how long before it's £10 for popcorn and coke ?

JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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.. and will some people still be stupid enough to pay for it ?

went to see green lantern today at my local vue and saw that a large popcorn and coke combo was now £8.

i could think of a dozen things i'd rather spend £8 on .. that could feed me for a couple of days rather than just sitting watching a bloody film.

i've always been vehemently anti-cinema food and this just makes me even more so.
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  • stvn758stvn758 Posts: 19,656
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    That's how they make their profit, isn't it. Bad news if you go to the cinema a lot.

    They'll be selling £75 HDMI leads and a coke soon.:D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,486
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    .. and will some people still be stupid enough to pay for it ?

    went to see green lantern today at my local vue and saw that a large popcorn and coke combo was now £8.

    i could think of a dozen things i'd rather spend £8 on .. that could feed me for a couple of days rather than just sitting watching a bloody film.

    i've always been vehemently anti-cinema food and this just makes me even more so.

    The last time I bought popcorn at the cinema was when I saw Love And Other Drugs in January. It cost about £3.50. Hot dogs at my local cinema are just less than £5!
  • Virgil TracyVirgil Tracy Posts: 26,805
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    god , I can't remember the last time I bought any food in a cinema . I'm one of those saddos that sometimes even takes sandwiches in . :o
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    The last time I bought popcorn at the cinema was when I saw Love And Other Drugs in January. It cost about £3.50. Hot dogs at my local cinema are just less than £5!

    See that's not actually that bad - i'd even probably have a hot dog that was less than a fiver.

    But £8 quid is beyond absurd.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,532
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    Why do you need to eat at the cinema? Would you take a portable DVD player to a restaurant?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 410
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    The prices at cineworld are ridiculous too. OH & I went to see a movie straight after work last week, so decided to get some popcorn while we were there. After checking the prices I asked for a small popcorn, the guy showed me the size of the bag - not much bigger than a bag of crisps and they wanted £3.80 for it!!

    Also looked at buying a bottle of water in Cineworld when we were there at the start of the year, £2.35 - no chance!
  • mimicolemimicole Posts: 50,908
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    I tend not to buy food at the cinema. Sometimes I'll buy a drink but otherwise I'll buy popcorn from a supermarket instead. They don't check bags at my local.
  • stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    Who in their right mind pays for cinema food? Over priced rubbish! I bring my own.
  • Virgil TracyVirgil Tracy Posts: 26,805
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    Who in their right mind pays for cinema food? Over priced rubbish! I bring my own.

    they know that the main catch is couples on dates , the guy has to offer to buy some grub .
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 40,102
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    I hate the portions.

    The prices are extortionate to begin with, but why do people need a litre and a half of coke for a 2 hour film?! If you want to buy a 500ml bottle from the fridge they're £2.

    I just sneak my own in. I've never been refused; they never check (and probably do not care since Cineworld pay is terrible - I believe min wage on a 0 hour contract?)
  • NostalgicNostalgic Posts: 7,156
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    mrcynical wrote: »
    Why do you need to eat at the cinema? Would you take a portable DVD player to a restaurant?

    Your quite right.

    I don't tend to eat food during a film at home anyway as i want to concentrate on the movie and not my tastebuds. Though i used to enjoy some popcorn and what not during it, when it was cheaper years ago. But now i just take a small bottle of juice in and that's it, to quench my thirst. There's a McDonald's across the road from the cinema for a reason, and much cheaper too!
  • Paradise_LostParadise_Lost Posts: 6,454
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    Who in their right mind pays for cinema food? Over priced rubbish! I bring my own.

    People that consider popcorn an essential part of the experience. I don't think many would want to sneak it in given that it's much better fresh and warm.
  • Rincewind78Rincewind78 Posts: 2,198
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    as Paradise_Lost said, it really is all part of the cinema experience.
    I mean, when you think about it - why pay so much money for heated corn, which costs next to nothing to produce, a large coke - which you can get 2 quid cheaper as a bottle from the shop and a bag of Revels - again - 2 quid cheaper in the shop down the road.
    but there is something special about it - well the popcorn. I have always found bags of Revels taste the same, no matter where you go.
    I just always forget to buy them before hand!!! and I loves me revels. And i am always drawn to the popcorn and dont really know why.

    but - i am on a health kick at the moment. sneaking bottles of diet juice in and for my last film last week - a box full of carrot sticks and humous dip :D
    but i do miss that popcorn. i really do.

    get this though!! in Jan, I had a week to myself, and had loads of cinema movies to catch up with. ended up going 4 days on the trot watching 9 movies, making full use of the old cineworld card.
    like some kind of popcorn ****, i got popcorn everyday :D
    but on the last day - they started that brand new week with popcorn for 1 pound only :eek: and i had missed out on the offer. then there was nothing more to watch!!
  • blueisthecolourblueisthecolour Posts: 20,119
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    I haven't brought popcorn in a cinema for about 10 years now - waste of time.

    I occasionally buy some pick & mix as the price isn't too bad and in my local showcase cinema you can buy a tray of chips for about £2 which is actually reasonable value for these sort of places.

    I did once get this ridiculously good deal at a Vue cinema in York. It was something like £6 for 6 different items - they were only small but at a £1 an item it was still a bargain. I think my selection included 3 hot dogs :)
  • November_RainNovember_Rain Posts: 9,145
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    .. and will some people still be stupid enough to pay for it ?

    There'll always be people who are daft enough to pay the saturated prices of cinema food. They could charge twice that and somebody would still be willing to part with their cash for it. The old adage "more money than sense" springs to mind.
  • xmodz10xmodz10 Posts: 1,434
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    Although cinema food is expensive, it keeps your local cinema going.
    if you start bringing your own stuff in. the cinema will increase the price of food even more and may even start increasing ticket prices as well
  • JasonJason Posts: 76,557
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    There'll always be people who are daft enough to pay the saturated prices of cinema food. They could charge twice that and somebody would still be willing to part with their cash for it. The old adage "more money than sense" springs to mind.

    I think you're right - probably people who think going to the cinema is some kind of special occasion or 'experience'. It's a film .. it's not like it's the bloody opera :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,442
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    stvn758 wrote: »
    That's how they make their profit, isn't it. Bad news if you go to the cinema a lot.

    They'll be selling £75 HDMI leads and a coke soon.:D

    I go the cinema a lot but I get my monies worth. I think it costs £7.25 or something along those lines for a Large Drink and Popcorn combo. I think watch 3 or 4 films and the popcorn can last 2 or 3 films.

    I rarely go to the cinema to see just one film as with the unlimited pass then it is only the food I need worry about and as I said the way I do it I make it go a long way :)
  • TakaeTakae Posts: 13,555
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    xmodz10 wrote: »
    Although cinema food is expensive, it keeps your local cinema going.
    if you start bringing your own stuff in. the cinema will increase the price of food even more and may even start increasing ticket prices as well

    I agree. It's also all part of cinema-going experience. I don't regularly go to cinema (noises from audience's chatter/phones/whatever are too distracting for me), but for a night out with friends to cinema? Part of the fun.
  • TakaeTakae Posts: 13,555
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    mrcynical wrote: »
    Why do you need to eat at the cinema? Would you take a portable DVD player to a restaurant?

    That doesn't make sense. So if one sips tea whilst watching TV, does this mean he'd have to take his TV to a cafe? It's almost impossible for most not to eat or drink while watching a film. Even among reviewers during a preview screening, there are some that chew on tips of their pens. :D Conditioning, I suppose.
  • stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    People that consider popcorn an essential part of the experience. I don't think many would want to sneak it in given that it's much better fresh and warm.

    Don't like it,always tastes like budgie food.
  • tortfeasortortfeasor Posts: 7,000
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    How long? I reckon next year. It's probably £10 in some cinemas around the UK now.
    god , I can't remember the last time I bought any food in a cinema . I'm one of those saddos that sometimes even takes sandwiches in . :o

    That made me smile. I somehow don't think it's an actual self deprecating comment but I too am a saddo that in the past ate some sandwiches I had with me when I went to watch a film. They were far more filling, cost less and I hadn't been able to eat them at my normal lunch time.
    I hate the portions.

    The prices are extortionate to begin with, but why do people need a litre and a half of coke for a 2 hour film?! If you want to buy a 500ml bottle from the fridge they're £2.

    I just sneak my own in. I've never been refused; they never check (and probably do not care since Cineworld pay is terrible - I believe min wage on a 0 hour contract?)

    I wouldn't be at all surprised. I worked for one of Cineworld's rivals for a while when I was in university and everybody apart from the managers had a 0 hour contract. We were paid about 20p more per hour than the national minimum wage was for 22 year olds+ at the time regardless of whether you were 17, 18, 19 or whatever. A lot of the people I worked with didn't care about anything and the managers never asked us to check or stop people who brought in their own food.

    I don't understand why people buy the bottled mineral water from the cinema and pay over £2 for less than a litre of water. It's their choice admittedly AND I acknowledge there are some who think mineral water itself is a con (I rarely buy the stuff myself anyway). The 'bucket' sizes for the postmix drinks are something I've also never gotten on with.

    When I worked for the cinema, the sheer number of drinks, bags of chocolate and popcorn bought at the cinema and left behind uneaten, unopened and largely not drunk was ridiculous and demonstrated that a lot of people who pay for it have more money than sense.

    I think hot dogs have always been one of the worst examples of a markup to avoid if possible. I seem to recall back in 2007 that hot dog prices at the O2 were cheaper than most of the cinema chains.

    The cinema chain I used to work for used to sell sweet popcorn that came out of a very large and blue plastic bag. The salted stuff was freshly popped though. The last time I shared some cinema popcorn it was pretty darn poor compared to the 'cinema style' popcorn you can buy in pretty much every supermarket.

    Let the people who do pay over the top for it continue and let the people who save a bit of money by shopping elsewhere spend their money on better things.
  • dd68dd68 Posts: 17,833
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    god , I can't remember the last time I bought any food in a cinema . I'm one of those saddos that sometimes even takes sandwiches in . :o

    Not sad, but smart! I often wonder how people can't go two hours without eating!
  • yorkieUKyorkieUK Posts: 2,159
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    dd68 wrote: »
    Not sad, but smart! I often wonder how people can't go two hours without eating!

    I totally agree! I would not want to sit close to someone stuffing their mouth crunching, chewing and slurping for god knows how long.

    Some may find this amusing - Billy Connolly's take on food at the cinema.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuUpShuC5dY
  • Sparklyblue171Sparklyblue171 Posts: 3,519
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    I usually go to the cinemas on the weekends so I buy foods many times, but in small portions. Or I buy big popcorn and share it between me and my brother. There's been times where I've brought my own drink, or food in a bag and I don't get checked. Other times I love the warm fresh popcorn they serve and for me it was always part of the cinema experience watching it on a big screen in the dark.
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