Why do we eat popcorn at the cinema or in front of the TV?

The custom of consuming i popcorn (popped corn) in the cinema dates back to approx 100 years agoduring the Great Depression (or crisis of '29) of the United States. The winning keys to make them become one in a very short time favorite snack to consume while watching a movie they were low cost, ease of preparation And simplicity of consumption (no need for cutlery or tables). Previously, it was forbidden to eat popcorn (like anything else) in cinemas, but the introduction of sound cinema filled the theaters to such an extent that the sale of this snack became convenient, offering cinema owners an opportunity to make money. The habit, born almost by chance, has become to all intents and purposes an inseparable combination and has spread throughout the world, a sign that food, in addition to nourishing us, represents a real cultural experience.

Pop corn and cinema have been paired for almost 100 years

The birth of popcorn dates back to the 1930s in the United States of America, during the Great Depression (or crisis of '29). The fact that popcorn could be produced and purchased at low cost, in fact, allowed its rapid diffusion and allowed cinemas to have an additional source of income in a period of economic difficulty. Subsequently, the custom of eating popcorn in front of a film also arrived in homes, in front of TVs, thus transforming popcorn from a simple snack to a real one experience intertwined with a specific cultural activity: precisely that cinematic.

In summary, popcorn represents:

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• Conviviality: They can be easily shared
• Rituality: the practice of eating them during the screening can be seen as a sort of “ceremonial” linked to the cinematographic experience.
• L'belonging to a culture of very precise reference, the Hollywood one and more generally the American one.
• Sense of community and group membership, with friends and people present in the room. In fact, we may not know each other, but we can be sure that we make the same gestures, consume the same things, at the same time, remaining within the same behavioral pattern, we conform. In fact, we would be very surprised to see someone eating a plate of pasta at the cinema.