Theaters fear shortage of movie popcorn: Wall Street Journal
(KTLA) — Hollywood has been popping champagne corks over the success of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” sequel, which raked in the most Memorial Day weekend box-office bucks ever.
But there’s a new problem looming: a shortage of movie popcorn and other pricey snacks.
Operators of movie theaters were reportedly nervous at the recent CinemaCon industry confab about being able to stock their concession stands for the summer and holiday moviegoing seasons, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Popcorn supply will be tight,” Norm Krug, chief executive of Preferred Popcorn, a supplier of kernels to theater chains, told the paper.
Not only has inflation made food costs soar, but, as The Journal said, high fertilizer prices have affected the farmers who grow corn needed for the cinema snack. Supply chain issues are also causing people in the industry to forecast the popcorn shortage, as well as trucker shortages that have delayed popcorn shipments.
According to the Journal, Krug said various economic factors forced him to pay some farmers more to keep growing popcorn, instead of more lucrative crops like soybeans. Still, Krug said, he’s worried that won’t be enough to keep annual yields at typical levels, the Journal reported.
Even the bags that hold movie theater popcorn are a concern for some, including Neely Schiefelbein, sales director for Goldenlink North America, the Journal reported. The bags with linings that keep the butter from seeping out are in short supply, Schiefelbein said.
This is a major concern for theater operators, who rely on concession-stand sales for much of their livelihood.
“It’s a mess,” one theater owner told the Journal.
For now, the popcorn problem hasn’t affected most consumers. But that could change if behind-the-scenes supply woes continue, suppliers said.