Sneaking contraband into the cinema, what's the forum's position

Ranchu

Agricola wrote: »

There really should be different cinemas for people who actually give a fúck about the film they are going to see and the rest who just want somewhere to go to stuff their face.

You can go to the IFI for that experience but it comes with an entirely new set of gimps. There's various people that like to make a myriad of different obnoxious noises to convey how they feel about the film.

blade1

Baron Kurtz wrote: »

The 'let him go hungry bit' there - Jaysus, he's only a child. Ostracising him for the sake of a few extra quid is a bit harsh imo. Granted it's pretty full whack to buy food in the cinema but she could have purchased him something, the cheapest thing on the menu even. Despite the glaring oddity from the little fella he still shouldn't have been excluded.

Did that kid's parents know he was being taken to the cinema?
Surely they should have donated a few quid for food if they knew the crazy prices in the cinema!

Pingi

If I'm smuggling it's Mcflurry and a bottle of water but I'd often get the kids combo tray in the cinema, find its plenty and I'm fat.

The Strawman Argument

Ranchu wrote: »

You can go to the IFI for that experience but it comes with an entirely new set of gimps. There's various people that like to make a myriad of different obnoxious noises to convey how they feel about the film.

Oh god yeah, from my experience there's:
- person who can't tolerate people talking and is very confrontational about it, even if it's the f*cking carlton screen advertisements
- person who has a preferred seat and throws a strop if they're asked to move in
- that one dude who has to show that he gets every subtle joke and refers with a big guffaw (also that awful polite laugh that every joke gets like you have in the threatre, can't stand that and it happens a lot in the IFI from my experience)
- me


...I like the place though, screen 2 especially.

Butterface

Myself and a friend were stopped twice for bag searches in my local cinema when I was living in England. We were not particularly inclined to allow a random person snoop in our bags so said no each time. So both times they told us we had to leave our bags behind the ticket counter. We went along with it the first time, but when it happened again we said we'd prefer to just have a refund and leave. They were so rude to us both times, yet we stumped them when we requested the refund. They just let us off....

Recently, a cinema in Galway told my OH that she couldn't bring her backpack into the screening because it was a "fire hazard". She opened the backpack and showed them an orthopaedic pillow that she needed to use for a little while post-op. So they let her bring the backpack in.. fire hazard that it is! :rolleyes:

christy c

Ste- wrote: »

going to a restaraunt and bringing your own food.
Or if you watched your own film in the cinema.

That sounds like a great first date

DoYouEvenLift

Couldn't care less as long as people don't bring in ridiculously loud wrapped foods. This one kunt behind me had a packet of sweets before where each individual sweet was wrapped...who honestly makes that much noise without even thinking about the noise it's making


Open your packets of food before the movie starts so you don't interrupt the movie. Don't understand why people always need to bring or eat food during movies. Just sit fuking still, stay quiet and watch the movie you paid to see along with hundreds of other people or else wait for it to come out on dvd and watch it at home where you can do whatever you want without being considered a kunt by hundreds of strangers

Nodferatu

€3.50 for a fizzy contour bottle. cinema prices are extortionate. i always bring in food in a bag. i've been told by my partner who worked in a cinema for a few years that 'technically' can't stop you!

Saipanne

Scannal wrote: »

Why do we need food in the cinema anyway? It's only a couple of hours, you could eat beforehand or after.

Give this person a medal.

myshirt

My opinion would be that you are an absolute scumbag if you bring in contraband.

The margins on tickets is very small, the food is how these establishments make their money. That's peoples jobs and livelihood you are talking about there. Stop trying to game the system. Taking the bread off another man's table is amongst the lowest of lows in my book. I'm not too fond of the prices myself, who is, but pay your way lads, ffs.

Can't believe that woman in the op stopped in Centra with the kids. Fair play to that young man for sticking it to her. Good to see a glimmer of ethics at play.

Pyr0

myshirt wrote: »

My opinion would be that you are an absolute scumbag if you bring in contraband.

The margins on tickets is very small, the food is how these establishments make their money. That's peoples jobs and livelihood you are talking about there. Stop trying to game the system. Taking the bread off another man's table is amongst the lowest of lows in my book. I'm not too fond of the prices myself, who is, but pay your way lads, ffs.

Can't believe that woman in the op stopped in Centra with the kids. Fair play to that young man for sticking it to her. Good to see a glimmer of ethics at play.

Absolute scumbag?

Bit harsh, jaysus it's not like i'm going in and pissing on the seats and starting fights while i'm at it.

Cupcake_Crisis

Packet of jellies and sneaky naggin. Sorted. I don't get out much...

cloud493

So not paying a ridiculous amount for a stupid amount of stale popcorn is akin to taking bread off a mans table? :rolleyes:

myshirt

cloud493 wrote: »

So not paying a ridiculous amount for a stupid amount of stale popcorn is akin to taking bread off a mans table? :rolleyes:

Yes, of course.

The business is based on you paying your way if you want to transact with that business; not on you exploiting arbitrage opportunities.

DoYouEvenLift

Cormac... wrote: »

Agreed.

But there was 2 times I was funny while tipsy in the cinema. Both times i was trying to just say the joke to my mates but it was a bit louder.

One was during M.N.Shwarmas "The Village".... I'd had enough about 50 minutes in and just straight up went (to myself, but quiet loudly in hindsight) "Oh god when the f*** is this film going to kick off, so f***ing boring".
Queue some local lols in the proximity.

Other one was "Walking Tall" with the Rock and George Formann.
George Formann to the Rock: "There's just one thing I want from you"
Me: "A shot at the title belt at the Royal Rumble"
Many lols.

The rest of the time I was probably being a nuisance

No, you were being a nusiance every time

Merkin

I remember being able to smoke in the Stella cinema in Rathmines as a young one God be with the days

on_my_oe

myshirt wrote: »

My opinion would be that you are an absolute scumbag if you bring in contraband.

The margins on tickets is very small, the food is how these establishments make their money. That's peoples jobs and livelihood you are talking about there. Stop trying to game the system. Taking the bread off another man's table is amongst the lowest of lows in my book. I'm not too fond of the prices myself, who is, but pay your way lads, ffs.

Can't believe that woman in the op stopped in Centra with the kids. Fair play to that young man for sticking it to her. Good to see a glimmer of ethics at play.

Business basics, if your margins are too low, then you have two options - increase prices or reduce costs. The public is already demonstrating they won't pay increased prices, so then you reduce costs... I'm sorry but Reese Witherspoon or Tom Cruise doesn't need another ten million and the studio boss doesn't need another island, so stop charging the cinemas so much for movies

branie2

I've always brought food at the cinema

cloud493

myshirt wrote: »

Yes, of course.

The business is based on you paying your way if you want to transact with that business; not on you exploiting arbitrage opportunities.

But I'm going the cinema to see a movie. I purchase my ticket, thats our business. Whether I purchase stale popcorn in there, or get jellies from the shop next door, is immaterial.

Boskowski

Don't get this must have popcorn, coke and whatnot like a sugar crazed teenager thing. I'd never do that on any other occasion so why is it 'the done thing' while watching a movie? I wouldn't do it at home while watching a film. Why do people associate cinema with eating bags of sh1te?

DoYouEvenLift

Boskowski wrote: »

Don't get this must have popcorn, coke and whatnot like a sugar crazed teenager thing. I'd never do that on any other occasion so why is it 'the done thing' while watching a movie? I wouldn't do it at home while watching a film. Why do people associate cinema with eating bags of sh1te?

Probably deeply engrained in some people since childhood where they were always bought sweets and fizzy drinks

lmimmfn

nowt wrong with sneaking stuff in, its a rush

Chunners

Shiraz 4.99 wrote: »

Rather than buy him his 1000% markup popcorn combo my missus let him go hungry while the other munched into their Manhattan & Haribo.

Thats sad to leave a kid there looking at other kids eating sweets and not get any for him just to prove a point, at the end of the day he is a kid and is only trying to do his best by his parents (as everyone hopes their kids will do) so punishing him for that is wrong. Could your wife not just have bought him a pack of MnM's or something? I mean I know it is a massive mark up and all but it's not his fault if his parents are stingy.In his eyes your wife invited him out with his friends and brought him to the cinema, for a kid that entails being spoiled with sweets and popcorn and fun and ice-cream. By letting him sit there and go hungry she probably spoiled what, for most kids, is an awesome not often experienced day out.

siblers

Boskowski wrote: »

Don't get this must have popcorn, coke and whatnot like a sugar crazed teenager thing. I'd never do that on any other occasion so why is it 'the done thing' while watching a movie? I wouldn't do it at home while watching a film. Why do people associate cinema with eating bags of sh1te?

Yeah I don't get it either, some of my friends go absolutely bananas with the amount of ****e they get when they go to the cinema. I'd say fair enough if it's a one off or taking the kids etc but when you go on a monthly basis etc is seems a bit much

Diabhal Beag

If you ever bring salt and vinegar crisps into a film you're scum. Subhuman scum.

MarkY91

i always buy the popcorn because i like it alot and it completes your time at the cinema. but i bring in my own drink and whatever else

NotASheeple

The nearest shop usually sorts me out before I go to the cinema.

suicide_circus

Owning a spar/centra etc beside a cinema must be a fooking goldmine

hoodwinked

suicide_circus wrote: »

Owning a spar/centra etc beside a cinema must be a fooking goldmine

not always, the shell garage next to our local cinema would up its prices of manhattan popcorn to lower than the cinema price but higher than it was sold anywhere else, same for pick and mix and bottled drinks, so we would buy them in our local shop before walking to the cinema if we were on a budget (which we almost always were back then)

noodler

With a cinema ticket costing 12 euro in Cineworld and as much as 17/18 for 3D/IMAX I am not going to lose any sleep over their loss of business on confectionary.

Nick_1494

Food isnt really even that expensive in the cinema though, on Wednesday, all movies (except 3d) in IMC Tallaght are a tenner with a medium drink and popcorm. Vue Liffey Valley do two large combos (large drink and popcorn) for 13 all the time. I don't at eat the cinema but friends who do and would go max twice a month find it easier and more enjoyable for them to buy cinema food. I think its more the mentality of how big they seem and that's its kind of a treat to them.

I think what the OP's SO did was terrible, kids meals are a fiver, if the other kids were happy with theres I don't see what harm it was to buy him one, if she was that worried about the cost she could have asked his mother for the cash when he was being brought home. IMO it was petty and probably made the child uncomfortable and upset.

I would also advocate going somewhere like IFI for films anyway. It's much more enjoyable and they have a restaurant but no confectionery. Anybody who wants food there buys it outside. Plus all this blockbuster b*llsh*t isn't worth p*ssing on it if was on fire let alone paying 12 to go see.

desertcircus

It cost my wife and I just over fifteen euro to go see Gone Girl at two o'clock yesterday. We bought our sweets in the two-euro shop around the corner, which added a fiver.

If the cinema had a strict no-outside-food policy, would we have gone? Probably not; buying in the cinema would have pushed the total cost to maybe thirty euro for two people, which is beyond the point at which we'd be willing to pay.

Ultimately, though, cinemas will die. They're not going to be sustainable in the long run. Gone Girl is a cracking film, but it wouldn't have been any less impressive on a 32-inch HDTV. A cinema screen versus a 14-inch television with no widescreen and a terrible pixel count is no contest; a cinema screen versus a 32-inch full-HD flatscreen television is close to being a dead heat. Most films just don't gain much by being watched in the cinema, and sooner or later they simply won't go to the cinema. Lincoln and Behind The Candleabra were both critically acclaimed films with top-quality casts and superb scripts, but both films came very close to being released on HBO or Netflix. We're rapidly approaching the point where the "serious" films, for want of a better word, will never grace a cinema screen, and once that happens then nothing will be left for the cinemas but big, loud action.

cloud493

Well if I want to go to either cineworld or swords cinema

My ticket is roughly €11
A small popcorn is €4
A drink of coke is €3.

Thats 18 euro for one person. Course thats prices at peak time, if I go the cinema before 5pm I get my ticket for €5, but still. I cant help but think the cinema would rather I buy a ticket, and bring in a bag of sweets, then stay at home and either not come to the cinema at all or torrent my movies.

Fat Christy

Nick_1494 wrote: »

Food isnt really even that expensive in the cinema though, on Wednesday, all movies (except 3d) in IMC Tallaght are a tenner with a medium drink and popcorm. Vue Liffey Valley do two large combos (large drink and popcorn) for 13 all the time. I don't at eat the cinema but friends who do and would go max twice a month find it easier and more enjoyable for them to buy cinema food. I think its more the mentality of how big they seem and that's its kind of a treat to them.

I think what the OP's SO did was terrible, kids meals are a fiver, if the other kids were happy with theres I don't see what harm it was to buy him one, if she was that worried about the cost she could have asked his mother for the cash when he was being brought home. IMO it was petty and probably made the child uncomfortable and upset.

I would also advocate going somewhere like IFI for films anyway. It's much more enjoyable and they have a restaurant but no confectionery. Anybody who wants food there buys it outside. Plus all this blockbuster b*llsh*t isn't worth p*ssing on it if was on fire let alone paying 12 to go see.

You can buy popcorn, a can of coke and a big bag of malteasers for under a fiver in the shop beside Cineworld. Why would ya waste your hard earned cash?

The_Captain

I don't know what world you live in where two drinks and two popcorns for €13 isn't expensive

And the fact that that's a value deal, rather than the normal price is even worse

Nick_1494

Fat Christy wrote: »

You can buy popcorn, a can of coke and a big bag of malteasers for under a fiver in the shop beside Cineworld. Why would ya waste your hard earned cash?

Because it isn't a waste of money to some people. Some people enjoy that the popcorn is hot or buttered and that the coke has ice. It also stops the annpying rustling of bags.

Fat Christy

Nick_1494 wrote: »

Because it isn't a waste of money to some people. Some people enjoy that the popcorn is hot or buttered and that the coke has ice. It also stops the annpying rustling of bags.

Popcorn in the cinema is usually bleh in my opinion. I haven't had buttered popcorn in years, what cinemas still do buttered popcorn?

I also hate ice, you get more ice than coke.

I'm sorry but 13 euro for a coke and a popcorn is a complete and utter waste of money.

Nick_1494

The_Captain wrote: »

I don't know what world you live in where two drinks and two popcorns for €13 isn't expensive

And the fact that that's a value deal, rather than the normal price is even worse

Compared to the alternative of going to a pub or a concert and spending a fortune there, €33 for two people for tickets, and food for both is not expensive.

It isn't a value deal? its the normal price. Works out at 6.50 a person

Nick_1494

Fat Christy wrote: »

Popcorn in the cinema is usually bleh in my opinion. I haven't had buttered popcorn in years, what cinemas still do buttered popcorn?

I also hate ice, you get more ice than coke.

I'm sorry but 13 euro for a coke and a popcorn is a complete and utter waste of money.

You get two large popcorns and two large drinks for that.

Me too so I choose not to buy it.

Cantremember

I got in a tanker with washed diesel once.





It was a drive in.




Boom Boom.

No?
Gets coat.

Fat Christy

I'd rather just stay at home and watch it on my laptop and be out nothing. Win win.

Barely There

desertcircus wrote: »

It cost my wife and I just over fifteen euro to go see Gone Girl at two o'clock yesterday. We bought our sweets in the two-euro shop around the corner, which added a fiver.

If the cinema had a strict no-outside-food policy, would we have gone? Probably not;

Why?

Do you find it impossible to go 90minutes without eating sweets?

cloud493

Barely There wrote: »

Why?

Do you find it impossible to go 90minutes without eating sweets?

Gone girl is just shy of 2 and a half hours, not including trailers.

Nick_1494

cloud493 wrote: »

Gone girl is just shy of 2 and a half hours, not including trailers.

So? I don't see how someone can't go three hours without eating sh*te. Eat before or after.

cloud493

Its not a crime is it? I enjoy it. Most cinemas try to include it in your tickets.

Gannicus

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Lincoln and Behind The Candleabra were both critically acclaimed films with top-quality casts and superb scripts, but both films came very close to being released on HBO or Netflix. We're rapidly approaching the point where the "serious" films, for want of a better word, will never grace a cinema screen, and once that happens then nothing will be left for the cinemas but big, loud action.

I agree to A point. I look at the States, where friends live and they make decent money with gimmick nights. I went to a place that shows kung-fu movies once a week. There is also another place that shows an old/classic movie the last Friday of the month, they do meal deals with the tickets. My mate say these places clean up each time because there is such a large back catalogue of these types of movies.

desertcircus

Barely There wrote: »

Why?

Do you find it impossible to go 90minutes without eating sweets?

Yes, that is clearly what I meant.

I like having a sweet snack while watching a film. If my local cinema prevented me from bringing my own snacks in, I'd go to the cinema less.

Gannicus

The business structure of cinemas in this country is far too rigid.

I think that even if they lowered the price of food here nowadays people would still be less inclined to buy it in there as they have been institutionalized to believe its too expensive.

Also I can't see cinemas being willing to lower prices because if more people bought cinema food profits would rise and the company would be even less incentivised to lower their prices then as they'd try milk it.

Like any other industry with limited competition someone will have to make the first move and draw customers in that way for others to follow suit.


Actually.

Here's one. How much more would you be willing to pay for a ticket if it meant they would be willing to lower the price of sweets to match general newsagents etc? Because I reckon if they did that then this thread would turn into "Why a cinema tickets so bloody expensive?"

Trent Houseboat

Some people are implying that to bring in outside food is akin to stealing from the establishment, but what of the case of a person who doesn't buy or bring food/drinks?

They've paid as much Davos Seaworth, are they committing the same crime?

o1s1n

Trent Houseboat wrote: »

Some people are implying that to bring in outside food is akin to stealing from the establishment, but what of the case of a person who doesn't buy or bring food/drinks?

They've paid as much Davos Seaworth, are they committing the same crime?

Yeah, I don't particularly want to eat cinema food, apart from the price, it's junk. I can go the length of a film without stuffing my face with rubbish.

I do smuggle booze into the cinema though. Not cans or anything overt, maybe a naggin of Captain Morgans or something in a hip flask. Buy a coke for myself and the missus or whoever I'm with and pop the lids off.

This would be in evenings on a night out by the way, I wouldn't be doing this in the morning/afternoon