PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Everyone Wants A Branded Popcorn Bucket Now
Courtesy of IMAX
Movie-themed popcorn buckets have suddenly become a major revenue driver for theater chains — and a fun, creative conversation starter for studios.
The Big Picture: Hollywood and the exhibition industry at large are open to anything that gets people returning to theaters — which has finally started happening this year. That resurgence has coincided with the rise in popularity of popcorn buckets, underscoring how activations, merch, and other marketing stunts have become part of the entertainment experience.
Behind The Scenes: Who’s in the market for a $50 to $70 collectible popcorn bucket? Apparently, a lot of moviegoers, per NYT.
AMC estimates it’ll make $100 million in revenue from popcorn buckets this year — twice as much as in 2023. Cinemark says bucket sales contributed to a 40% surge in merch revenue last year, while Regal expects to make $40 million from merch sales this year.
In the lead-up to the release of The Odyssey, IMAX approved an initial run of 2,500 popcorn buckets modeled after an IMAX film camera. They sold out immediately. A second run sold out in just seven minutes, bringing total sales to 30,000 buckets.
While Gen Z is driving the trend, popcorn buckets are popular across age demographics. For instance, a purse-shaped popcorn bucket for The Devil Wears Prada 2 sold out during the film’s opening weekend, with most purchases coming from older women.
But there’s also a weird randomness to bucket hits. Amazon MGM made two popcorn buckets tied to Masters of the Universe — a Skeletor throne and Castle Grayskull. The movie and the Skeletor throne weren’t hits, but the Castle Grayskull bucket was.
Last Bite: Three companies rule the movie-bucket game — Snap (which made The Odyssey buckets), Zinc (the infamous Dune bucket and Mission: Impossible), and Golden Link (all of Disney’s buckets). Lately, designers at these companies have been working with filmmakers and studios early in the process to get the buckets just right. For example, Snap creatives got an early look at Christopher Nolan’s script for The Odyssey and spoke with director James Gunn about the Superman sequel.
They’re now marketing royalty.
Coming Soon: It’s possible that theater chains will start tying exclusive access to popcorn buckets to their membership plans to help drive subscription revenue.
Together with Kineon
Ibuprofen Quiets The Pain. It Never Puts Out The Fire.
Most joint pain keeps coming back. Not because you haven’t tried hard enough, but because everything you’ve tried was designed to quiet the pain — not fix what’s causing it.
Ibuprofen intercepts the signal. A brace offloads the joint.
Neither reaches the tissue where inflammation is actually building deep in the joint, where cells lack the energy to keep up with repair.
The Kineon MOVE+ uses medical-grade laser diodes and LEDs to deliver red and near-infrared light directly into the joint — the layer pills and braces never reach.
It’s not a quick fix: consistent daily use over 3-4 weeks is the protocol designed to deliver lasting results.
Drug-free. Wearable. Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. HSA/FSA eligible.
See how it works → Get $50 off with code TFP10.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.