Why do we eat popcorn when we go to the cinema?

Question

(aside from the fact that it tastes nice!)

Answer 1

that is a good question.....like what did it originate from? i wish i knew.

Answer 2

because its there lol

Popcorn was very popular from the 1890s until the Great Depression. Street vendors used to follow crowds around, pushing steam or gas-powered poppers through fairs, parks and expositions.


During the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries down-and-out families could afford. While other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived. An Oklahoma banker who went broke when his bank failed bought a popcorn machine and started a business in a small store near a theater. After a couple years, his popcorn business made enough money to buy back three of the farms he'd lost.
During World War II, sugar was sent overseas for U.S. troops, which meant there wasn't much sugar left in the States to make candy. Thanks to this unusual situation, Americans ate three times as much popcorn as usual.


Popcorn went into a slump during the early 1950s, when television became popular. Attendance at movie theaters dropped and, with it, popcorn consumption. When the public began eating popcorn at home, the new relationship between television and popcorn led to a resurge in popularity.
Microwave popcorn -- the very first use of microwave heating in the 1940s -- has already accounted for $240 million in annual U.S. popcorn sales in the 1990s.
Americans today consume 17 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. The average American eats about 54 quarts.

Answer 3

The answers above in actual fact are all right in the way you have phrased the question but if u mean why do we go and buy it ;

The reason we buy popcorn at the movies is because of the frontal lobe in your brain controls your temptations and your brain subcontiously tells your body you want something to eat when in actual fact your not neccesarily hungry but you see the popcorn and so your brain takes the image and sends it via a nerve to the right rear lobe which is where your willpower is and then your brain sends that message back to the frontal lobe and then u have the desire for the popcorn and thus you buy it then eat it.

Answer 4

Because of habit. I bet it all started when just one person was eating it and you know you can't resist popcorn when you smell it. So everyone wanted some. Then they just expected it when they went.

Now I am in the mood for popcorn.

Answer 5

It is an obvious snak for movies. It is cheap to make and will store well for a period of time in quantity. The package is not noisy and it is very easy to sweep up between movies. I can't think of another product that costs pennies and can be sold for $5

Answer 6

Cinemas make nearly all of their profit from the food they sell (film companys get most of the ticket money) Popcorn is one of the cheapest foods to make therefore one of the most profitable to sell.

Answer 7

The smell and the taste can be addictively good or it can be the total opposite for some people.. goes well with a sip of coke or pepsi.. dont you think?

Answer 8

It does seem like such an indulgence. It almost seems a bit addictive. It's just such a habit I guess. That's why they can get away with charging so much for it.

Answer 9

I think we eat it because when ever else do you eat popcorn or make it at home, hardly ever I'm guessing.

Answer 10

Probably because it is safer, easier and cleaner than trying to eat something like chicken tikka-massala or baked beans on toast.

Answer 11

cos it was cheap an durin the depression it was a luxury most people cud still afford. it was usually sold from carts outside theatres an on street corners people wud buy it on their way into the theatres an it progressed from there