LAS VEGAS — Moviegoers tend to stuff themselves full of salty popcorn and sweet candy. When people start steering clear of the multiplex -- as audiences have done for three straight years -- the manufacturers of those theater snacks are the ones left with a sour taste in their mouths.
Much has been made of how declining movie admissions and box-office grosses have clipped the earnings of movie studios and film exhibitors. But audience apathy also is taking a bite out of the oft-overlooked concession business. Particularly hard hit are those companies that rely on movie theaters for the bulk of their sales.
"It's kind of scary. It's been going downhill for three years," says Paul Bonfiglio, whose Summit Food Enterprises has had to lay off nearly a third of its employees because of steadily worsening sales for its movie theater candy line, which includes P.J. Gummi Bears. Adds Norm Krug, the chairman of the Nebraska farmers cooperative Preferred Popcorn, "Our sales are going down pretty directly with attendance."
As the movie theater industry's annual convention came to a close here Thursday, organizers tried to characterize the box-office slump as more media propaganda than business predicament. Hollywood studios were on hand to offer sneak peeks of the animated features "Cars" and "Over the Hedge" and clips from such live-action fare as "Superman Returns," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Poseidon," all in an effort to rally interest in the upcoming slate of movies.
But on the trade show floor of ShoWest, as the annual convention of theater owners is known, candy and popcorn peddlers trying to drum up business for their products were decidedly uninspired.
It probably doesn't help that theater owners have been raising the prices of those same Gummi Bears and buckets of popcorn in response to the downturn -- an astronomical markup that the concession suppliers never see. (Just $30 worth of raw popcorn can translate into as much as $3,000 in sales at the movie theaters.)
"I don't think that raising prices at the concession stand is the way to do it," said Frank Liberto, whose Ricos Products Co. introduced the chips-and-cheese nacho snack at movie theaters nearly 30 years ago.
Several concession makers fear that such price hikes may cause more moviegoers to stop buying snacks at the multiplex and sneak cheaper, store-bought food into the venue.
