Don't Touch Anything But My Junk
If movie theaters can make you eat their junk food, shouldn't they tell you what's in it?
There's a simple and quite modest way to fix the FDA rule: Any chain establishment that prohibits outside food should forfeit its exemption from menu labeling. You can tell us how many calories are in your popcorn, or you can let us bring something better to eat. But you can't have it both ways.
(My recommended reading: Bloomberg reports that theater chains "generate as much as one- third of their annual revenue from concessions." Sarah Gilbert at Wallet Pop notes that according to Regal's CEO, "a $6 bucket of popcorn costs the chain 15 or 20 cents." Mike Bracken at Moviefone asks, "Does anyone think a large tub of popcorn and a gallon of soda is actually good for them?") Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Human Nature's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:
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Will Saletan covers science, technology, and politics for Slate and says a lot of things that get him in trouble.
Photograph of movie popcorn by Jupiterimages © Getty Images.