While the cost of gas to get to the movie theatre may quickly become the most expensive part of a cinema outing – trumping even the $11 ticket price – it's the price of popcorn you should be worried about. Thanks to flooding in the Midwest and farmers treating their corn as cash crops, one estimate has movie popcorn hitting $7 by next year. Rather than planting flour or sweet corn, farmers are putting ethanol corn anywhere they can, reaping the benefits of government subsidies and the growing demand for ethanol-based fuels.

And thanks to the 2005 U.S. Energy Bill, you can blame your congressman for gouging you at the concession stand.

The 2005 US Energy Bill mandated that 4 billion gallons of ethanol be produced in 2006 and 4.7 billion gallons be generated in 2007. That number is set to go up every year to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. To accomplish these mandates, the Federal Government is paying subsidies to American farmers to encourage them to grow the ethanol-producing strain of corn.

The end result is that American corn farmers are growing less and less Popcorn. In order to keep farmers from switching to the more lucrative ethanol corn, popcorn and food manufacturers have been forced to increase their bids. That has resulted in a 25 cent per bag increase in concession stand popcorn prices at AMC Theatres, and similar hikes have taken place at many US theatres.

With 31% of the total 2008 US corn crop expected to be devoted to ethanol, the price of popcorn would already be increasing again next year. Now, the disastrous flooding in the Midwest has apparently destroyed a significant portion of next year?s crop. Ethanol production and heavy rains in America?s Corn Belt have created a ?Perfect Storm? that could result in $7+ for a large popcorn sometime next year. [HWT]

The price of Snow Caps, Jujubes, and Junior Mints, however, shouldn't be affected by all this. And there's no point in going to the movies if you aren't stock up on sugar, anyhow.