When Movie Theaters Tried to Ban Popcorn

Today, popcorn and the movies are so inextricably linked that it’s hard to imagine a time when the buttery, salty snack wasn’t served at a concession stand in the lobby. But that was actually the case for the first few decades of the movie theater business.

Americans first started snacking on popcorn in the 1820s, though it didn’t become ingrained in popular culture until around the 1840s, says Harry Marks, a Hollywood historian and the creator of Let’s All Go to the Lobby, a classic film education platform.

At that time, the snack was typically popped by hand on stovetops, until inventor Charles Cretors patented a steam-powered popcorn popping machine in 1893. “That same year, Cretors took his concoction to the Chicago World’s Fair where it became a hit, mainly because he gave away his popcorn for free,” Marks says. “The popcorn was a means to an end to get people interested in the popper itself.” From there, he developed horse-drawn popcorn wagons to take the snack on the road. 

“Popcorn was a very popular snack at fairs, sporting events, expositions, on railroad cars, etc. during the second half of the 19th century,” says Elizabeth Nelson, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who specializes in pop culture and food history.

Before popcorn, America’s first commercial snack food was peanuts, typically sold by street vendors. Although salty and delicious, there were downsides to the snack. Theatergoers in the early 19th century often brought peanuts to live performances, prompting writer Washington Irving to complain about the disruptive noise of cracking shells and the mess they left behind, according to Andrew Smith’s book Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.

The earliest movie theaters were part of bigger fairs or pleasure grounds where there were other kinds of amusements, Nelson says. “Popcorn and peanuts were already popular snacks at these fair grounds before the movie theaters were added, so it seems likely that people expected them at the movies when they became standalone theaters in towns and cities,” she explains.

When movie theaters spread across the United States in the early 1900s, popcorn was only available through street vendors who would set up shop outside—but many theaters had a no-popcorn policy.

“Early movie theaters felt concessions were beneath them,” Marks explains. “Their goal was to convey a similar atmosphere to live theaters, so they covered their floors in expensive carpets and adorned their walls with opulent details and decor. They didn’t want people making a mess with popcorn and other assorted snacks.” 

Of course, this didn’t stop people from sneaking in popcorn purchased from street vendors. It also didn’t stop them from spilling popcorn or leaving empty boxes on the floor. Theater owners also weren’t thrilled that “popcorn sellers were often slovenly dressed and did not always follow the most hygienic practices preferred by the middle classes who frequented theaters,” Smith writes. Plus, all that munching made noise during silent films. 

Movie theater owners’ attitudes towards popcorn began to change in the mid-to-late 1920s when some realized they could sell a bag of popcorn for 30 or 40 times what it cost to produce. But there were still restrictions.

“By 1930, as many as 90 million patrons a week were flocking to theaters, and they were buying their popcorn outside from street vendors” Marks says. “But even then, they weren’t completely allowed to bring their concessions into the theater. Coat check rooms had signs instructing people to check their popcorn containers along with their coats and hats.”

The tipping point was the Great Depression. “Movie theaters were one of the last luxuries available to an impoverished public, and talkies had pretty much replaced silent films, so there was no worry of offending or disrupting performers during the showing of a film,” Marks says. Popcorn was cheap to produce, and people could afford to drop 5 or 10 cents a bag on the snack. 

This was when popcorn vendors moved off the street and into theaters, where they paid around $1 for “lobby privileges," according to Popped Culture. Theaters without lobbies leased outdoor space to the same popcorn vendors they once tried to drive away. But this model didn’t last. It didn’t take long for movie theater owners to cut out the middleman and buy their own popcorn machines.

In the 1930s, counters for popcorn, candies and soft drinks were installed in theaters across the country, explains Thalia Toha, architectural historian and geographer at Lafayette History Museum in Colorado. “Here, the food and beverage concession stands served as a needed symbol for opulence, access and well-being,” she says.

In an attempt to be more efficient, one citywide theater chain made their popcorn in large-scale production at central facilities and then delivered the product to theaters. But without the aroma of popping popcorn filling the lobby, sales of the snack decreased.

Elsewhere, popcorn became big business. One general manager of a 66-theater chain, R.J. McKenna, was staunchly anti-popcorn but changed course as his profits dwindled. By 1938, he reported his theaters had lost money on ticket sales but claimed to have made nearly $200,000 selling popcorn that year. During the Depression, popcorn’s profit margin of almost 80 percent generated more income than box-office sales, saving many theaters from closure. 

Popcorn continued to take over theaters. “During World War II, as sugar was being rationed, candy was harder to come by, so popcorn’s popularity skyrocketed while the war raged on,” Marks says. By 1945, almost half of popcorn grown in America was eaten in theaters. By 1949, a whopping 86 percent of movie theaters in the U.S. sold popcorn, of which six out of every 10 patrons purchased. 

“Popcorn’s popularity hasn’t really wavered since its original adoption—save for the dip during the ’50s and ’60s when television took over and people started staying home more rather than going out to the movies,” Marks says. “Theaters now sell full meals, alcoholic drinks, giant bags of candy and other concessions, but popcorn is still the snack people think of most when they think of going to the movies.”