The question is inspired by comments to my guest post at Free From Broke: 4 Ways to Enjoy The Movie Experience, in which I talk about the methods I use to keep my movie expenses down so that I can continue to enjoy movies on a budget.

Going to movie theaters is expensive. Ticket prices have gone up to the double digits. I have several ways to minimize movie expenses – one of the ways is to avoid concession stands, whose prices are usually marked up several hundred-fold. I frequently don’t eat anything during movies, but sometimes I’ll bring bottled waters and food (snacks such as oranges, pears, dried fruit) in the theaters for extra long movies.

But one commenter on the 4 Ways to Enjoy The Movie Experience got me thinking on the ethics of bringing food into theaters. Is it unethical to bring in my own snacks when the movie theaters usually say “no outside food or drinks”? I have no problem bringing in water – in fact, any place that won’t let me bring my own water (unless the prohibition is for safety purposes), is not a business I want to support.

Bringing food into movie theaters, however, is a stickier proposition. When I bring my own snacks into movie theaters, it’s for both health and budget reasons (did you know that one bucket of medium popcorn has anywhere from 600 to 1,200 calories?!), and I don’t bring any food that movie theaters sell. So while I might sneak in a small bag of orange slices, I won’t be bringing in my own popcorn, Coca-cola, or salted pretzels.

But maybe I’m just rationalizing my behavior. What do you think?

Do you bring food inside movie theaters? Is it ethical? Do you think it’s wrong but still do it?

image source: calorielab.com