The Great Popcorn Search!

Which Clark County movie theater has the best popcorn?

Seven-cinemas survey yields surprising results

By Dayne Miller, Lacamas Life Writer

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Going to the movies has been a favorite pastime of many Americans for as long as we can remember, yet lately taking your spouse and kids, or significant other, to the movies can be a costly event. It costs a family of four more than $30 just to get past the doorman, and then it usually costs at least that amount for the refreshments. For all that green, we decided to see what you get for your services, and decided to simply rate the theaters on two things: Which Clark County theater has the best popcorn? And which Clark County theater had the best overall service? 

As a roving reporter, I spent an afternoon visiting the seven major theaters in Clark County in search of the best popcorn. Once I wrote down my observations, and collected my popcorn, I returned to the office and a panel of eight sampled the popcorn and noted their results. The name of each theater was hidden so nobody could tell the popcorn’s origin, so it was a fair assessment. The panel unanimously decided the winning theater that provided the best popcorn. 

Here are our observations: 

1.       Liberty Theater in downtown Camas is the winner! And by a wide margin! The popcorn was very light and fluffy and used real butter. The mushroom-style popcorn (which is larger, crispier, and lighter than regular popcorn) also tasted like it was fresh or made the same day and what’s surprising is that the small bucket costs only $3. That’s $1.25 less than any of the competition! But that’s not all – you get a bucket that’s as large as the competitors’ medium bags. And not only do they have the best popcorn, but they have the best overall service. 

2.       Cinetopia placed second for popcorn but third for service. The mushroom-style popcorn was very light, fluffy and was full of flavor. What is great about Cinetopia is the abundance of popcorn toppings and butter flavorings available to the customer. They have onion garlic, hazelnut, regular butter, cheddar, and several others. The service was mediocre but they were helpful, just less so than Liberty. Cinetopia also tied for most expensive coming in at $5.25 for a small popcorn. 

^3.         Battle Ground Cinemas had second best service but came in third for overall popcorn. They were very pleasant and actually engaged in conversation with the customers. This was also the second cheapest popcorn at $4.25 for a small bag. This popcorn also tasted like it had real butter on it and it also was made fresh that same day. 

4.       Regal Cinemas 164th: Basically all of the Regal theaters came in last for service as well as popcorn. This theater was one of the nicest but still had very poor popcorn – it tasted as though it had been sitting out for about two days and fresh butter still didn’t help. The popcorn was hard and chewy. Cost: $5.25 for a small bag. 

5.       Regal Cinemas Hazel Dell: This was the least friendly theater in the whole survey. The ticket taker was very unfriendly and he looked as though he did not want to be there. The popcorn was terrible and tasted at least 24 hours old. Like 164^th, the butter didn’t help. Cost: $5.25 for a small bag. 

6.       Regal Cinemas Downtown Vancouver: This theater had bad popcorn as well, but the problem was trying to find someone to help me get the popcorn. It was probably about five minutes before I found someone to get the popcorn for me and when he was helping me it felt as though he was rushing the sale to get me out of there fast. Cost: $5.25 for a small bag. 

7.       Regal Cinemas Vancouver Mall: This theater was the worst out of them all and came in dead last. The service was horrible and the popcorn was very bland and tasteless. The popcorn tastes more like I was eating uncooked rice. It even tasted burnt. The service was very bad, the person that helped me made me feel like I should leave and never come back. Cost: $5.25 for a small bag.