Popcorn used to be banned in movie theaters.

Arts & Culture

F ew things go together like movies and popcorn, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, popcorn used to be banned in movie theaters. As the nickelodeons of the early 20th century were replaced by comparatively luxe venues that wanted to emulate the sophisticated vibe of traditional theaters in the 1920s and '30s, cinema owners decided to ban the now-ubiquitous snack — it was loud, messy, and didn't exactly evoke seeing Madama Butterfly at the Met. "Movie theaters wanted nothing to do with popcorn," according to Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn author Andrew Smith, "because they were trying to duplicate what was done in real theaters. They had beautiful carpets and rugs and didn't want popcorn being ground into it."

That's a reasonable objection, but it was eventually trumped by how much money those same owners stood to make during the Great Depression. Movies were a much-needed (and inexpensive) escape during that historic downturn, and selling popcorn in-house for 5 to 10 cents a bag helped keep countless theaters afloat at a time when many popcorn-less venues were going under. By 1945, more than half the popcorn consumed in the U.S. was sold in movie theaters, and in the nearly 80 years since, that association has only grown stronger.

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By the Numbers

Total value of the global box office in 2022

$26 billion

Year Charles Cretors invented the first commercial popcorn machine

1885

Weight (in pounds) of the world's largest popcorn ball, in Sac City, Iowa

9,370

Average cost of a medium popcorn at a movie theater

$8.14

Did you know?

Popcorn used to be eaten with milk as breakfast cereal.

Long before Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch hit shelves, Americans in the 19th century used to eat popcorn for breakfast; they added milk or cream and ate it like cereal. Popcorn itself is thousands of years old and was popular in South America before making its way to the United States. According to Smith, "North American whalers went to Chile, found varieties of popcorn, picked them up and thought that they were cute, and brought them back to New England in the early 19th century." Among the more high-profile proponents of popcorn as a breakfast food was Ella Kellogg, whose husband John Harvey Kellogg invented corn flakes in the early 1900s. Though the combo is rarely eaten these days, some think it should be.