@cornered most movie houses don't pop their own popcorn - it comes from a distro center.
Worked for a theatre chain for 3 years, they popped the corn at the main warehouse where all the old standees and props were stored. We'd order giant bags of corn for the whole week, and they'd get delivered on Thursdays. To refresh, we'd push hot air thru it, in the hopper you see them scoop it out of.
Bet someone forgot to close the bag, or it wasn't warmed up yet. :\
@cornered way less equipment needed, less chance of injury with concession workers, centralized production.
If the concessions don't have to deal with cleaning out a possibly dangerously hot popper every night it's safer for the company.
@kismatt wow that's different. I haven't heard of that