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We're trying to get the per cap up. We're at 2.30 +/-. We have combos. Our prices are not too high. What do you try?

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Mike,

2.30 per cap is very good for the size and nature of your towns. Your doing better than we are. What are your concession prices and combo's? I think I'm priced wrong.

usfrench,

Mike is talking about the Temple. We're brainstorming on what to do keep the percap up. As of late, it seems to be dwindling down. Our prices we think are reasonable for this area:

CANDY
sm - 1.75
med - 2.00
lge - 2.50

SODA
can - 1.50
fountain
sm - 1.25
med - 1.75
lge - 2.25

POPCORN
sm - 1.75
med - 2.75
lge - 3.75

COMBOS FOR $5.00

1 Large Popcorn & 1 Large Soda
or
2 Small Popcorns & 2 Small Sodas.

We are looking for ideas to "stir up" more interest in people buying concessions. Kids movies, no problem, it's the adult population that we are trying to pull into buying.

Art Cinemas do much less per cap than commercial houses. Our per cap is $1.80 and our concession prices are a bit higher than yours. I'd say that your per cap at $2.30 is pretty good. I’d kill for a $2.30 per cap.

Two ways to get your per cap up is to train your staff to up-sell or suggest an additional item.

Up-selling is asking the customer if they would like the larger size. Pointing out to the customer that the large is a better value can do this. The industry is steering away from this idea because the audience suffers this everywhere they shop.

Suggesting an additional item is as easy as suggesting a drink when they just order a popcorn. Or suggesting a cookie when they order a coffee. And finally asking if they might like a candy when they have ordered a Coke and Popcorn. Corporations like the additional item because it bumps the per cap more than up-selling.

Finally, it is wise always to have a kid pack. I as a parent (Not in this lifetime apparently.) might think that little Timmy and little Jessica could share a small popcorn and a small soda. This would only cost me $6.00. But once little Timmy spit in little Jessica's soda, I might find it easier to buy two kid packs at $3.50 each. It's the same amount of product, but the theatre gets $1 more out of it.

Drinks and popcorn are the most profitable items in your concession stand. Give as wide a variety as possible. This includes alternative drinks to Soda and sugar. And a wide array of popcorn toppings. I'm also interested in Kettle Corn.

You must also have some items that imitate a meal at the theatre. I don't know how many times I have had a hot dog and nachos and called it dinner. I love those jalapenos.

Is there some kind of regional item that you could have at your theatre that nobody else carries? I have seen theatres with the huge Dill Pickle. Moose Jerky anybody?

The first item every concession stand needs is a smiling, happy to be there, attentive staff. Minimize things in the concession stand that turn the employee's back to the counter. Nothing turns me off faster than an employee with their back to the counter, uninterested in helping the customers.

I agree with large, and add the following:
Be sure there is staff enough to fill orders without huge lines. Be sure that the staff is very pleasant,
and if all else fails...raise the prices a bit. Just keep the cost to profit ratio where it should be, what good is a $2.30 per cap with a huge cost? We are all seeing additional fees due to fuel prices...just look at a freight bill. but..
$2.30 is pretty good for the product we haveon screen right now.
my 2 cents
lance

Do you guys have the other usual theatre items?
Nachos & Cheese-A nice profit item that many people who want a little more than popcorn will buy.

Pretzel & Cheese- Another similar item

Cotton Candy- Great profit item, you can make it ahead in bags, no prep time.

Hot Dogs- A great item if you're looking for a small food item to add. Just stick a microwave in your concession stand.( and since you're going to be having nachos and pretzels, you can add a "cheese dog" to your menu with the cheese you will already be using.)

Some of these other items also make great combos too- Nachos and a Lg. Drink combo...

My per cap has been significantly down this year. I attribute this to three reasons:

(1) I have played a lot more adult oriented product this year.

(2) The public - at least in my area - has become extremely price concious about movie snack bar prices. There have been several articles in our local press complaining that movie snack prices are way too high (especially at certain first run theatres) and URGING THE PUBLIC TO SNEAK IN THEIR OWN FOOD! Even local talk radio has jumped on this.

(3) A new restaurant has opened directly across the street from my theatre. This restaurant has proved very popular and has helped bring more people into the area and into my theatre. However the people who go for dinner and then come over across the street for a movie all say the same thing.... "I Just Ate".... and walk right past the snack bar.

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited April 03, 2003).]

What is the typical per cap at a multiplex?

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"Would you like fries with that?"

Muviebuf,
I would pull advertising from a local paper after a series of articles like that, a local writer encouraging protest and the sneaking in of food? Were you offered the same space in the paper to tell your side of the story, for the most part the movie going public has no idea that we're giving a large % of the ticket take back to the distributors and concession prices keep the theatre open. I would at a minimum write a letter to the editor explaining how a movie theatre works.

Last night I was in a Border's Books. A Chai (small) was 2.80! I bought 6 books: 69.00. A map of Iraq was 6.99. Movies and the food at ours is a great deal.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Hi Tony, et al:

The public is right. Concession prices ARE too high. Even the prices you show Tony. For my planned project I will refuse to buy "theatre packs" from theatre concession suppliers and instead will buy my concession items from a grocery wholesaler (a source I've already checked out) and will be competitive with the local grocery stores. I will also sell items they cannot get anywhere else in town (nachos, snowcones, kettlecorn, cotton candy) plus 'dogs, burgers, ice cream and coffees.

If you're in a position to do so perhaps you should change suppliers.

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Bob Allen
The Old Showman

Bob-
Why would you want to be competative with the grocery store? You are two very different businesses. A grocery store relies on selling TONS of merchandise at a 1-5% profit. They can make it because they have the VOLUME. A movie theatre makes their money at the concession stand.Most of the ticket money goes back to the distributors, so esentially, your whole profit comes from the food. Hence the pricing.
A movie is an "out of home" activity, and pricing isn't too out of line if you consider what the food costs at a zoo, or circus, concert, etc. other out of home activities.

COMPETE with a grocery store???--I would find that impossible, unless running all second run and filling the theatre each show. Considering you only have roughly 10 minutes of actually sales time for each showing, and peopel only want to eat so much in a 2 hour period, the margin of profit would not cover the bills.

I am a very frugal shopper when it comes to suppliers. I have on occasion even ordered from a broker. The problem is the amount that needs to be ordered to get the broker prices, which in reality are less than 10% of what supplier prices are. I have found, for small candies, Sam's club is one cent a bar cheaper than my supplier. Trouble here is 2 fold--the closest Sam's club is 2 hours from me, and I have to handle each box 3 times more than if supplier brings.

I hate to be a bubble buster--but in this business we need a much larger margin to cover all the costs, even before making a profit--or living.

trackfood:
You are BANG on! I can't imagine any theatre working on grocery margins, which are more like 0-4,4.5% right now.....A deal with a grocery wholesale may be a good idea, though I don't know how much lower your costs would be....

The reality is that the average conven store does a lot more biz than the average movie theatre: they are selling candy-hot dogs-soda at 12:00 midnight and 7:30 in the am and everywhere in between from morn to night. Any wholesaler would laugh at special pricing from a movie theatre because we don't do the volume they want to see.

On the other hand we have something they don't have at your average conven store: movies.

I'm not competing with conven stores or interested in it: we're a movie theatre with movies that cost 10's of millions to make. If they don't want to see the movie?: Stay home. If they don't want to buy fairly priced concession then please choose to do so with a minimum of whining about it.

I can't wait to see how Ole Showman's theories (abundant) work out when the acetate hits the Xenon.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario