# When did they do away with Intermissions at the Cinema? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825 "2006-04-16T00:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/41 "2006-04-18T00:56:40Z")
The only post-titanic intermission for me, was Troy. Its not even that long, about two and a half hours. I asked the cinema manager about this and he gave me some dung about how the movie wouldnt fit on the projector. Intermissions blow. So did troy. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/42 "2006-04-18T01:05:24Z")
> [@Happy Wanderer](#): > > 25% of $20 is $5. > $20 on concessions minus trivial labor and ingredient costs (maybe a dollar, popcorn and soda cost them pennies per serving) leaves $19. > > So the theatre is making roughly 4x as much on concessions in the first weeks (the only weeks that 90% of movies ever stay in distribution these days). Add in the fact that a lot of movies have very poor box office performance and the theatre is taking a bath on those and you will see what I mean. The box office pays the electric bill maybe. It is the concessions that pay the rent, the salaries, the newspaper ad expenses, etc. and if there is any left over at all for profit, they are damn lucky. So it’s not zip, but it almost might as well be. Titanic made a billion dollars in domestic BO, but it was a freak. Since then, 400m is a more reasonable upper limit for a major blockbuster. Again, like 80% of movies never make a profit in domestic release. Just ask Sharon Stone. I’m afraid you are wrong in a bunch of your assumptions. First off, very very few customers spend $10-11 per person on concessions. That essentially means that every single customer buys a large soda, popcorn AND candy. Most people get only a drink and almost everyone splits popcorn. Concessions, while overpriced, aren’t so expensive as to equal the average cost of the ticket prices. Also, only a certain pecentage of customers buy snacks at all. In my experience only about 50% of customers purchase concessions, many others bring their own candy and/or do without since they may have just come from dinner or be going on the cheap. I’ll concede that concessions do make up a larger percentage of revenue than all other avenues, but it is no where near the only measure. Were I to make an educated guess, I’d say it made up something like 50-60% of revenue, with advertising, trailers, box office, and incidentals making up the rest. Clearly those items aren’t negligible. I still assert that you’re wrong to assume that a sizable proportion of people will purchase _more_ concessions during an intermission. I doubt the upswing in sales wouldn’t even offset the concession sales lost from one showing. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone complain that they didn’t get enough soda or popcorn at theater, really the 64 oz soda and 2 cubic feet of popcorn aren’t enough? The thing stopping people from getting more is really just an intermission? I doubt it. Also, theaters here show a _minimum_ of 5 shows per theater. Even if the intermission was limited to 15 minutes (unlikely) and I accept they’ll not lose a full showing, you forget that showtimes aren’t just a function of available time in a day. They need to squeeze as many showings into that after-work timeframe between 7:00 PM and 10:30 PM. The difference in the box office between a show starting at 6:30 and 7:00 would be huge, as would a show at 10:30 versus 11:00. There’s one rule that supercedes all in commerce. If they could increace profits with intermissions, they’d be doing it now. Ipso facto, it’s not more profitable. ---
**Author:** ![Gerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Gerome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerome)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/43 "2006-04-18T01:53:53Z")
> [@Leechboy](#): > > The glorious Astor theatre in Melbourne, Australia still has intermissions during longer films. Which certainly helped us when my wife and I realised we couldn’t stomach watching Gladiator again. Most Hindi films still have an intermission, mainly because they tend to run close to three hours in length. The Astor even inserts intermissions into films that don’t actually have them - the screening of “Scarface” last night had an intermission awkwardly cut in about halfway through (I’m assuming at a reel change). Good cinema though, only place you can still get a double feature. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/44 "2006-04-18T07:52:25Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > But this could only work with small theatres. > > Do you really think that a 15-minute intermission would be long enough for the stupid herds to get out of the theater, stand in line, buy more popcorn, and get back to their seats again? Especially given the fact that, in larger complexes, they would be in line with people from other shows. I disagree. What tells you that everybody will suddenly go crazy for popcorn? The intermission is a pause, not a shopping break. In reality, there will some people who will stay and chat in the cinema, some will go stretch their legs, some will go to the bathroom, some might buy popcorn and the smokers will go for a smoke. Besides, the popcorn lines would adjust themselves, people won’t stand in line if they figure out that they won’t make it back in time. _Or_, if the crowdings really \*were \*a problem, and the cinema figured they could make extra cash because of the popcorn sles, they would open more popcorn lines. Problem non-existant? ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/45 "2006-04-18T13:56:23Z")
I worked in a movie theater over one summer, and can say for certain, that nearly all the profits come from the concession stand, not ticket sales. That’s why snack prices are so grossly inflated – $6 for popcorn, $5 for soda, up to $4 for candy. All of which costs pennies. There’s no way any theater could stay in business if they didn’t sell snacks. > [@Quartz](#): > > _The Two Towers_ had a pseudo-intermission: the bit where Aragorn is floating down the Anduin. It was amazing how many people got up to go to the loo. Was just gonna say, all the LOTR movies had a natural intermission worked into them – as soon as Arwen & Aragorn start their lovey-dovey talk, you’ve got about five minutes to use the jets, grab some more popcorn, maybe step out for a cigarette if the usher will let you. I’ll bet Peter Jackson did that intentionally, too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/46 "2006-04-18T14:35:08Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Also, theaters here show a _minimum_ of 5 shows per theater. Even if the intermission was limited to 15 minutes (unlikely) and I accept they’ll not lose a full showing, you forget that showtimes aren’t just a function of available time in a day. And besides, have you tired to get through a multiplex concession line in less than 15 minutes lately? I swear the folks that work there have to be on drugs to move that slowly. Couple that with the fact that the nit-witted customers don’t bother to think about their selections until they are at the head of the line and then take their own sweet time about ordering. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/47 "2006-04-18T14:52:22Z")
> [@cactus waltz](#): > > I disagree. What tells you that everybody will suddenly go crazy for popcorn? The intermission is a pause, not a shopping break. In reality, there will some people who will stay and chat in the cinema, some will go stretch their legs, some will go to the bathroom, some might buy popcorn and the smokers will go for a smoke. Besides, the popcorn lines would adjust themselves, people won’t stand in line if they figure out that they won’t make it back in time. > > _Or_, if the crowdings really \*were \*a problem, and the cinema figured they could make extra cash because of the popcorn sles, they would open more popcorn lines. > > Problem non-existant? If you’re right that people wouldn’t rush the concession stand, where is the incentive for the theater to have an intermission at all? What’s the point? If someone can’t sit still without a piss or a cigarette for the running time of a movie, then maybe they should stick to watching DVDs at home. Exceptions could be made for unusually long films, but apart from that it seems the whole idea of an intermission is rather pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825/48 "2006-04-18T15:00:08Z")
> [@myskepticsight](#): > > The “art-house” theater here in Columbia has an intermission. It only holds 56 people and has couches and individual, random padded chairs as seating; they show indie movies mainly. They serve beer and “real” food too. I went there for the first time last night to see “Thank You For Smoking” (loved it, btw) and there was about a five minute intermission halfway through. Isn’t the Rag-Tag cinema great? I love it. I saw “Thank You For Smoking” a week and a half ago there. Only theatre I have been to that sells beer, wine and hummus, sandwhiches, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-do-away-with-intermissions-at-the-cinema/352825.md?page=2)