Popcorn and Soda? That's $10

Here's another reason to hate going to the movies: The prices for popcorn and other "frill" items are inflated to enable movie theaters to offer cheaper tickets. (Not that the tickets are all that cheap, either.) According to research from the University of California-Santa Cruz and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, it makes sense for movie theaters to gouge us on those Milk Duds, because if they charge more for tickets instead, they'll get fewer customers. "If you want to bring more consumers into the market, you need to keep ticket prices lower to attract them," says Wesley Hartmann, associate professor of marketing at the Stanford B-school.

Of course, to avoid emptying your wallet at the concession stand each time you have a movie date, you could just hold on to your bag for months to get free refills. (That's not a method I would recommend, especially for anyone trying to impress his date.)