coming to a theater near you: the snack police (link)
12.7.09 - smartmoney - by kelli b grant

i have to be honest with you. pretty much every time i go to the movies, i'm at least sneaking in a soda. like most rational human beings, it kills me to pay $4.00 for a friggin fountain soda. it's just insane. are we living in japan or something? i mean, i get it. theaters make a huge portion of their money off of concession sales, so they need to keep that revenue stream pumping. unfortunately, we're living in a crap economy & money's down all around for theaters, concessions included. as a result, theaters are starting to crack down on people cutting into their precious concession revenue by bringing stuff in with them. just last week, the second biggest theater chain, amc theaters, announced that they're ending their policy of letting people bring snacks into the theater. they figure it's time for us cheapskates to start ponying up at the concession stands.

since the movie theaters are trying to milk us for all we're worth at concessions, smart money has a few tips to help us save money elsewhere when we're venturing out to the cineplex during these tough economic times. basically, their tips add up to a bunch of ways to take advantage of discounts. for starters, lots of theaters have loyalty clubs that "offer gratis and reduced-price snacks" at those lame times when nobody goes to the movies, which works out swimmingly because you're also trying to save money by going to a tuesday matinee. luckily, you & your three closest friends are unemployed, so you can easily work it into your schedule. even if you're still employed, you can buy packs of vouchers that offer discount prices on concessions.

their best suggestion is to "pick your movies carefully." i couldn't agree with this point more. there is no reason that you need to rush out & see madea goes to jail in the theater. trust me, you can wait until it comes out on dvd. if you're going to see crap, at least go see something like transformers, something that requires a big screen to really appreciate all the extraneous explosions. it's pretty self-explanatory. stop seeing so many crappy films & you'll save money.

as a service to my readers, i'm going to offer up a movie savings tip of my own: just keep sneaking snacks in. laws are meant to be broken, people. it's not like a theater's going to pat you down on the way in, so you can easily smuggle in a candy bar & a couple of nips no problem. it's no $10 jumbo popcorn/soda combo, but you don't need that crap anyway. from what i hear, that combo has as many calories as a small baby. nobody should eat an entire baby during a summer blockbuster. it's just not healthy.