Goladus

Suppose you had to pick a food for people to snack on absent-mindedly as they watched a blockbuster movie in the theater. Obviously, you'd optimize for tasty, popular finger foods, but what other qualities might you be interested in?

The main reason people go to a theater is to see a movie, where 'to see' really means 'to watch and listen'. Theater designers and managers try to minimize the amount of ambient noise to enhance the soundtrack of the movie, even asking people beforehand to please be quiet during the movie. So you might want a food that can be eaten quietly, too.

Theaters are also full of seats in narrow rows that are difficult to clean between. So you might want to find a food that is easy to eat without making a mess. A worst case spill scenario should be easy to clean up.

Watching a movie is really about the experience, and nothing ruins a good experience like an awful smell. So you'd want a food that didn't smell too strong, either.

The most ubiquitous movie snack is powdered-butter flavored Popcorn drenched in liquefied fat. Somehow, it has evolved to be such a signature movie snack that even people who never eat popcorn any other time automatically fork over hard-earned cash for a bag before a movie. How well does it fit those criteria?

Well, It doesn't crunch as loudly as carrots or fresh apples, and rummaging around in the bag is usually quieter than pouring a bowl of cereal.

It's it's harder to be messy than something probably, let's say a bowl of powdered confectioner's sugar; and it's easier to clean than a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce.

It also doesn't smell as strong as raw fish or canned tuna.

What else might it compare to?

Ice Cream?
Twinkies?
Cupcakes?
Cookies?
Chocolate?
Gummy fruits?
Donuts?
Marshmellows?
Pretzels? (Crunchy and loud, but not stinky or messy)
Nachos? (Crunchy, loud, stinky, and messy.)

Looks like the biggest problem is that most of the good alternatives are sweet food, and you don't need sweet food if you're going to be guzzling an extra-large pepsi. Maybe popcorn is the popular movie food because other than maybe soft pretzels there aren't any non-sweet finger foods. Popcorn chicken maybe.

I suppose popcorn is as good as it gets. Maybe someday people will get sick of butter-flavored popcorn drenched in butter, which will at least make it smell better.