Behind the scenes of the cinema, the very profitable popcorn business

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It’s the companion of your cinema sessions, popcorn. Sold mostly sweet, at sometimes salty prices. In a cinema depending on the size, between 4 and 6 euros per cup. Well paid for by a movie-loving family. “It’s obviously too expensive. Even if it increases, I think I’ll continue to take it” confides a mother. A pleasure, sometimes short-lived! “Normally, at the end of the commercials, it’s over” says one of the children.

How to explain the price of popcorn? Head to the Rhône for the French number 1. The grain is carefully selected. Patrice Benoit, founder of Benoit Ciné Distribution, explains: “It’s a corn that has a small caliber with a very hard bark which will allow another pressure of water vapor inside, which will allow it to burst.” Corn heated to 255 degrees with sugar and sunflower oil made in France. The bursting of the grain increases the profit. Corn is sold by volume. The equivalent of an Olympic swimming pool of popcorn leaves the factory every day to be sold in cinemas. Five euros on average per cup, but the factory sells it much cheaper. Patrice Benoit specifies: “One euro and fifty, I sell a third of the price. So that makes a significant margin necessary for the cinema.”

Because cinemas rely on this gluttony to stay in balance. Blockbusters and animated films sell the most. Gwenn Martines, Managing Director of Cinewest, explains: “It’s about 40% for less than half of confectionery sales. It remains the flagship product of cinemas.”

In the family group in the west of France, a customer spends an average of 2 euros on confectionery. “We can say that without popcorn, we would perhaps be 1.50 euros, 2 euros more at a cinema ticket” adds Gwenn Martines. In this multiplex, more than 5% of turnover comes from this delicacy alone.