The year’s biggest blockbusters have all been marketed with the help of increasingly elaborate popcorn buckets. Experts say it’s a sign of things to come for the theatrical experience.
If you’ve been to a movie theater recently, you likely noticed something a little different: Popcorn buckets have become increasingly unhinged.
Almost every major blockbuster this year has come with a specially designed vessel for devouring popcorn, from a popcorn-filled witch’s hat for “Wicked” and the now (in)famous “Dune” bucket to a 27-inch hammer for the animated “The Lord of the Rings” film, “War of the Rohirrim.” A marketing gimmick turned social media phenomenon, they’ve not only gotten people talking but driven real revenue into the hands of theater chains.
But why exactly are people going crazy for popcorn buckets? After all, themed popcorn containers are far from new.
For decades, when a big blockbuster came to theaters, normal paper popcorn bags would be swapped out for bags with images of the characters emblazoned on the side. Then there were commemorative cups that came at a slightly higher price point and could be used for free refills. But the current trend takes the concept to an extreme, trading on the material nature of fan culture –– i.e. collectibles –– to generate interest among those most likely to come out to the theater in the first place.
“The bucket gave fans an opportunity to be able to display their fandom in a way to suggest, ‘Yes, I was there. Yes, I paid the extra money to get the popcorn bucket. Yes, I still have the bucket. This is what level of fan I am,’” says Steve Granelli, an associate teaching professor of communication studies at Northeastern University.
For the genres many of these tentpole movies fall into –– superhero and sci-fi –– collectibles and material fan consumption are already a huge part of the culture.
Beyond the novelty of the design, the result of strategic collaborations between theater chains, movie studios and design firms that take place years in advance of a movie’s release, the “time sensitive” nature of these buckets breeds a certain level of demand. Different theater chains will have different designs for the same movies, creating a “collect them all” mentality among the most diehard fans.
These vessels are such prized pieces of the promotional machine that they even come with their own nondisclosure agreements.
It’s another version of the “limited edition” aspect of fan culture, Granelli says. Limited supply builds a higher level of demand and sense of cultural cachet. Fans know they won’t be able to get it after a certain point, unless they want to pay more on the resale market where some buckets are selling for double their original price.
“Not that it creates that monoculture moment, but it kind of does,” Granelli says.
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For the theater business, which has been struggling to find ways to get butts in seats since the pandemic, the popcorn bucket is another way to sell the theatrical experience as an event that goes beyond just watching a movie.
“When you’re looking to do that, you need to have tangible things to give people that are giving them a reason to get off their couch from the lovely, huge TV displays they bought during the pandemic –– ones that are constantly getting cheaper –– to go do something more experiential at a theater,” says Chad O’Connor, who teaches marketing at Northeastern.
While some may balk at the price tag for some of these popcorn buckets, which regularly sit between $20 and $35 depending on how elaborate they are –– O’Connor says theaters are relying on classic consumer psychology to sell them.
“You’re giving people something that a good number of them are going to look at as special and collector’s item worthy, and when you do that, the psychology of that willingness in price point is radically different,” O’Connor says.
Plus, once audiences have paid for tickets, parking and maybe even dinner before the movie, these buckets are just another expense in what is already an expensive trip to the movies. At that point, a business can charge higher for the products around the primary cost item –– the tickets –– because “your sense of relative price point is way off now.”
The increasingly deranged nature of popcorn bucket design indicates the future of movie theaters will likely lean further into “eventizing” the theatrical experience. But O’Connor says that there has to be “more willingness for creative thinking around what will heighten the sense of value for people” to get them to come out to the theater. Theaters and movie studios need to go beyond snack-filled collectibles and provide a wider range of experiences for audiences, like the sing-along screenings for “Wicked.”
“There very well may be those kinds of things where you think about the movie and you think about the experience you want and start saying to people, ‘If you go to this showtime, there will be something else happening’ because otherwise we’re looking at something from a collector’s perspective that’s a bit of an arms race,” O’Connor says.