It's the end for popcorn at the movies

Popcorn has become an integral part of cinema-going. Audiences are willing to double the price of their ticket by forking out up to £4.50 for the snack. But the dominance of popcorn may be at an end. A growing number of cinemas are banning it, and next month the largest art-house chain will introduce popcorn-free screenings.

'Popcorn is a contentious issue. Lots of people absolutely hate it and have asked us to ban it, so we're going to do exactly that,' said Gabriel Swartland, head of media at the Picturehouse Cinema, a chain that comprises 19 Picturehouse-branded screens across the country, including such non-branded venues as the Little Theatre Cinema, Bath. Throughout September, the Picturehouse's Cinema City screen in Norwich will hold popcorn-free screenings at 7pm every Tuesday. 'If it's a success, and I've no reason to suspect it won't be, we'll roll it out across all our cinemas and make it a permanent fixture,' said Swartland.

Some other cinemas are going further and banning popcorn altogether. Daniel Broch, owner of the Everyman cinema in London's Hampstead, recently bought 17 more venues, including London's Screen on the Hill and the Screen on the Green.



'I will de-popcorn every new venue I acquire', he said. 'It has a disproportionate influence on the space in terms of its overwhelming smell, the cultural idea of it and the operational problems created by the mess it produces. I'm not saying no popcorn is better than popcorn,' he added. 'But I am saying there is no way in which it fits with the culturally sophisticated brand I wish to sell.'

Nicolas Kent, artistic director of the award-winning Tricycle cinema and theatre, puts the case in stronger terms. 'Popcorn is horrible stuff and I won't have it anywhere near my cinema,' he said. 'It's a form of junk food and that encourages junk entertainment. Its smell is all-pervasive, it makes huge amounts of mess, and it distracts and annoys people intensely.'

Thanks to the immense amount of bulk produced from a relatively small number of kernels, popcorn is the single most profitable product a cinema sells. Depending on its price, it can yield more than 90p on every £1 sold. It also, conveniently, makes customers thirsty for drinks, another high-margin product.