SUMMER SNEAKS : Cater Your Own Movie : Bottom-line marketing is forcing theater owners to cut costs and explore ways of avoiding what customers hate most: waiting in line for popcorn, candy and soft drinks

You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

God knows movie theaters tried. They offered us pizza, soft pretzels, hot dogs, nachos, espresso . . . and for the crowded and hot summer season, even ice cream and frozen yogurt.

But in the end, they had to face the numbers: 80% of the people buying concessions at the movie theater wanted popcorn or soda, and most of the rest wanted candy. In recessionary times, the bottom line is the bottom line. Rather than tempting us with cappuccino and cheesecake, movie theaters are eliminating low-selling items and unnecessary labor.

This means that in the not-so-distant future, “interactive movies” will mean pouring your own drinks, bagging your own popcorn and scooping your own candy.

The goal of this interactive game, put bluntly, is to move ‘em in, move ‘em out and get ‘em to pay $3 for a soda before they sit down. Sounds heartless, perhaps, but popcorn and soda are a theater’s bread and butter. Movie-goers, on average, spend $1.25-$1.50 at the concession stand. In 1992, 964 million people went to the movies in 1992, making concessions a $1.2 billion-$1.4 billion industry. And since a high percentage of the box-office take goes back to the film distributors, concessions are often the only thing that keeps a theater out of the red.

The AMC chain, for example, is installing self-serve areas it calls “PowerStands,” already open in theaters in Burbank, Montebello and Long Beach.

It’s sort of a mini-cafeteria. Customers enter on the sides, pick up soda or popcorn cups and fill them fast-food style at panels in the wall. At the Burbank AMC 14, patrons can also pick up hot dogs and nachos.

Wally Helton, director of operations services for AMC, said PowerStands really benefit the moviegoer. They’re faster. If you don’t want ice in your drink, that’s under your control. If you want extra butter, ditto. But even he acknowledges that they’re primarily a way to cut costs.

“The reason we’re going with this now is it’s definitely a labor saver,” Helton said. “And we’re not breaking any new ground. You go to McDonald’s or Subway, you’re pretty much getting your own drinks anyway.”

Many AMC theaters, like those in Burbank, have dropped pizza, pretzels and ice cream. Coffee--which started as a service to chilled customers in colder climates--will stay around, but the gourmet cafes probably won’t be expanded.

“We tried to be all things to all people and found we really can’t do that,” Helton said. Instead, AMC is trying to eliminate what all people hate: standing in line.

The PowerStands are part of that effort, keeping about 25% of patrons away from the main concession counter. Then at the counter, Helton said, “what we’re trying to hone in on is the station concept, where everything is within two or three steps of the server.”

Time is of the essence here, he said. Managers train servers to fetch orders in the most efficient manner (put the soda cup under the automated dispenser, then get the popcorn . . .) and sometimes brandish stopwatches to test their squad. Servers are taught to “sell-up,” push the large drink, which has twice as much soda as a medium and costs only 25 cents more. AMC sponsors sales contests between theaters. The average transaction takes about 60 seconds.

People don’t want to stand in lines--especially since most of them arrive only a few minutes before the film rolls. So you’ve got to get them while the getting’s good. Once a moviegoer settles into a seat, the game’s over. Only about 3% of people will ever get up and return to the counter for something to eat or drink, Helton said.

“Now, if we could just train the people to get here a half-hour early . . .,” he lamented. “We’re not like McDonald’s, which has lunch and dinner. Every time there’s a show break, we’re packed.”

Who’s to blame for this self-serve revolution? Helton said it’s Coca-Cola, which developed the self-serve soda machines.

Bob Bertini, a spokesman for Coca-Cola, said its product has been available in theaters since 1947, when New York’s Roxy Theater held a grand opening for its Coca-Cola counter. Only in the last few years has the self-serve idea started to take off. Bertini said it’s even too soon to call it a trend.

(Hard to believe there was a time before Coca-Cola in theaters. But truth be known, there was a time before concessions. The Fox Detroit Theater started selling candy in 1933, thus ushering in higher profits and sticky floors.)

Today a Coke at the theater could cost you up to $3, enough to buy a six-pack at any convenience store. Phyllis C. Richman of the Washington Post investigated the popcorn markup a few years ago, and determined that all the kernels used in a large bucket, at retail prices, cost about 13 cents.

And like every industry, concessions has its trade secrets. Cineplex Odeon’s executive vice president of marketing, Howard Lichtman, said the chain has some major changes in the works, but “for competitive reasons, it would be premature to release the details (about our) new direction in food service marketing, merchandise and selection.”

For those of you on the edge of your seats, June 10 is Cineplex Odeon’s big day.

So what’s left to be done, now that we’ve tried skinless hot dogs, low-cholesterol popcorn topping and fruit-flavored licorice? For the truly adventurous--mix your own candy.

Hoyts Cinemas Corp. of Boston has been installing bulk-candy dispensers in areas adjacent to the lobby. Customers “rake” the candy out of a clear acrylic bin into a chute, which drops it into a bag. The bag is weighed at the counter and the price totaled up.

“It’s working very well,” said Dan Vieira, Hoyts’ vice president of operations. “It’s a pick-and-mix type of setup, by which the customer can take as much as they want and everything’s at one price.”

That one price, by the way, is $5.96 a pound, about a dollar more than such products cost in a Los Angeles grocery store.

Hoyts got the idea from its partner company in Australia, where the bulk-food idea has taken off. And if you don’t trust the business instincts from down under, keep in mind that the Aussies were building multiplexes as early as 1968.

The Boston-based company tested the bulk-food concept about two years ago and it’s now in about 40 theaters, mostly in New England. By the end of 1993, the bulk-candy stations will be in 90% of the firm’s 67 theaters.

Most stations offer 25-30 types of candy, but some offer as many as 40. There’s everything from Cajun Hots to Sour Patch Kids, Gummi Bears to lemon drops. Some stations are also experimenting with sugar-free candy.

“I think (the stations are a success) because they’re able to take a variety of different things, where before you could only take one item. If you wanted Milk Duds, you were stuck with a box of Milk Duds,” Vieira said. “I think that this is something that’s really snowballed. We’ve had a lot of success here, and I know we’ve shared (the idea) with anyone who’s interested.”

AMC is looking into the bulk-food idea, but Helton is a little worried that it might slow down those speedy servers, with the weighing and odd prices. (Ever notice how all the AMC prices, including tax, come out on the quarter-dollar? That’s deliberate. Keeps servers from getting bogged down with nickels, dimes and pennies.)

The apparent solution is to sell bags at a certain price, and then let customers fill them as they wish.

AMC has a few other hot items. Icee slush drinks have brought in as much as 11 cents a person at some AMC theaters. But the Icee machines don’t fit into the station concept, Helton said, so we’ll see how long that lasts.

And remember the fuss over the cup holder in the arms of the seats? AMC has improved on the concept with a removable tray-table that fits into the cup holder.

You can now split the cost of your $3.75 popcorn and share it with ease.