Anyone that’s been in college has taken advantage of the almost ubiquitous student movie ticket discount. It might not be a ton of money, but saving say $2 on a ticket that would usually cost $9 can at least justify the cost of gas it actually takes to get to the theater these days! However, dark clouds are on the horizon for student discounts on movie tickets. Many major chains are starting to cut back on the times you can get student discount tickets, or just getting rid of student discount tickets all together.

As an example, the AMC theater in Aventura Florida recently eliminated the student discount rate they offered. Another Florida AMD theater in Coral Ridge has moved to only offering student discount rate tickets on Thursdays, you can get a movie ticket for $6, only a $1 off the regular $7 priced ticket.

To add to the misery, theaters are boosting prices on popcorn by an average of 25 cents in most AMC theaters. Theater owners site the cost of popcorn has increased due to higher corn prices so they have to pass the higher cost on to consumers. The dirty secret is of course that theater owners already make an 80% profit margin on the outrageously priced popcorn already.

So what can you do these days to catch a cheap movie? You can see if your student union offers any type of discount movie tickets or actually shows discount movies, or of course just fall back on renting and eating your own cheap popcorn and sitting in your own comfortable couch!