Museum of Ice Cream
With any proverbial gold rush, such as the one happening in Los Angeles today, all types of interesting characters descend upon the land in search of fame and fortune. Ultimately, you can boil it down to two archetypes: people looking for providence; and those mad for that elusive cash cow.
A few months ago we noticed a line beside a large pink building near our office in Arts District South. We detected that this was a pop up show from New York which everyone has come to know as, Museum of Ice Cream. Curious what their score was, we purchased two tickets and patiently awaited our reserved half hour time slot to arrive the following month. This is also a perfect opportunity to plan your wardrobe, by the way.
If you're one of the ardent minority who doesn't follow the Kardashians, Jay-Z & Beyonce, the Beckham family or countless other celebrities that have publicly visited this Instagram watering hole– allow us to explain what the hype is about. Museum of Ice Cream is not a literal museum for ice cream in the traditional sense (as its name might suggest). Instead, MOIC is a gallery of candy inspired rooms, or sets, designed for all your internet photography needs. Oh, but fear not! They do have ice cream! Interestingly enough many have commented online that they were not served a satisfying amount. One review said, “Make sure to ask for seconds…” Take heed!
Overall, the rooms are eclectic, interesting and the space does create a great environment for photoshoots. Of course when you search #museumoficecream on Instagram you’ll undoubtedly find a thousand images that look just like yours... but, that’s just the way of the 'instant' craze as pop culture says! Our main complaint with the MOIC experience, which you’ll see in many other reviews, is that you are ushered through the museum very quickly. Once you leave an exhibit there’s no going back! Shoot briskly!
We reasoned that this was probably to accommodate an intense demand. Come to think about it, how well is Museum of Ice Cream doing anyway?! The following is what our sleuthing uncovered.
A single adult admission ticket to the museum is $29. Accordingly, Forbes.com reported that admission is limited to 20 people per half hour— giving us a total of $580 every 30 minutes or $1,160 per hour. Now, the Museum is open a full 11 hours per day, from 11am-10pm, reaching the figure $12,760. MOIC is closed on Tuesdays, so, $12,760 x 6 = $76,560 per week or $306,240 per month. They opened in April and, based upon their website, will run through October. That’s 6 months with a grand slam of $1.8M in ticket sales alone. Translation: MOIC has founded a very profitable ice cream gold mine. Your best chance to see this anomaly is by taking a trip to their next home in San Francisco as DTLA has been selling out in intervals since they popped up.
DiscoverDTLA reached out to the Museum of Ice Cream press office in June before visiting their galleries and they agreed to an email Q&A. However, when we sent our questions over we received a reply stating they were fully committed and unavailable for comment.
That’s when the numbers started swirling through our minds.
In other news, would you believe that it rained last month? Rain on a summer’s day in LA, what a miracle! Reminds us of what Walter Huston's character Howard says in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, “Water’s precious… more precious than gold.”