Retro video shows what going to the cinema looked like in 1987

The 1980s saw a golden age for cinemas. The popcorn was cheap, the blockbusters were entertaining, and there were no smartphones to distract from the experience. Whether you were around this decade or not, you can travel back in time with the video above from the Vampire Robot YouTube channel.

The retro footage shows a busy movie theater in Los Angeles, California, on the weekend of March 27, 1987. It begins with an employee calling people and handing them their tickets before the camera shows customers buying snacks and drinks. Later in the video, people crowd into the hall to choose their (unassigned) seats. Films that were in the cinema this weekend included Train, HoosiersAnd Crocodile Dundee.

Modern viewers will notice some differences between the video and today’s cinematic experience. One is that people bought almost everything with cash, which is no longer the case today. According to Capital One, 47.8 percent of Americans do not use cash at all in an average week, and 81 percent of U.S. consumers prefer to pay by card. The COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame for the shift, as Americans have largely forgone cash in favor of contactless payments.

These days, moviegoers mostly buy their tickets online and check in by phone. That would have been unthinkable in 1987 – the only way to get a ticket back then was to stand in line on the night of a show. It wasn’t until 2006 that Fandago first gave people the ability to buy movie tickets on their mobile devices.

One of the most striking changes concerns the size of the popcorn containers. The large popcorn ordered in the video is significantly smaller than the giant buckets that modern moviegoers are familiar with. The size of popcorn portions isn’t the only thing that’s increased. The price of the snack has risen over 1,000 percent since 1929, even when adjusted for inflation.

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