The butter for your popcorn tastes like shit now. I know it was always a suspicious lukewarm mystery solution, but at least it tasted alright. Now it tastes gross. It ruined my entire bag of pop corn. When they ask if you want butter on your popcorn say no. Why do they put the butter on behind the counter now anyway? What happened to the butter-by-button setup? So I dump my popcorn out halfway through the movie to get a refill of non buttery popcorn, and they wouldn’t re-fill it. They used to give re-fills of large popcorns… what happened?
— I should have just said I spilt it
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.
No refills on the large bags, just the super-jumbo Empire size. Ridiculous.
I honestly can’t imagine eating an entire large popcorn, and then going back for more. I can’t even see doing that with a small…
Theatre popcorn blows ass. Which is fucked considering how much they charge. One time I went to the theatre at Mic Mac Mall (or whatever mall has GTO’s in it) and the popcorn was awesome, just like I remembered as a kid. Now I just pop my own and bring it with. I recommend PC organic microwave popcorn, it tastes like nothing else.
The best popcorn is the shit you pop yourself on the stove in a wee bit of oil and then coat with real melted butter, salt and pepper. mmmm…
Knapsack + homemade popcorn = thankful arteries
The butter behind teh counter is supposed to be ‘real’ the stuff out front – ‘shiny orange juice’ – i don’t think it has a name, because i don’t think it is supposed to exist on this earth
It’s “butter-flavoured topping” – aka edible petroleum product.
Yum.
True, OP. It tastes like barely flavored oil. The “fake” stuff you can add yourself tastes better.
I worked at Empire in my teens. This fake oil you speak of is, in fact, butter-flavoured oil. Says it right on the box. Tasty!
Is the new stuff grossness flavoured oil?
Ever go camping and make jiffy-pop over the fire?
Popcorn is hard on the digestive tract. It’s murder for anything with IBS-C.
anyone. not anything 😛
My question is why would anyone buy anything from theatre concessions. When a pop and popcorn (or anything else for that matter) cost more than the movie, there is something definitely wrong. I’ll eat before the movie. Imagine paying $4+ for about a quarter’ worth of corn and another $3-4 for about a quarters worth of carbonated flavoured water (which is mostly ice).
true dat… I don’t know many places that can have a markup of like 2000% and still consistently be busy?!!??!
but I suppose sheeple will follow suit.
Hell, I’ve even found myself in the line once or twice.
3.50 for a hotdog?!?!?
if it were pure angus beef ground up it wouldn’t be worth 3.50
High concession prices are generally the only way the theatre makes money, since they get next to nothing off the ticket prices(gotta pay the studios, etc). It also means that I’m not paying 15-20 bucks for a ticket instead of 10-14. Rejoice and learn how to smuggle.
you are allowed to bring outside food into the theatres now. They changed their policy very quietly a few years ago with little publicity. Think about it, when was the last time you went to an empire theatres and saw a sign that said ” no outside food or drink”?
no need for a back back or smuggling, You can walk right in with a large bag of doritos and a MacDonalds milkshake in plain view and they won’t say anything.
It’s convenience. Lots of people, myself included, get there late or at the last minute, and if I really want food, I’m not going to have time to go to the corner store for that $1.49 bag of popcorn. If people are lining up to pay those prices, they can hardly be blamed for keeping them high.
Thanks for the tip lovinglife – I bring food in almost every time but was still attempting to hide it.
Oh Mole Rat…please tell me you aren’t one of those people who arrive at the packed movie theater after the lights have gone down and annoy everyone who showed up on time as you excuse yourself past the people already settled in for the movie and park yourself in front of me forcing me to take my feet off the back of your chair. I really like you and couldn’t stand to hear you are guilty of committing the second greatest of all my pet peeves. 🙂
Movie theatres are only for people who can’t afford LARGE Plasma TV’s ;]
By watching movies at home…you can eat & drink whatever you want.
You can stop the show & go leave a piss ( I have never understood why so many say ‘take’ a piss!!! you don’t take it anywhere…you let it out & then …leave)
You can rewind that really awsomes scene .
There are just too many good reasons to watch movies at home, to bother wasting time in a theatre, with the all important celphone users, who just have to be instantly ready to get that all important call about who’s wearing what, or saying this or that about someone else !
Finally let us not forget those with the grape sized bladders who are up & down all through the show along with all the other inconsiderate assholes who just can’t sit down & shut up for an hour or 2 !
With the popularization of stadium seating, I love going to the movies again. I agree with all the advantages you listed More and watching movies at home keeps getting better, but you really can’t beat the big screen. Now, if I could build a drive-in in my backyard I would never go to the movies again.
Miles they’re making plasma screens in excess of 100 inches, combined with a nice surround sound system, its even better than a movie theatre . I’ve only got a 60+ inch plasma, but I really love watching movies on it, & I’m thinking of upgrading 🙂
{ I have to, I have no TV reception out here & I don’t want cable or satellite }
The fake stuff doesn’t bother me, but the supposedly “real” butter topping makes me sick for days.
Actually, I usually roll in about 15 minutes after the movie has started, wander around for another five minutes looking for the best seat, climb over a bunch of people to get to it, sit down, change my mind, get up, find the next best seat, take another 5 to wrestle open my candy wrappers, and then start texting people and loudly chatting to my companion about what’s being said. 😉
Nah, I try my best to get there on time, I hate being late, and I like previews. Can’t be on time all the time though!
I find going to the movies to be so expensive for what you get, that I try to limit my moviegoings to crazy action/adventure/sci-fi stuff. I don’t need to pay $10 to see a giant rom-com.
ALSO if you ask for butter they charge you some random price when you can use the machine yourself for free
More, I feel bad for you…. plasma’s eat your electricity and run REALLY hot (and I’m not playing the green angle here…. just the recession one, so long as you’re fine with paying through the nose… though I suppose it IS cheaper than a ticket to the movies).
Were you wanting the movie experience, I’d go with a projector, just as they do.
Bulbs are a pain and pretty pricey but you can’t get the same look and feel without it.
Any ten foot ceiling room can be a theatre, save the kitchen.
For what it’s worth, I’ve an old LCD but am trying to hold out for OLED, once they get their shit together and start pumping them out in > 12″ sizes.
zZz don’t feel bad for me…my last 2 month electric bill was under $100.00. Actually I have never had a bill over $100.00 since I bought this place in 2002 . I have a friend who has a projector system it puts an image in his place about 7ftx9 ft…but it isn’t as nice as my plasma. Last year i did a TV show which had a bunch of plasma screens in the set. one was 103 inches…great picture, awesome sound, the stand raised & lowered, it also paned & tilts right on the remote…needless to say everyone who seen it would have loved to own one ! But the price was pretty high, the $100 grand range.