Popcorn dilemma: 3 friends in a movie theatre

Imagine you are going for a movie with 2 friends. Naturally as soon as you enter the movie theatre, All 3 of you walk towards the popcorn stand. Because the only thing to do when you are waiting for the movie to start is to grab as much popcorn you can in your hand and try to gobble the whole thing in one go.

Now, all 3 of you realize there is a dilemma. You are healthy enough as a group to not buy 3 popcorns. One of the guys are too stingy to buy 2 popcorns. He goes on explaining the conspiracy behind why popcorns cost almost as much as the movie tickets. The margin the movie theatres charge on confectionaries are very high to make up for the lower ticket prices to allow a larger audience to the shows. Movie theatres make a big part of their profits from these add on sales. After you hear this guy’s story, naturally you have to settle for not buying popcorn.

Then you convince the other two to buy at least one popcorn as it is tradition and also there is `a study that proves that eating popcorn can reduce the amount of information we gather from the Ads played by movie theatres before screenings. Finally, all of you come to a decision. The decision is to share an Extra Large Buttery Popcorn between the 3 of you. If there were 4 people, you could have easily decided to buy 2 popcorns for the group.

If there are 3 people and one popcorn, one might think the best position to sit would be in the middle.

Wrong Answer!!

This is what I used to think as well. But there is a better approach. I believe the best place to sit would be in one of the ends rather than the middle. First of all make sure one of your friends holds the popcorn. You are here for an entertaining night and not to practice how well you can balance the popcorn that is almost about to fall in a dark room with stairs to climb.

Here are my reasons for not choosing the middle seat.

1. Don’t be the messenger

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

If you are the one in the middle, you will have to constantly be the middleman for both your friends. Both of them will be whispering to you. You will miss out on watching many crucial scenes by just conveying comments from one side to the other.

If you sat on one of the sides, you can ignore the conversation the other 2 are having.

2. Avoid the sarcastic and hilarious comments from your friends

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

You have come to see the movie for entertainment. But, if one of your friends think cracking jokes between crucial scenes of a movie is more entertaining than actually trusting the take of the experienced director who made the movie, you might feel like kicking him in the chest.

Instead sit in one of the sides and your funny friend can entertain the third friend instead of you. And you can save your kick for another day.

3. Don’t take responsibility for finishing the popcorn

Image by annca from Pixabay

The most important point is the popcorn. If you are sitting in the middle, you will have to hold the popcorn so all 3 of you can share. You might think this is great since you get to eat more of the popcorn. Although, you need to dispose of the popcorn bag and also take blame for eating most of the popcorn.

If you sat on one of the sides, you can keep digging into the popcorn with the least amount of responsibility and enjoy the movie comfortably.