The popcorn bucket was portrayed during the world premiere of the Taylor Swift: Airs Tour concert film held at AMC The Grove in Los Angeles on October 11, 2023.
Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images
For decades, popcorn has been a staple in the cinema experience and the final line of exhibitors. Now, the containers in which it appears are becoming equally important.
Three years ago, recently AMC Entertainment The product was not sold. Last year it made about $65 million in revenue and drank some innovative popcorn buckets, drinks and t-shirts.
“It was released in October 2023 and sold a large number of popcorn buckets and it all started with our own film, Taylor Swift: The Airs Tour,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron. “It’s almost always going to do it for us… literally every month.”
Like other theatre chains Cinemark, MarcusRegal and B&B theaters use these special items to promote concession purchases, creating a sense of urgency to watch big movies at the opening of the weekend, and add value to the theatrical experience. We accept popcorn buckets.
“We’ve seen you get a lot of money,” said Paul Farnsworth, executive director of communications and content at B&B Theatres. “In the meantime, we realised that the biggest casualties in our industry had just fallen from the habit of people going to film.”
Due to production issues in Hollywood, there were fewer theatrical releases and fewer ticket sales in 2024, and box office revenue fell 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Farnsworth allows unique popcorn buckets to add value to their customers’ movie trips, creating travel memories that can be taken home, supporting them on display shelves, or reusing them for movie nights. I pointed out that it can be done.
“That’s very good for the bottom line,” he said. “The big value for us is that people come in and there are these fun things they can bring home, and they take pictures with them in the theatre. It’s a big deal. It’s worth it.”
For Cinemark, the proof of concept was accompanied by the release of Scream VI in 2023.
Cinemark’s Ghostface Popcorn Bucket for 2023’s Scream VI.
Cinemark
“We made a ‘Scream’ popcorn bucket, which completely surprised us,” said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. “This thing just made this huge ingestion. We were selling things out quickly and basically selling them online to people.”
It’s not just cinema snacks
Memorial Popcorn Buckets have long been part of the theme park’s merchandising, Disney and Universal Domestic and internationally. However, US cinemas have been slow to adopt this trend.
Marketing and commodity company Zinc has designed and manufactured branded popcorn buckets and drink sippers for over a decade, but it attracted attention in 2016.
“The theater was silent as the cups didn’t fit into the owner,” said Rod Mason, vice president of business development at ZINC Group, one of the biggest players in the premium popcorn space.
In 2019, a shift occurred in the R2-D2 popcorn bucket created for “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker.”
“AMC punted it,” he explained. “They took tens of thousands of pieces. They sold it in about three to four days at an incredibly high price. It’s never been done before.
An improved version of the droid popcorn bucket has been re-released for the 25th anniversary screening of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.
The Popcorn Bucket and Drink Cup combo is available for sale for $49.99.
But the real fork moment in the niche market came almost five years later, in the now-raising popcorn bucket, celebrating Dunes: Part 2, released last March. The bucket was modeled after the sandworms that appeared in the film, but it affected rough comparisons with adult products.
“The beauty of the ‘dune’ bucket was that it wasn’t meant to be just viral,” Mason said.
The $24.99 bucket sold out and found momentum in the secondary market. Receipts from eBay show that these popcorn buckets are on sale at reseller sites for between $50 and $210.
“The popularity of popcorn buckets on social media, combined with the perception that popcorn buckets is limited, leads to a sense of “fear of overlooking” among consumers looking to buy a bucket. . said Lindsay Brookshier, content director for the online Disney guide Mickeyvist.com.
The “Dune” bucket was inspired by “Deadpool & Wolverine” actor and producer Ryan Reynolds to design a cheeky popcorn bucket for the release of his film.
“A few years later, they will look back at 2024 like when the popcorn bucket war began,” Reynolds wrote in X, promoting the concession container.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” popcorn bucket will be seen at the 2024 Comic-Con International on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California.
Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The $29.99 bucket is only available on AMC and was released the same weekend as the San Diego Comic-Con and the Deadpool & Wolverine movie releases.
More unique popcorn buckets come
Studios and theatres have been actively working with companies like Zinc to create unique popcorn buckets for movie fans.
“It’s a very competitive business,” Mason said. “Everyone is trying to make sure they have the coolest items, not just companies like us, but companies that are buying it… that competition has been the past 12 It’s been expanding over the course of a month, because there are so many eyes in this segment of business.”
For Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” Cinemark’s Colosseum shaped popcorn buckets.
And the film industry is trying to flow the titles of blockbusters as production from the pandemic and dual Hollywood strikes are in the rearview mirror.
Following Captain America: Brave New World, which debuted on Friday, the 2025 calendar features Thunderbolt*, Mission: Impossible: Final Calculations, How to Train a Dragon, and Jurassic World Revils “, “Superman,” “Fantastic Four: First Step,” “Wicked: Good Four,” “Zootopia 2,” “Avatar: Fire and Ashes.”
In 2026 there will be equally promising tie-ins for “Super Mario Bros” and popcorn buckets. Sequels, “Avengers: Doom Day,” “Mandalorian and Grog,” “Toy Story 5,” “Supergirl: Female Women,” “Minion 3,” “Hunger Games: Sunrise of the Reap,” and “Ice Age 6” , “Shrek 5”
“We missed the couple,” said Farnsworth of B&B. “We didn’t have that crazy ‘dunes’. But that was one of the hinge points for us.
B&B, the fifth-largest movie chain in America with 58 locations, still has to be very intentional about the products it offers and the number of purchases it has to be. Films like “Wicked” are a safer bet, with products that crave large built-in audiences. However, the theatres have very short windows for selling specialized items.
“Unlike the usual evergreen popcorn bags, if you don’t sell (the product), you won’t be selling it a month after the film,” Farnsworth said.
Meanwhile, AMC is investing more.
“One of the big things we’re doing in 2025 is the volume has increased significantly,” Aron said, noting that AMC has already ordered more than 100,000 units. . “We don’t have to sell out on the first day, so we buy it. There are a lot of people who come to watch that movie for weeks and weeks.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCuniversal and CNBC.
