betterscore wrote:
In Washington County, attendance at the movies is just large enough for the cinema operators to make modest profits. The size of the county's population is stable and is not expected to increase much. Yet there are investors ready to double the number of movie screens in the county within five years, and they are predicting solid profits both for themselves and for the established cinema operators.
Which of the following, if true about Washington County, most helps to provide a justification for the investors' prediction?
(A) Over the next ten years, people in their teenage years, the prime moviegoing age, will be a rapidly growing proportion of the county's population.
(B) As distinct from the existing cinemas, most of the cinemas being planned would be located in downtown areas, in hopes of stimulating an economic revitalization of those areas.
(C) Spending on video purchases, as well as spending on video rentals, has been increasing modestly each year for the past ten years.
(D) The average number of screens per cinema is lower among existing cinemas than it is among cinemas still in the planning stages.
(E) The sale of snacks and drinks in cinemas accounts for a steadily growing share of most cinema operators' profits.
Cinema operators will modest profits today.
Population is stable and expected to be stable (say 100k people).
Investors want to build many new screens - predicting solid profits for new and existing owners.
What will justify this prediction? Currently the profits are modest. They are expected to be solid even after number of screens are doubled?
Obviously, the expectation is a big increase in the number of movie goers and/or a major lifestyle change of current moviegoers so that they start watching many more movies.
(A) Over the next ten years, people in their teenage years, the prime moviegoing age, will be a rapidly growing proportion of the county's population.
So it seems there are many kids in the 5 - 12 age range and over the next ten years (from now to 10 years later), they will become teenagers. That is when people go for movies. If teenagers will be a rapidly growing proportion of population, a big proportion of the population will be watching movies. So though the population will not increase, the proportion of population that watches movies will increase rapidly. This explains what solid profits could be expected.
(B) As distinct from the existing cinemas, most of the cinemas being planned would be located in downtown areas, in hopes of stimulating an economic revitalization of those areas.
This talks about cinemas boosting economy. We need to find why we are expecting cinemas to get a boost. We want to find what will make people come to cinemas. If they do, how that impacts the economy and of what areas is irrelevant.
(C) Spending on video purchases, as well as spending on video rentals, has been increasing modestly each year for the past ten years.
Doesn't explain why people will start going to cinemas soon.
(D) The average number of screens per cinema is lower among existing cinemas than it is among cinemas still in the planning stages.
No of screens per cinema is irrelevant. We are planning to double the number of screens. How many cinemas will they be in, we don't care.
(E) The sale of snacks and drinks in cinemas accounts for a steadily growing share of most cinema operators' profits.
"Steadily growing share of profits" - Ignore.
Answer (A)