Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/09/the-truth-about-movie-theater.html
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In other news, water is wet.
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If the molecule is the exact same either way–natural or synthesized–I don’t see a health problem there. (See: imitation vanilla)
The use of trans-fats, however, should be banned. That stuff is just pure evil for your body.
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I come from a part of France where we use a lot of butter.
That being said; I still remember, vividly 20 years later, the first time I’ve seen someone pour “butter” on popcorn… It was at an AMC theater in Houston, TX. I still can perfectly see the person pressing a couple of time on that plastic tap to drench the popcorn. I can remember the smell and that the person was also holding a giant pickle in a small cardboard canoe.
But most importantly I remember my jaw drop to the floor and my mind being blown by disgust.
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OOOH Scary chemicals!
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Can we go back to putting good ol’ coconut oil on popcorn, now that it’s a health food?
I remember all of the 80s-era news exposés about the secret evils of movie theater popcorn, covered in the deadly substance coconut oil that was killing our kids slowly.
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My local theater (before it closed) was very quick to tell people that they used real butter mixed with just enough oil to make it flow. The owner sold his theaters when he retired and the one in my town now hosts performing arts events, weekly silent films, and occasional classic films. The new owner almost certainly uses buttery topping.
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Working in a $1 movie theater during college, I’d come home reeking of moviepopcorn smell. The glug of the “butter”, the flavouring agent (Flavorcol), the cloying smell of the stuff, to this day makes me grimace.
Isn’t immitation vanilla just harvested from beaver butts?
I just assumed it all took place in miserable factory farms full of castor canadensis somewhere in upstate New York.
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Ooh! Ooh! Dunno about the popcorn butter, but damn, did I hit the local theatre jackpot. Place was derelict as long as I remember until the late 90s, and since it reopened, it’s just been getting better and better 
…Tarantino says I should feel very lucky. I do 
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movie theater popcorn butter = fat bomb
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The “truth about movie theater popcorn butter” is that it’s overpriced and deliberately salty so you drink more overpriced sugar water.
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But it’s vegan! (probably)
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BTW, that’s another reason my local rocks - grab as many free bags as you like on the way out of the last session 
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No! No! I do not want to know!
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About one time out of every fifty trips to the movies I will put just a little splash of it on the top of the popcorn (our local theater has a self serve dispenser…and yes I have seen people drench their popcorn in it).
I have that taste of it, which is not very good but somehow nostalgic in a way…and then the fix has been had and I am good for another few years.
My bigger gripe with movie popcorn has become they seemed to have removed salt from the mix…so it comes out super bland now. The issue is, you can’t just salt it after you get it, because its normally too dry now to hold salt crystals to it. Also, thankfully my primary theater still pops popcorn in smaller more frequent batches so you consistently get good fresh popcorn.Too many theaters pop larger batches and bags it and keeps it in warming cases…which leads to super nasty stale and dry popcorn.
Nope, regular coconut oil is just as bad for you as lard:
https://news.heart.org/saturated-fats-why-all-the-hubbub-over-coconuts/
Used to work at a Movie Theatre in college back in the very early 80’s.
When we cleaned the auditorium after a show, we ALWAYS picked out the large popcorn buckets that looked “new” and then “recycled them” by putting them back on the stack behind the counter.
Inventory was done by counting the buckets and cups, and the till had to match.
Each one of those that we refilled was money in our pockets.
I also distinctly remember some Movie Theatre Concession Expo where one of the items was a “Butter Flavor Dispenser” that “You couldn’t spit in”.
Now who would spit in one of those? hmmm.
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My dad had a donut shop through the 80’s…I am the same way with the smell and taste of donuts. Just turns my stomoch because everything always smelled like fresh baked donuts.
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Oh, I’m aware. Watching it transform from “an unhealthy source of saturated fat that’s making kids extra fat” to Gwyneth Paltrow’s favorite health food has been kind of bizarre. All things in moderation, and that includes delicious coconut oil, great for stir-fries but not so great to soak popcorn in.
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That’s why I only buy a drink when I get a chance to go watch a movie.
