Even a terrible movie can be salvaged when the popcorn is hot and buttered. In fact, popcorn is so important to the experience that some people even pick the movie theater based on the popcorn. Popcorn can make or break a movie, but it wasn’t always that way. It took some time for popcorn and movies to go together. Long before the corporate multiplexes, movie theaters wanted to demonstrate an air of sophistication to audiences, similar to that of an opera house. The idea was to make the movies feel like going to see a live show, so they decked out their facilities with plush carpeting and extravagant decor. All those fancy adornments were expensive, and the last thing owners wanted were sticky drinks on the seats, stray popcorn kernels on the floor, and greasy fingers on the arm rests. Besides, concessions were thought to be “beneath” the high-brow entertainment movie theaters were offering. There was also the issue of noise. Early films were silent, and even though they were often accompanied by live musicians, theater owners didn’t want patrons crunching on popcorn during the show. By the 1930s, when movies were being made with sound, theater owners began allowing independent popcorn vendors to sell in their lobbies. Once the theater owners saw that vendors were raking in around $14,000 a year ($300,000 today), it wasn’t long before they made concession stands a part of their movie theaters. Today, movie theaters earn approximately $2 billion annually on popcorn alone.
