The crazy popcorn buckets are a big company for cinemas

For decades, Popcorn has been a basic food for cinema experience and the results of the exhibitors. Now the receptacle in which it happens becomes just as important.

Three years ago, AMC entertainment I have not sold any goods. Last year, he staggered in new, ginodits and t-shirts to approximately $ 65 million in income.

“It started with us in an important way with our own film, ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ ‘, which we released in October 2023 and we just sold an incredible number of popcorn buckets,” Declared the CEO of AMC, Adam Aron. “It sparked us to do it almost all the time … Little literally every month.”

Other theater channels such as Calendar,, MarcusThe theaters Regal and B&B have also adopted popcorn buckets, using these specialty articles to generate concession purchases, create a feeling of emergency to see big films on the opening weekend and add the value to theatrical experience.

“After the cage, we realized that the cinema competition has never been as important as today,” said Paul Farnsworth, executive director of communication and content in B&B theaters. “We admitted during this period that the greatest victim in our industry was that people came from the habit of going to the cinema.”

Hollywood production problems have led to less theatrical versions and Smaller ticket sales in 2024, With box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to 8.74 billion dollars. Farnsworth noted that the unique popcorn buckets can add value to the trip of a customer to films and create a memory of the trip which can be brought home, supported on a display shelf or reused for evenings movie theater.

“It’s very good for the results,” he said. “The great value for us is that people enter and there are these fun things that they can bring home and take photos with them in the theater. There is a huge value to that.”

For Cinemark, the proof of concept came with the release of “Scream VI” in 2023.

“We made a bucket of popcorn ‘Scream’ and that surprised us completely,” said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. “This thing just had this huge adoption. We sold it immediately and we sold them essentially to people online afterwards.”

Commemorative popcorn buckets have long been part of the merchant of the themed park, stimulating tastes income Disney And Universal both at the national and international level. However, cinemas based in the United States were late to adopt the trend.

The marketing and zinc goods company designs and has been making brand popcorn and ginodières buckets for more than a decade abroad, but turned its attention to the United States in 2016.

“The theaters were reluctant because the cuts did not return to the holders,” said Rod Mason, vice-president of business development at Zinc Group, one of the largest players in the premium popcorn space.

A change occurred in 2019 with an R2-D2 popcorn bucket created for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” said Mason.

“AMC has taken a shift,” he said. “They took several tens of thousands of pieces. They sold it in about three or four days at an incredibly high price. Nothing like that had never been done before, and it was like” ok, well, well, It works. “”

A revised version of the Right Popcorn bucket has been reissued for the projections of the 25th anniversary of “Star Wars: Episode 1 – A Phantom Threate”.

The Combo Bucket and Drink Cup in Pop-Corn sold at $ 49.99.

However, the real moment of the watershed for the niche market occurred almost five years later with a bucket of popcorn now infamous in honor of “Dune: share two”, published last March. The bucket was shaped after the sandworms presented in the film but inspired crude comparisons with an adult product.

“The beauty of the bucket ‘was that it was simply not intended to be viral,” said Mason.

The $ 24.99 bucket sold and found momentum in the secondary markets. Ebay receipts show these popcorn buckets sold between $ 50 and $ 210 each on the reseller site.

“The popularity of popcorn buckets on social networks combined with the perception of a limited supply of popcorn buckets leads to a feeling of” fear of missing “among consumers who are pushed to buy the buckets when ( They) see them available, “said Lindsay Brookshier, content director at online Disney Guide Mickeyvist.com.

The “Dune” bucket I inspired “Deadpool & Wolverine” the actor and producer Ryan Reynolds to design a cheeky popcorn bucket for the release of his film.

“In years, they will go back to 2024 as when the war of the buckets of popcorn has started,” wrote Reynolds on X to promote the concession container, which was in the shape of a Wolverine head with its wide open mouth To host popcorn.

The $ 29.99 bucket was exclusively available at AMC and was published the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con and the film release “Deadpool & Wolverine”.