Crazy popcorn buckets are an enormous business for cinemas

Popcorn has been a staple for the top results of cinemas and exhibitors for many years. Now the container that involves is just as necessary.

Three years ago, AMC entertainment No goods sold. Last yr, there have been innovations Popcorn bucket, drinking Sippers and T-shirts of around $ 65 million for revenue.

“It started with our own film 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour', which we published in October 2023 and only sold an incredible number of popcorn,” said Adam Aron, CEO from AMC. “That made us almost all the time … only literally every month.”

Other theater chains like cinemaPresent MarcusRegal and B&B theater have also accepted popcorn buckets and used these special items to drive concession purchases, to attain a sense of urgency in an effort to see large movies on the opening weekend and add added value to the theater experience.

“After the Kovid, we found that the event of the cinema has never been as important as now,” said Paul Farnsworth, managing director for communication and content at B&B theaters. “During this time we realized that the biggest victim in our industry was that people fell out of the habit of going to the cinema.”

The production problems in Hollywood led to fewer theater publications and smaller ticket sales in 2024, with the income on the evening coffers from 2023 to $ 8.74 billion by 3.4%. Farnsworth noticed that unique popcorn buckets can add added value to a customer's trip to the cinemas, and creates a memory of the trip that will be brought home on a display shelf or for film evenings on the cinema nights will be classified.

“It is very good for the end result,” he said. “The great value for us is that people come in and that there are these funny things they take home and take pictures with them in the theater.

For Cinemark, the Proof of Concept came with the publication of “Scream VI” in 2023.

“We made a popcorn bucket” Scream “and it surprised us,” said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. “This thing had this big recording. We immediately sold out the thing and mainly sold it to people online afterwards.”

Memorial popcorn buckets have long been part of the merchandising of the theme park and increase income from people such as Disney And Universal Both in Germany and internationally. However, the film cinemas based in the USA were late to take over the trend.

The marketing and goods company ZINC has been developing and manufacturing international popcorn buckets and drinks sipers for over a decade, but devoted itself to the states in 2016.

“The theaters were reserved since the trophies didn’t fit into the owners,” said Rod Mason, Vice President for Business Development at Zink Group, one of the largest players in the Premium Popcorn area.

A shift took place in 2019 with an R2-D2 popcorn bucket that was created for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, said Mason.

“AMC made a punt,” he said. “They took several tens of hundreds of pieces. They sold it at an incredibly high price in about three or 4 days. It had never been done before, and it was like 'Ok, well, that works.'”

A revised version of the droid popcorn bucket was released for the 25th anniversary demonstrations of “Star Wars: Episode 1-an-a Phantom Dreator”.

The combination of popcorn bucket and drink Cup was sold for $ 49.99.

The real water catchment torque for the niche market, however, took place almost five years later with a now notorious popcorn bucket in honor of “Dune: Part Two”, which was released last March. The bucket was modeled on the sandworms in the film, but inspired raw comparisons with an adult product.

“The great thing about the 'Dune' bucket was that it was simply not intended to be viral,” said Mason.

The bucket of $ 24.99 was sold out and found dynamics on the secondary sleeves. Ebay revenues show these popcorn buckets, which were sold on the reseller location for $ 50 and 210 US dollars.

“The popularity of the popcorn buckets on social media together with the perception of a limited take care of the popcorn bucket results in a sense of fear of consumers who’re caused to purchase the buckets if [they] See them available, “said Lindsay Brookshier, Content Director at Online Disney Guide Mickeyvist.com.

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

“In years they are going to look back on 2024 when the war of the Popcorn buckets began,” Reynolds wrote to X, to promote the concession container, which, like Wolverine's head, was shaped with his mouth, which is wide open to the popcorn too accommodate.

The $ 29.99 Bucket was available exclusively from AMC and was published on the same weekend as the comic-Con and the film publication “Deadpool & Wolverine”.

Studios and theater were more proactive in working with companies such as Zink to create unique popcorn buckets for cinema goers.

“It's a really competitive business,” said Mason. “Everyone tries to exceed, and never only the businesses like us, but additionally the businesses that buy it. They try to make sure because this segment of the business has so many eyes.”

And the film industry has an influx of blockbuster titles as soon as the production delays from the Pandemie and Dual -Hollywood strikes are in the rear -view mirror.

After “Captain America: Brave New World”, which debut on Friday, the calendar of 2025 “Thunderbolts*”, “Mission: Impossible: The final billing”, “How to Training Your Dragon”, “Jurassic World Rebirth,” Superman , “Superman,” “Fantastic Four: First Steps”, “Wicked: Fornas”, “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash”.

And in 2026 it has equally promising connections for popcorn buckets with a “Super Mario Bros.” Continued “Avengers: Doomsday”, “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, “Toy Story 5”, “Supergirl: Ms. of Tomorrow”, “Minions 3”, “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaming”, “Ice Age 6″ and ” Ice Age 6 “and” Ice Age 6 “and” and “Shrek 5.”

“We missed a few,” said Farnsworth from B & B. “We didn't have this crazy 'Dune'. But that was a kind of hinge points for us. It was like: 'Okay, we really have to be careful.'”

B&B, the fifth largest cinema chain in America with 58 locations, still must be very intended for which products it offers and what number of purchases are shopping. Films like “Wicked” with a large, built -in audience that longs for goods are a safer bet. However, the theater have a really short window to sell the special items.

“In contrast to our normal popcorn bags that are evergreen, if you don't sell that [product]You will probably not sell them a month after the film, “said Farnsworth.

In the meantime, AMC is investing stronger.

“One of the big things we do in 2025 is that we significantly increase the quantities,” said Aron, noting that AMC already arrange orders for 100,000 units or more. “We buy because we don't have to be sold out on the opening day. Many people come to see this film for weeks and weeks.”