The History of Popcorn at the Movies.

[The Great Owl]

A few days ago, I was pondering the term, "popcorn movie", and I found myself questioning why popcorn even became associated with movies in the first place.

I wondered what made people decide to sell popcorn at movie theaters during the early days. What was going through the mind of the person who initially had the idea to sell popcorn in a movie theater?
"Hmmm... I need to come up with a way for people to maximize their enjoyment while watching movies at my theater. What can I possibly do to attract more moviegoers? Hmmm...
A-ha! I've got it! I'm going to build a concession stand in the theater lobby to make the loudest, most obnoxiously annoying food product in the entire world, so that moviegoers are surrounded by people who sound like drunk lumberjacks with sputtering rusty chainsaws while they are eating this food product during the middle of the most subtly low-key dialogue scenes of feature films. What a great idea!"

I did a quick Google search on the topic and found these two rather interesting articles.
The Origin of Popcorn at the Movies (Oscars.org)
Popcorn, the snack that saved the movies (CBS News)

Cliffs Notes...
- Most theaters did not sell concessions during the era of silent films.
- Theater owners during the Great Depression realized that they could save their theaters from going out of business by lowering admission and charging more for the cheaply-made popcorn concessions.
- People tend to eat more during tense moments, so the popularity of popcorn at movie theaters indirectly influenced the popularity of intense dramatic films.

I'm not sure if this thread is in the right place, but it's a fun side road for a movie-related question that surfaced in my mind this week. I did not realize that there were quite a few practical reasons why popcorn continues to be a popular product in theaters, despite the fact that most of us would rather not hear those around us eat it during a movie.