It may be a bit of a faux pas, but I've often openly gone into cinemas with my own food/drink and no one seems to mind. (Side-note: I highly recommend edamame-in-the-pod for a cinema snack. Quiet, healthy, cheap, comes with its own hydration and lasts a long time.)
At least in NYC cinemas, the person who takes your ticket will demand to check your bag for drinks (not sure about snacks). You're not allowed to bring your own. Feels a lot like going through a TSA security checkpoint.
It's really that the movies are something of a loss leader. People don't come to the movies to buy snacks, but snacks are how theaters really make money. Which means that you're ripping them off worse by sneaking snacks than you are sneaking a video camera in.
Though with the way the prices of movie tickets are going up, I've begun to suspect that this is no longer true.
Nope, the prices are going up because the studios are charging the theaters more. Our theater was even taking a small loss for each ticket for a while in order to keep people happy. All of theater profits come from sales at the concession stands. That's why most places are so strict about bringing in outside food and drinks. Though I've never seen anywhere that would ask to search your bags, that's ridiculous and sounds like a good way to loose customers.
Source: projectionist at a theater all through college.
>Which means that you're ripping them off worse by sneaking snacks than you are sneaking a video camera in. //
You're not "ripping them off", you pay for your seat. They're welcome to advertise at the payment desk that people who may have food with them aren't welcome however.
Not being a persons most profitable customer is not the same as ripping them off.
The theater I used to work at was never that strict about bringing in food. If you made it obvious you were bringing in food we would ask you to throw it away, or finish it before entering. We would never search someones bag, or throw someone out that we didn't catch on the way in. For the most part people sneaking in food were the type of people that would never pay the crazy food costs at a movie theater anyways, so it was always better for use to keep customers happy.
We were much stricter about people sneaking in camera equipment though. In fact if an employee caught someone trying to record a movie the MPAA would pay you a $5,000 reward, and our theater would match that with another $5,000.
It may be a bit of a faux pas, but I've often openly gone into cinemas with my own food/drink and no one seems to mind. (Side-note: I highly recommend edamame-in-the-pod for a cinema snack. Quiet, healthy, cheap, comes with its own hydration and lasts a long time.)