All You Can Eat Junk Food No Bargain At The Movies

WSJ asked “Would Ticket Holders Pay $25 if They Got Unlimited Food” to go along with their movie ticket & one wondered who would be dumb enough to pay that much for all you can eat junk food. Getting movie-goers’ butts back in the seats after the Covid pandemic, the newspaper noted, has been a challenge for a number of movie chains & some are taking the risk of “tinkering with their pricing” models.

One Detroit suburban theater with 10 screens learned that “habits are hard to change” and lost big on his bright idea to “bundle” what would have been a $9 ticket with a $25 pass that included all you can eat buttery popcorn, syrup soda, micro-pizza, unfrozen chicken tenders & teeth-rotting candy. Apparently, the usual long lines at the concession counter actually shrunk like the reduced pandemic traffic on US 80.

While the margin for error is especially small for small businesses like the one in suburban Detroit, “Many companies had no choice but to try,” said Jagmohan Raju, a marketing professor at the U of Penn’s Wharton School of Business. Yeah, but maybe offer some good food instead of the same old crap?

Davd Soul