ArcaMax

Christmas at the Movies

Christmas Day is one of the biggest days of the year for movie theaters. And when Christmas lands on a Friday, the movie theatres get a big boost of expanded business. Three day weekends are golden.

I’ll be going to the movies over Christmas weekend and I bet most of you will be too.

So let’s talk about snacking at the movies.

First of all, I think we all gag when we look at the prices of what they offer for snacks.

Did you know the average mark up for a large bin of popcorn is 1600 percent? Ouch!

Why do theaters charge so much for popcorn? Profit.

The theatres don’t make that much on ticket sales. You pay about $10 for a movie ticket. The theatre gets $3. The movie studios keep the rest. Movies are incredibly expensive to make. We want all those special effects and they come at a price. A big price.

Theaters are not cheap to run either. Each projector costs about $1 million and they have to be changed out about every two to three years. The utility costs are crazy, (I’d say they could turn down the AC and save a little money) but the overall utility and building costs are high. So, most of the money a theater makes comes from concessions revenue; hence the price of popcorn.

So why do most of us order popcorn when it’s marked up an insane amount?

Two things from my perspective...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Related Recipes at PlanZDiet.com:

Apple Chips
Cinnamon Nut Granola

Sweet and Spicy Pecans

These are absolutely addicting and can be made with any nuts you choose. Guests at a dinner party just snarfed them up and asked for more! Love that!

Serves: I am not even going to give you quantities for this recipe. It’s so easy you just dust each ingredient over the nuts and roast. It all depends on your taste and how many nuts you want to make in one batch. I normally spread a couple of cups of nuts across the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. That gives you enough for a small party or a few days of snacking.

Ingredients:

Pecans
Chili powder (You can use smoked or regular. Your choice)
Cinnamon
ZSweet or Swerve granular sweetener. This stuff is new and works great in things you heat in the oven. Truvia works sometimes but other times it gives off a tin taste when it’s been heated. So this is worth the effort to order it on line. I have never seen it in a store – not yet anyway.
Cayenne. I put about twice as much cayenne as the other things. I like the zippy to balance off the sweet. You can decide if you want to go that far

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees or 375 convection.

Spray the 9-by-13-inch pan with olive oil spray. Then add the nuts. Spray the nuts lightly with olive oil spray.

Then dust on chili powder, cinnamon, sweetener and cayenne. Roast 12 to 14 minutes. Depends on your oven. You want the nuts to crisp up. I cook mine just until I start to see darkening on the edges or tops of a few nuts.

Then let start to cool. You can serve warm or room temp.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola