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Yesterday I opened two pieces of mail that informed me costs were going up. Pepsi and my local courier. Then I read this today on Yahoo: By Dan Kimmel

"BOSTON (Variety) - Mayor Thomas Menino has proposed a 50 cent surcharge on all movie tickets to help the city of Boston to get through its current budget crunch..."

Hope that doesn't pass. What do you hear Mayor Mike? Is your council pressuring you on this issue?

Old tickets discovered in my theatre walls and old seats during renovation indicated taxes were charged back in the 40's or 50's. When did that taxation stop and why?

Costs keep going up, but there is a limit to what the patron will pay especially in today's economy.

Chances are those taxes on your old tickets from the 40s and 50s were for a 20% Federal Admissions Tax. It was instituted during WWII and not repealed until the early 1950s after TV started making inroads on theatre attendance.

There is a short film about the admissions tax that was actually shown in theatres during the early 1950s. It was produced by exhibitors to explain to their patrons why the tax needed to be repealed. Cinematically, it's dry as a bone, but still historically fascinating. It turns up every now and again on Turner Classic Movies in between features.

NATO can help theatres in any lobbying efforts.
http://www.natoonline.org
http://www.infocusmag.com/02july/washreport.asp

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services
Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 585-477-5325 Cell: 585-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
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Website: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Maine has a fiscal crisis because they expected to have "millions of dollars" Dr. Evil, forever coming in from stock market cap gains. There will be a vast expansion of sales tax payees and I expect it to include movie tiks. Probably 6% so up 36 on an adult tik. I will take the opportunity to raise my prices by .50 each. I will njot even bother fighting about this.

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As long as I have been involved as owner/manager (about 13 years), Missouri has charged sales tax on movie tickets, so our $5.50 general admission is actually $5.14 with $.36 sales tax. Maybe I should relocate?

Well, we're charged 3% on top of the 14%!

3% to city as admission tax
7% GST (Goods and Services Tax)
7% PST (provincial Sales Tax)

It sucks!

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"Would you like fries with that?"

In California movie tickets are not taxed, although concessions items are taxed. Food from the super market is not taxed. But our concession items constitute prepared food.

Large: Is packaged candy taxed in theatres and not grocery stores in CA? How about things like bottled water, canned soft drinks, etc.?

We hold a restaurant license for our concession stand. Therefore we pay tax on all items sold from the concession stand.

We have a little bodega store next door that holds a store license. So he pays tax on sandwiches and beer but not on apples, canned soda or potato chips. He has to pay tax on food he prepares but not on food he just sells.

In Michigan, it is the same as Cal., we charge sales tax on all concessions, but we dont have to hold a restaurant license unless we were to sell meat (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.) or other foods that can become easily contaminated. We do to have a sales tax license though.