Cinemark's Bag Policy

If you only bring the grounds then you’d have to bring an actual coffee maker too. And if there’s no outlet by your seat then you’d actually have to build a a little fire in front of your seat to brew it. Not sure they’d allow that either?

 

I’m not so sure that that’s the actual story of how the policy (dumb as it is) was born. Apparently they were sued by the victims or the victims families in an action related to lack of security (I may not have gotten it entirely correct).

(The lawsuit failed, but in a further bit of controversy, they sued the victims for attorney’s fees.)

 

As was pointed out earlier, he went out the exit, blocked it open and came back in with bags of guns. Nothing the theater chain could have done would have had the slightest chance of preventing it.

I don't know that my theory is correct, but their policy is designed to prevent people smuggling in Cokes, not Glocks.

 

With a bag that size, I doubt it would do even that.

 

If I really liked watching movies, I would skip the theater and invest in a great TV, a Blu-Ray player, a popcorn popcorn popper, and just wait a few months to watch the movies at home. I'd much rather do that than go to a theater (but that's just me).

 

How about security cameras, door alarms, motion detectors, and security guards who constantly monitor all the exits?

 

Here's a newspaper article from September 2012:

“AMC recently reviewed its company policy regarding outside food and drink and will no longer be permitting guests to bring in these items, as is the case with many entertainment venues,” said Sun Dee Larson, vice president of corporate communications for Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment when the policy was announced.

Popcorn Ethics: Sneaking Snacks Into The Movies

This has been very standard policy for every first-run theater in LA that I know of for at least the last 20 years (and also legitimate theaters, concert venues, standup comedy nightclubs, and art galleries). Pacific Theaters doesn't post the rule on their website, but they do say this:

For the comfort and safety of our guests, we do not permit large bags into the building. All bags are subject to search and we reserve the right to refuse admittance. Please note that Pacific Theatres has the absolute discretion to interpret and enforce these policies to ensure safety, comfort and peace of mind.

Pacific Theatres policies

My experience is I have seen people busted for trying to take snacks and drinks past the ticket-taker on their way in, and they are stopped.

 

So I am just now seeing this thread and I did not know about this rule. Kind of pi$$es me off because we carry a backpack with us wherever we go. It is my daughter's "diabetes bag" and contains insulin, pump supplies, etc. We have had a pump failure before away from home and this bag came in handy. Plus if her blood sugar goes low there are snacks in the bag. I can see them not wanting us to bring in candy or snacks but we could carry that stuff elsewhere but the bag HAS to be with us at all times. The backback even says "Juvenile Diabetes Foundation" on it with an emergency card that says "I am diabetic" on it. Looks like we will avoid Cinemark.

 

I can't remember if this were at a movie theatre or another place of entertainment that sells their own food. But, I read or heard somewhere that someone who had diabetes couldn't eat and drink what was offered for sale at the place. So, they wanted to bring in their own special drinks and snacks that the place did not offer. They were told they could bring it in, but they would have to surrender it at the door and then buy it back from them at a equal value of what their concession offers for similar non diabetic food and drink. In other words, they would end up purchasing it twice.

Now that is a bunch of phooey.

 

I was writing mine when you posted yours.

 

Wow, that is total BS. She could eat whatever they sell as long as we know the carbs. Let's say Popcorn was 25 carbs (or whatever). We would have to program that number into her pump to deliver insulin. There's no way we would ever surrender the bag or anything in it to them. Sugar lows are VERY dangerous (had one at 2AM this morning and we had to get up and give her some chocolate milk). You need to react fast to a sugar low and her bag has what we need.

 

I think you'd actually be OK as their policy does provide an exception for bags over the limit for medical purposes. That said if you got a real blockhead enforcing the rule like I had I'm not sure what would happen.

 

The number of people in Chicago without cars has been steadily growing and may surprise those in the suburbs where a car is still essential.

Chicago’s Carless Population Is Growing—and Developers Are Responding

 

We live 2 doors from a 24 hour bus line, and a block and a half from a train that runs until 2:30 AM. Parking is limited and expensive, and we can buy transit passes for less than it would cost to rent a parking space - to say nothing about the costs of owning a car, with gas, maintenance and insurance. All our time in Chicago we've never had a car.

 

I absolutely recognize the reality of the situation that theaters and theater chains bring in the majority of their profits (supposedly/allegedly sometimes nearly *all*) from concession sales.

But much like the movie studios working on a profit model that often seems to dictate they feel they simply *must* make a $200 million-budgeted film and therefore see a box office of $600 million to "break even" rather than make ten films budgeted at $20 million or five films budgeted at $40 million, the same thing seems to apply to movie theaters.

That is, they might just be working from a flawed business model (or a model with high risk but with slight potential for huge reward). In the case of theaters, they are choosing to run a business model whereby their primary "product" (the movie ticket) acts as a loss-leader (or near-loss-leader) for the sale of optional secondary products (food and drink, etc.). That secondary product is also *severely* marked up compared to how much that product would cost at just about any other retailer (whether a grocery story, fast food joint, convenience store, etc.). They also tend to use other slightly odd pricing methods to wring as much as possible out of customers. Check out how many multi-size items are priced. The pricing for a Small vs. Medium vs. Large popcorn isn't like $3-$5-$7. It's like $6.00-$6.50-$6.75. "Hey look, what a great deal, twice as much popcorn for only 75 cents more!" And, if someone truly just wants a small popcorn, then the profit margin on that small amount of popcorn is even higher.

I get it, many if not most theaters contend studios have them over a barrel, with some studios (allegedly Disney with big properties like Marvel and Star Wars) demanding even *more* of the box office take than usual for certain windows of time.

But each entity in every level of this "business" are choosing to engage in business in this fashion. Do theater chains really have ZERO leverage in this? Maybe it's sadly pretty close to zero, but if every theater chain banded together and told the studios "Look, not enough people are willing to pay $8 for ten cents worth of Coke, so you gotta give us a little more of the take", theoretically the studios would still want their movies to be shown, right? I'm sure theaters and theater chains tend to blink before studios do, but they do need each other to some degree unless the studios truly want to start foregoing theatrical release and put stuff straight up on their streaming services.

This all pertains mainly to theater chains; I know indie theaters (or very small chains of just a few locations) have no leverage and often are strong-armed into deals where they barely break even but are trying to stay afloat.

But if AMC or other huge chains are trying to suggest they mark up food to insane prices and harangue people for sneaking in a Snickers bar because that's the only way for them to make money, then maybe those huge chains should exert more of whatever leverage they have on the studios. Or, is it perhaps that the situation isn't quite that dire for those big chains? It is that they are making a healthy profit by marking up food, and perhaps are still making some amount of profit off those tickets as well?

 

I lived in Chicago for almost a decade without a car. I really miss being able to get just about anywhere that wanted via public transportation (virtually impossible here).

 

Thanks for the article. I was completely guessing on the timeline of AMC's policy change!

 

Carrying bags in ( could be something suspicious)..simply bag check should suffice. Hate when folk bring fruit into the theatre eating oranges for example. Blame Mae West myself “peel me a grape “.

 

Better seating than Manhattan, big a in the eighties.

 

The surprise for me was they hadn't made it official until relatively recently. I swear, I was getting yelled at for sneaking in snacks to theaters as a kid back in the 1960s, so this has been a thing for a long time.

 

you gotta sell a HELL of a lot of popcorn to pay for that!

 

That's what made AMC's "eat what ya want" policy so remarkable: virtually every other movie chain did ban outside food/drink.

As I noted, I always assumed that AMC banned outside edibles as well but my local multiplex just had a lazy manager - it wasn't until the article I mentioned that I realized this was actually company policy.

It was a shame they changed it, but I can't be mad, as they went against the grain for years!

 

With the price of popcorn at most theaters, I’d say about five large boxes.

 

AMC sells a "Cameo Combo" that's "only" $10 for drink and popcorn - and $5 on Tuesdays.

Given that A-List makes my price of admission cheap, I've been indulging in the Cameo Combo pretty frequently...

 

Vickie buys more snacks since joining A*List as well.