facts:
Trivia you can use the next time you're out to eat to impress your meal mates.
-The person who invented popsicles was only 11 years old at the time.
*According to a study done by First for Women magazine, eating peppermint candy can actually help relieve stress.
*The biggest selling restaurant food are French fries — they're sold with 22 percent of all restaurant meals. Burgers are number two at 17 percent.
*About 27 million Coca-Colas will be consumed worldwide during the next hour. That's more than 600 million per day.
*According to the University of California at Berkley Wellness Letter, dieters say that the most difficult food to give up is cheese. The average American eats 28 pounds per year, mostly Cheddar and mozzarella.
*The most recognized smell in the world is coffee. Peanut butter is second.
*Pepperoni is America's favorite pizza topping. Japan's favorite is squid. Australians prefer eggs; pickled ginger is number one in the India and the French like fresh cream on the top of their pizza pie.
Source: http://halife.com/trivia/food.html
Jennifer Voldness
4
Jayplay 10.21.04