One of the reasons snacks cost so much is that a large portion of the cost of a ticket goes straight to the studio the film came from, so the theater has to put huge mark-ups on its snacks just to survive.
This is one of the reasons that I've always felt theater chains are just shafted in the movie industry. The quantity of business they get is almost completely out of their control, since it's determined by the quality/popularity of movies that other people. If it's a bad year for films, it's a bad year for them, and there's not much they could have done about it.
Not to mention the fact that every ten years someone comes along and says that there's this fabulous new technology that they have to buy for their theaters. Last time it was digital sound, now it's digital projectors. That the studios are offering to front part of the cost is nice, but I have to believe that the theater chains are still stuck with some of it, and choosing to opt out isn't really much of an option if they want to stay competitive. It's really just a very short stick.
