( CNN ) -- Movie audiences have always known the joys of in-seat snacking , but it took the theaters a while to come around . Owners of nickelodeons and movie palaces refused to sell food until the 1920s , according to `` Shared Pleasures , '' a history of movie presentation by Douglas Gomery . Munching on peanuts and popcorn during a show was low-class , they believed , associated with the circus and the burlesque house . The wonderful new art of the cinema needed a refined atmosphere , more like the concert hall than the carnival . Of course , people ate anyway . As each new theater opened , candy stores and street vendors set up shop nearby , selling bags of treats to be smuggled past the ushers . It took the Great Depression to loosen the owners ' scruples . Andrew F. Smith 's book `` Popped Culture '' details the way movie theaters got into the popcorn business . Looking for extra revenue streams , the theaters began leasing space to vendors : prime locations right next to the box office , or even `` lobby privileges '' for a dollar a day . When they saw the kind of profits the popcorn sellers were turning , they took over the stands themselves . The movies turned popcorn into a snack phenomenon : 5 million pounds were grown in the United States in 1934 , 100 million pounds in 1940 . The owners also realized that setting up candy counters and staffing them with high school students ( preferably female and pretty ) was an easy way to turn a buck , and all the new brands of packaged candy made their way into theaters . Soft drinks showed up via the Coca-Cola company . After World War II , salesmen traveled the land , setting up soda stands at movie houses throughout the country . With more and more independent theaters opening ( A 1948 antitrust ruling forbade Hollywood studios from running their own . ) , owners looked to the refreshment stands as a way to cover the cost of renting films . Trying to sell more snacks , they instituted intermissions in the middle of films and commissioned cartoons of singing , dancing treats to push the goods . Art houses , showing foreign films to an urbane crowd , began to pop up in big cities and university towns in the late '40s . As historian Barbara Wilinsky points out in her 2001 study `` Sure Seaters : the Emergence of Art House Cinema , '' the new highbrow theaters tried to distinguish themselves from mainstream joints by serving coffee and pastries : more intellectual fare , apparently . The arty Trans-Lux chain even set up faux-Parisian `` street '' cafes in some of its branches . In most of the country , though , the drive-in ruled . With more space available , the menu expanded : hot dogs , burgers , even barbecue and fried fish sandwiches were offered to car-bound audiences . ( Folks in Texas got pickles , which are still served there today . ) The late '70s saw the death of the drive-in and the neighborhood theater as more multiplexes opened . On the food front , the bold invention of the era was snack counter nachos . Introduced by Frank Liberto at a Texas Rangers game in 1977 , chips with gooey `` cheese '' soon moved from stadium to multiplex lobby . Liberto 's company , Ricos Products , is still the leader in the field , selling orange goo and orange-goo-dispensing equipment to theaters from China to Dubai . Another company , Taste of Nature , founded in 1992 by two business school graduates , also broadened the movie snack menu . They 're the people who brought those bulk bins of yogurt pretzels and gummy candies to lobbies everywhere . Their original goal was to offer healthy alternatives to the usual snack counter candy , but they discovered that people were n't quite ready to give up the junk . Health was on people 's mind in the '90s however : A1994 report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest broke the news that a large movie popcorn had as much saturated fat as six Big Macs . Sales dipped -- just a bit ­ -- and many snack counters started using slightly more healthy canola oil rather than coconut . The latest trend is theaters offering `` luxury '' options : premium screening rooms with cocktails , wine lists and upscale menus . At the Gold Class Cinema in Redmond , Washington , you can get $ 17 crab cakes to nibble while watching the film . Florida 's CinéBistro chain offers Asian mojitos and bottles of Veuve Clicquot ( straw not included ) . It seems some theater owners are still hoping to create that refined atmosphere they longed for a century ago . Popcorn , though , is not going anywhere .
The theater owners originally did n't want to serve food , believing it was low - class . After Great Depression , they rented concession stands , eventually selling them . Premium screening rooms offered cocktails , wine lists , $ 17 and sandwiches .