Moviegoers could soon be spending even more for their popcorn and soda in the District if Mayor Vincent Gray wins his push for a 5 percent tax on movie theater concessions as part of an effort to build the first movieplex east of the Anacostia River. Most theaters in the District are charging $11 per ticket, and concessions can easily surpass that outlay. Popcorn and soda cost about $5 each, and the city’s 6 percent sales tax already applies. Theaters also must collect an additional 10 percent tax on alcoholic beverages sold.
Matt Hagan, a D.C. resident who says he goes out to two to three movies each month, called the tax “insane.” He said he started sneaking food into movie theaters long ago and predicted Thursday that more would do the same.
| D.C.’s theaters |
| The city’s seven first-run mainstream moviehouses are all in Northwest: |
| > Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave.; AMC Mazza Gallerie, 5300 Wisconsin Ave.; AMC Loews Georgetown, 3111 K St. |
| AMC Loews Uptown, 3426 Connecticut Ave.; Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14, 707 Seventh St.; Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St.; West End Cinema, 2301MSt. |
“The prices are already too high at movie theater concession stands,” he said. “I think they’d have a hard time collecting those tax dollars.”
Theater owners questioned Gray’s logic.
“You wouldn’t tax an existing grocery store to build a new one,” said Todd Halstead, deputy director of government affairs for the National Association of Theater Owners.
In addition, the concessions tax would be on the largest revenue stream theater owners have; most of the price of the ticket goes back to the movie houses, according to experts.
“A concession tax would be a disincentive for a new theater to open,” Halstead said.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for a response by press time Thursday. However, Gray said in a news release that dollars from the proposed tax would create jobs and increase visitors to the city.
Councilman Jack Evans, whose Ward 2 is home to four of the city’s seven first-run movie theater houses, said he was skeptical the money from a tax wouldn’t be eventually diverted to the general fund.
Evans, chairman of the council’s finance and revenue committee, said he hadn’t been notified about the proposal ahead of time and said it lacked details. The tax is subject to council approval.
“[A movie theater] east of the river is a great idea, but it should be well thought out and discussed with everybody,” he said.
A portion of the tax dollars collected, 25 percent, would be used to provide tax breaks as an incentive to lure more movie and television productions to shoot in the city. Earlier this year, the city’s leaders said they intended to make it easier for film companies to shoot on location in the District, which has little money to offer compared with neighbors Maryland and Virginia and tends to have a more complicated permitting process.
Gray first spoke about a film incentive fund this summer after discussions in Los Angeles with studio and network executives. Film incentive funds are used to pay for tax breaks jurisdictions offer producers as a way of luring their crew — and spending power. D.C.’s $16,000 fund is dwarfed by Maryland’s $7.5 million and Virginia’s $2 million.
Examiner intern Leigh Giangreco contributed to this report.
