I didn’t understand Despicable Me 4 was occurring till I noticed the popcorn bucket: a “child popcorn provider” that may permit its wearer to carry popcorn hands-free, whereas additionally creating the phantasm of a Minion jumper and Gru’s signature scarf. That is presumably a tie-in to the truth that the brand new film options Gru’s new child son, Gru Jr., plus, I’m guessing, extra Minion antics. I’ve one way or the other managed to keep away from seeing any films involving Minions and but, now I do know this, due to the image of the popcorn provider that’s making the rounds on-line.
Commemorative popcorn buckets are not any new factor. AMC has been promoting themed metallic collector’s buckets for years, and ponderous, restricted version novelty buckets are hyped amongst Disney World followers, with guides devoted to sharing the park’s current choices. What does appear new, nonetheless, is the surge of maximalist, memeable popcorn buckets and mainstream client curiosity in them — you don’t must be a Disney die-hard to come across one. In line with Google Tendencies, search curiosity within the time period “popcorn bucket” went from mainly negligible between 2004 and 2022 to barely extra interesting in 2022 and 2023 to massively, shockingly well-liked in early 2024.
We will thank the sandworm for that. AMC’s Dune: Half Two popcorn bucket, which started to flow into on-line in January, was an on the spot sensation. The lid, which was meant to appear like the maw of the franchise’s well-known Shai-Hulud, was sphincter-esque with lengthy bristles for the worm’s tooth. It impressed headlines like “The Web Fears the Dune 2 Dick-Lure Popcorn Bucket” and a devoted skit on Saturday Evening Reside. However perhaps most significantly, it acquired individuals speaking about Dune, even when they hadn’t beforehand been followers.
The Dune popcorn bucket is a part of a brand new promotional playbook. Accompanying 2023’s flashy Barbie, AMC provided pink toy Corvettes for holding popcorn. The identical yr, for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, AMC additionally offered $30 Ant-Man helmets, the tops of which opened as much as reveal popcorn inside. Cinemark introduced popcorn containers within the type of massive blue beetles with lifting wings for Blue Beetle. When Taylor Swift’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour hit theaters, it was accompanied by its personal popcorn buckets. For Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, additionally in March of this yr, Regal provided “ghost lure” popcorn buckets with hinged, battery-powered doorways that sprung open and closed, presumably for catching ghosts.
With Deadpool & Wolverine hitting theaters subsequent month, the actor Ryan Reynolds not too long ago shared a promotional video of a popcorn bucket that requires requires you to stay a hand into Wolverine’s open mouth. Reynolds wrote on Instagram, “Years from now they may look again at 2024 because the yr the Conflict of the Popcorn Buckets started.”
Film theaters, which have been on the downturn even earlier than the pandemic, at the moment are trying to claw again audiences. And film theatergoing is on the uptick, though some surveys recommend that theaters will merely by no means return to what they have been pre-COVID. With income down, film theaters are merely making an attempt to maximise their revenue margins. Boxoffice editor Daniel Loria advised the Wrap earlier this yr: “Moviegoers are exhibiting a higher willingness to spend extra at theaters, so why not see how far they’re keen to spend?”
Certainly, AMC advised IndieWire final yr that it sees rising potential in “strategic in-theatre merchandise gross sales” on account of the success of its collectable popcorn vessels, which usually price round $30 and infrequently embody the price of the popcorn itself. (However there can nonetheless be surprises: AMC’s Barbie corvette, which included each popcorn and a Barbie doll, price $65.)
When you’ll be able to watch virtually something at house, the gimmicky popcorn bucket can be a motive to really go to the theater. In case you made the hassle to go to the flicks as a substitute of sitting on the sofa — to perhaps even gown up, as individuals did for Barbie — you would possibly need to commemorate it with a memento. And naturally, there’s no underestimating American shoppers’ countless urge for food for reasonable plastic stuff.
A number of the attraction lingers lengthy after the discharge. As of this writing, Dune popcorn buckets, sandworm lid included, are listed between $80 and $300 on eBay. And whereas lively listings are sometimes inaccurate gauges of an merchandise’s worth, current gross sales present they’re, in truth, pulling in round $50-$130.
Nevertheless, worth is finally irrelevant. At their essence, the popcorn buckets are a wink and a nudge {that a} film is in on the jokes you’re inevitably going to inform. Within the case of Dune: Half Two, the absurdity of the popcorn bucket helped inject the in any other case severe, difficult franchise with mild meme fodder — an strategy that the film’s advertising staff additionally leaned into by means of short-form movies. There’s actually a lot to debate round Dune’s large, heady themes and Denis Villeneuve’s directing, however let’s be trustworthy: It’s the dumb stuff that will get individuals and retains them speaking.
Months after Dune: Half Two’s launch, it’s not the cinematography, pretty much as good because it was, that I’m rehashing mentally, however the memes (all the pieces spawned by Austin Butler’s gruff “could thy knife chip and shatter,” particularly). I’m nonetheless fascinated about the logistics of sticking my hand down a Shai-Hulud to get my popcorn, and the way gross these bristles have to be in spite of everything that butter brushes by means of them. To be memed is to be remembered, and the film theaters know that.
