For decades, popcorn has been a staple of the movie theater experience and exhibitors\u2019 bottom lines. Now, the receptacle it comes in is becoming just as important.<\/p>\n
As recently as three years ago,\u00a0AMC Entertainment\u00a0didn\u2019t sell any merchandise. Last year it hawked novelty popcorn buckets, drink sippers and T-shirts to the tune of about $65 million in revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started with us in a big way with our own movie, \u2018Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,\u2019 that we released in October of 2023 and we sold just an incredible number of popcorn buckets,\u201d said AMC CEO Adam Aron. \u201cThat sparked us to do it almost all the time \u2026 just literally every month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other theater chains like\u00a0Cinemark,\u00a0Marcus, Regal and B&B Theatres have also embraced popcorn buckets, using these specialty items to drive concession purchases, create a sense of urgency to see big movies on opening weekend and add value to the theatrical experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cPost-Covid, we realized that the eventizing of cinema has never really been as important as it is now,\u201d said Paul Farnsworth, executive director of communication and content at B&B Theatres. \u201cWe recognized during that time that the greatest casualty for our industry was people just fell out of the habit of going to movies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollywood production issues led to fewer theatrical releases and\u00a0smaller ticket sales in 2024,\u00a0with box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Farnsworth noted that unique popcorn buckets can add value to a customer\u2019s trip to the movies and creates a memory of the trip that can be taken home, propped up on a display shelf or repurposed for movie nights in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very good for the bottom line,\u201d he said. \u201cThe big value for us is that people come in and there\u2019s these fun things they get to take home and they\u2019re taking pictures with them in the theater. There\u2019s immense value in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Cinemark, the proof of concept came with the release of \u201cScream VI\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a \u2018Scream\u2019 popcorn bucket and it completely caught us by surprise,\u201d said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. \u201cThis thing just had this huge uptake. We sold out of the thing immediately and we were basically selling them to people online afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commemorative popcorn buckets have long been a part of theme park merchandising, driving revenue of the likes of\u00a0Disney\u00a0and\u00a0Universal\u00a0both domestically and internationally. However, U.S.-based movie theaters were late to adopt the trend.<\/p>\n
Marketing and merchandise company Zinc has been designing and manufacturing branded popcorn buckets and drink sippers for over a decade internationally, but turned its attention stateside in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheaters were reticent because the cups didn\u2019t fit in the holders,\u201d said Rod Mason, vice president of business development at Zinc Group, one of the biggest players in the premium popcorn space.<\/p>\n
A shift came in 2019 with an R2-D2 popcorn bucket created for \u201cStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAMC took a punt on it,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey took multiple tens of thousands of pieces. They sold through it in about three or four days at an incredibly high price. Nothing like that had ever been done before, and it was like \u2018OK, well, this works.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A revamped version of the droid popcorn bucket was re-released for the 25th anniversary screenings of \u201cStar Wars: Episode 1 \u2014 A Phantom Menace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The popcorn bucket and drink cup combo sold for $49.99.<\/p>\n
However, the true watershed moment for the niche market came nearly five years later with a now-infamous popcorn bucket in honor of \u201cDune: Part Two,\u201d released in last March. The bucket was modeled after the sandworms featured in the film but inspired crude comparisons to an adult product.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of the \u2018Dune\u2019 bucket was it just wasn\u2019t intended to be viral,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n
The $24.99 bucket sold out and found momentum on secondary markets. Receipts from eBay show these popcorn buckets sold for between $50 and $210 apiece on the reseller site.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe popularity of the popcorn buckets on social media combined with the perception of limited supply of the popcorn buckets leads to a feeling of \u2018fear of missing out\u2019 among consumers who are driven to buy the buckets when [they] see them available,\u201d said Lindsay Brookshier, content director at online Disney guide MickeyVist.com.<\/p>\n
The \u201cDune\u201d bucket inspired \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d actor and producer Ryan Reynolds to design a cheeky popcorn bucket for the release of his film.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears from now they will look back at 2024 as when the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,\u201d Reynolds wrote on X to promote the concession container, which was shaped like Wolverine\u2019s head with its mouth wide open to house the popcorn.<\/p>\n
The $29.99 bucket was exclusively available at AMC and was released the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con and the \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d film release.<\/p>\n
Studios and theaters have been more proactive about working with companies like Zinc to create unique popcorn buckets for moviegoers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very competitive business,\u201d said Mason. \u201cEveryone is trying to outdo, and not just the companies like us, but also the companies that are buying it. They\u2019re trying to make sure that they have the coolest item \u2026 that competition has been magnified over the last 12 months because there\u2019s so many eyes on this segment of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the movie industry is about to have an influx of blockbuster titles now that production delays from the pandemic and dual Hollywood strikes are in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n
Following \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World,\u201d which debuted Friday, the 2025 calendar has \u201cThunderbolts*,\u201d \u201d Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning,\u201d \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon,\u201d \u201cJurassic World Rebirth,\u201d \u201cSuperman,\u201d \u201cFantastic Four: First Steps,\u201d \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d and \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d<\/p>\n
And 2026 has equally promising tie-ins for popcorn buckets with a \u201cSuper Mario Bros.\u201d sequel, \u201cAvengers: Doomsday,\u201d \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu,\u201d \u201cToy Story 5,\u201d \u201cSupergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,\u201d \u201cMinions 3,\u201d \u201cHunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,\u201d \u201cIce Age 6\u2033 and \u201cShrek 5.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve missed out on a couple,\u201d B&B\u2019s Farnsworth said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have that crazy \u2018Dune\u2019 one. But that was kind of one of the hinge points for us. It was like, \u2018Alright, we really have to pay attention.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
B&B, the fifth-largest cinema chain in America with 58 locations, still has to be very intentional about which products it offers and how many it purchases. Films like \u201cWicked,\u201d with a massive built-in audience craving merchandise, are a safer bet. But theaters have a very short window to sell the specialty items.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike our normal popcorn bags, which are evergreen, if you don\u2019t sell the [product], you\u2019re probably not going to sell them a month after the movie,\u201d Farnsworth said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, AMC is investing more heavily.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big things that we\u2019re doing in 2025 is we\u2019re significantly increasing the quantities,\u201d Aron said, noting that AMC was already placing orders for 100,000 units or more. \u201cWe\u2019re buying, because there\u2019s no need for us to sell out on opening day. There\u2019s plenty of people coming to see that movie for weeks and weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n For decades, popcorn has been a staple of the movie theater experience and exhibitors\u2019 bottom lines. Now, the receptacle it comes in is becoming just as important. As recently as three years ago,\u00a0AMC Entertainment\u00a0didn\u2019t sell any merchandise. Last year it hawked novelty popcorn buckets, drink sippers and T-shirts to the tune of about $65 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}