Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

Where can I find hard data on US per caps concessions in 2007 (or historically)? I'd rather not shell out a few thousand dollars for a report on the industry, but I can't seem to find this specific information anywhere.

I am not sure it is printed any where..TRY the Nato website..

I've checked there. All the stats are box office only. It may be available in their online encyclopedia, but I don't want to pay $500 for info that may not be there. I also found a market research report for the industry that supposedly contains the information, but it's over $3000.

For those of you who have done business plans in the past few years, what per caps did you use, and how did you justify those figures? I'd like to have a reference to go with whatever I include.

Our per cap is between $4 & $ 5 dollars.

i Believe the industry average is 2.25 to 2.50

Depends on what you intend on selling. Slap sells high end stuff and adult beverages so that will be higher. In my small town I sell normal concession itmes and our average is $2.50 - $2.75. I sell my stuff at rather normal prices. Do a serach on the concession form for details about prices and you can see popcorn can go from $2 to $10.

I just got a response on this question from a theater financing company. They don't know of any hard data available on it for the total market, but they gave some numbers for planning purposes anyway: regional differences from mid-$2 to high $3; places with cafes and/or pizza over $4; and a "meaningless" national average of probably $3.25 before taxes.

Per capita income in my target area is about 68% of the national average, and taking 68% of $3.25 gives me a figure of $2.21 per cap for concessions. That's certainly lower than I'd like to aim for, but on paper it looks workable for turning a profit as long as building and land costs don't get out of hand.

Do these numbers seem reasonable?

And one more note. Info on the publicly traded companies suggests they get in the neighborhood of $2.50 to $2.75 per cap, but from everything I can find, it looks like fewer screens tends to translate into higher per caps (I'm guessing due to shorter lines, better service, possibly lower ticket and concessions prices). Is that a reasonable assumption?

I've been open for two weeks now, and I am running about $2.20 to $2.50 per cap on most nights. I've also had better and worse.

Seems to me that numbers for those selling pizza and more versus those selling more limited selections are like comparing apples and oranges. Per cap seems to be a gross figure, so when cost of goods sold is significantly different it pretty much ruins the value of the data for anyone trying to base anything off of it. A net per cap would be much more useful.

But, don't ask me my net per cap, because I don't have a sophisticated enough system in place to tell you that yet.