Anybody else see this over on the BBC website about how at least one independent cinema chain is banning popcorn?

Personally I don’t object to it – generally far less anti-social than nachos which can stink the place out.   I can see the argument about the mess (though the cinema I was in at the weekend for Wall-E didn’t have bins on the way out – we had to bring our ice cream tubs home to recycle*).  And perhaps the noise (I still remember one of my friends on a university outing to Shadowlands managing to make his last all the way to the end of the film – everyone else sniffing whilst trying to hold back tears at the end, and him sat crunching away).   But I really can’t see that providing popcorn makes for bad movies** – I don’t find the choice of film I’m seeing affects my desire to eat trashy food!***

So, guys:

– it’s not that unhealthy – unlike some other cinema food (those hotdogs and the aforementioned nachos);

– smaller portions would be good though – I don’t like asking for a child’s portion, even though that is too big for your average child and perfectly ample for a fully-grown adult.   This would be a lot more environmentally friendly in terms of the energy to cook the stuff and the cardboard used in the tubs; and

– please do put in some sort of recycling facility – no wonder people leave the empties behind when there’s not even a normal bin!

* If you really want an example of anti-social, the security guard on the way in was having words with one lady who argued “but I always bring this and nobody ever stops me” holding up her tub of curry and rice.

** I suspect there’d still be a lot of bad movies even without popcorn.  But far less of the movies shown in the independent cinemas in the article would get any kind of look-in at the multiplexes.  Which would mean a lot less of them got made.  Which would be a shame…

*** A wider selection of healthy but quiet snacks would be good.  Not sure the wasabi nuts mentioned in the article would be any quieter than pop-corn though!