The Popcorn Economy

It’s tough sledding owning a movie theatre these days. Hollywood squeezes you for every dollar they can get from ticket sales and forces you to show long preview reels that lengthen screening times; advertisers clamor for access, and will pay handsomely for it, but they insist on having the volume turned up to insane levels in order to insure that the audience can’t ignore the commercials; and then there are those damnable “serious” filmmakers, who insist on making movies that run longer than 128 minutes, or worse, giving their films engaging plotlines that encourage moviegoers to stay in their seats rather than heading to the concession stand to refill their barrel of popcorn and vat of pop.