According to author Andrew F. Smith, the legendary story is that "Native Americans introduced the Pilgrims to popcorn on that famous first Thanksgiving feast held at Plymouth in 1621." A few centuries later, popcorn became a concession sold at crowded events, like playhouses, rallies, circuses and. eventually, movie theaters.
For many people, part of the experience of going out for the latest Hollywood blockbuster requires a nice buttery tub of popcorn.
Hidden Costs of Popcorn
According to CNNMoney.com, movie theater popcorn has a 900 percent mark-up. A medium bag of popcorn costs just 60 cents to make, but movie theaters sell it for six dollars or more. Apart from the hit to the wallet, however, a medium popcorn may have even more hidden costs to the moviegoer.
Popcorn Comparison
In November 2009, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), an advocacy group, conducted a study of movie theater popcorn from three large movie theater chains: Regal, AMC and Cinemark. The laboratory analysis revealed some shocking results.
A medium-sized Regal popcorn contains a whopping 20 cups with 1,200 calories, not to mention 60 g of saturated fat and 980 mg of sodium. Adding the buttery topping racks up another 200 calories for every 1.5 tbsp.
A medium-sized AMC popcorn bag holds 9 cups, so it adds up to 590 calories and 33 g of saturated fat before adding buttery topping.
Finally, the Cinemark medium has 14 cups of popcorn, 760 calories, and 3 g of saturated fat.
Three cups of popcorn is equal to one serving from the grain group in the USDA Food Guide Pyramid.
Calorie Equivalents
To put the number of calories in perspective, CSPI's website does a startling comparison. A medium popcorn and soda combo at a Regal theater is like "mindlessly ingesting three McDonald's Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter while watching a movie."
For a 20-year-old woman, who needs to eat in the ballpark of 2,000 calories per day according to the USDA, a medium Regal popcorn by itself, without even the buttery topping, contains about 60 percent of her daily calories. This means that a movie theater snack is more than a meal replacement, even if shared.
The Oil that Pops the Kernel
According to the website for the Popcorn Board, a nonprofit organization funded by U.S. popcorn processors, air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup. Oil-popped kernels, however, contain many more calories, depending on the type of oil used.
Regal and AMC, the two largest movie theater chains, at the time the CSPI study was done, popped their popcorn in coconut oil, which contains about 90 percent saturated fat. Cinemark, on the other hand, had switched to canola oil, which has a much lower saturated fat content.
Concessions for Popcorn
Of course, eating theater popcorn should not be part of a person's regular diet, and it's probably best for the budget and the body to forgo the concession stand when viewing the next blockbuster. However, movie theaters may change their popcorn preparation practices with enough consumer pressure. In the meantime, a medium-sized bag at any of the large movie theater chains has more than enough to share.
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