Maybe you’ll watch if you’re drunk? Movie theaters use booze to boost Hollywood’s tanking ticket sales

As movie ticket sales continue to shrink movie chains are turning to a new source of revenue to replace the flagging profits by adding a cash bar to their concession areas. But is it any wonder ticket sales are dwindling with nearly every movie being a left-wing lecture and every Hollywood “star” being a raving liberal?

Theater chains all across the country are adding booze to concessions and for some chains the move has really boosted profits, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

screenshot movie booze

For decades most states have outlawed alcohol sales in movie theaters, but now that 32 states have reversed those bans theaters are quickly adding bars to their concession areas and reaping the rewards.

“It is the fastest-growing amenity in our industry,” George Patterson, senior vp food and beverage at AMC, told the Reporter. “Dollar for dollar, alcohol doesn’t cannibalize candy, soda or popcorn. If I put a bar in, I can almost guarantee my food and beverage revenue will go up. Over 70 percent of our guests are over the age of 21.”

Two major movie house chains, AMC and Regal Theaters, have announced major increases in concessions sales across the board. But they also noted that sales in theaters that now have alcohol rose even more. AMC, for instance, noted that food and beverage sales rose to $910 million in 2015, up from a previous reporting of $647 million in 2010. Regal said its sales are up to $910,000 over sales of $724,000 in 2010.

AMC

New York is apparently a market that theater operators still want to crack as alcohol sales in theaters are still outlawed in the Empire State. New laws are being proposed, though, so the ban may end soon.

But the rise in food and alcohol sales in theaters is in contrast to the fall in proceeds seen from ticket sales. As The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson recently wrote, “in 2016, the film industry is on pace to sell the fewest U.S. tickets per person of any year since perhaps before the 1920s and the fewest total tickets in two decades.

And is it any wonder? With terrible, preachy, left-wing movies like Jessica Chastain’s “Miss Sloane,” a major anti-gun movie which flopped badly, or Hollywood’s recent reimagining of Grease by being more interested in “diversity” than in the story, many people are just checking out of the movie world in droves.

And it doesn’t help that Hollywood continues to offer bad ideas — such as a buddy film about police brutality starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn — or that many in Hollywood are seen day in and day out calling their own fans racists and wishing they would die.

Is it any wonder that people have to get drunk to watch a movie these days?

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles