Ryan Reynolds has declared âWar of the Popcorn Buckets.â Heâs honestly onto something
Said to be designed by Deadpool himself, the bucket, modeled after Wolverine, features a large opening akin to the quick-healing mutantâs wide-open mouth, complete with the low-key vulgar suggestion of a tongue (itâs from the famously inappropriate Deadpool, after all).
In his social media post announcing the buzzy item, Reynolds wrote, âYears from now they will look back at 2024 as the year the War of the Popcorn Buckets began.â
What âwarâ could he possibly be referring to and why the hype around these movie snack containers, anyway? Popcorn buckets, in case you havenât noticed, are having a major moment.
The first round of 2024 bucket battles, one might argue, was won in March by a âDune: Part Twoâ popcorn bucket so strange it spawned a âSaturday Night Liveâ skit).
The appeal of these buckets â also referred to as âconcession vesselsâ or even âCollectible Concession Vehiclesâ to include specialty beverage containers and the like â is wide, attracting both seasoned collectors and casual movie fans.
âSeeing an item at the movie theater of my favorite characters draws me in,â said collector . Adam, who also collects other pop culture products like Funko Pop figures, described his passion for popcorn buckets as âfun nostalgiaâ for items that help him remember the feeling of watching a particular movie for the first time.
A brief history of the bucket
Branded popcorn buckets began popping up in the 1990s at Disney theme parks before they made their way to theaters in marketing campaigns.
AMCâs Nels Storm, vice president of food & beverage strategy and leader of the merchandise team, points to 2019 as a turning point in the novelty concession vesselâs evolution.
âWe experimented with versions of plastic popcorn tubs and beverage vessels with film branding for years. The real inception of the current program kicked off in 2019 when we introduced the R2-D2 vessel to the movie-going public,â Storm said, in reference to the famous android-shaped popcorn containers that came out in support of that yearâs âStar Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.â
Noting how the R2-D2 buckets sold out at AMC locations around the country on opening night, Storm added that âit was clear there was bigger potential in this space.â
Since then, other in-demand popcorn buckets have included the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 car, Thorâs hammer Mjölnir, Dominic Torettoâs Charger, the Wonka hat and a Barbie car, Storm said.
AMC even recently brought back the R2-D2 popcorn bucket for this yearâs May the Fourth âStar Warsâ Day, in support of the rerelease of âStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.â
That bucket is Adamâs favorite, as seen on his TikTok.
âItâs gigantic and I love that the head of R2 is where you put the drink and the body is for the popcorn!â he said.
As with many collectibles, some buckets are hard to come by
Roland Romero, a popcorn bucket devotee with of his impressive collection, noted the vessels are globally popular and not always easy to obtain. Some movie theater chains might be out of region or make the items available for a limited run, Romero said.
âThe only trick is that for nearly all these collectable items, guests wanting to get the latest will want to make sure theyâre seeing the movie on opening weekend, and in many cases, opening night,â Storm noted.
He added that the R2-D2 buckets sold out both times they were made available to the public, and that the Ecto-1 car popcorn vessel âflew out of the theatres during the initial hoursâ of âGhostbusters Afterlifeâsâ opening night in November 2021.
Whatâs coming next in this bucket âwarâ
Theater chains are eager to entice audiences to come and eat popcorn at the movies instead of on their couches at home, so that means more sassy snack holders to come.
âThe sky is the limit,â with where things might go, Storm said, adding that AMC is âalways pushing boundariesâ to make going to the movies a fun and worthwhile event.
And if you thought reaching into the giant mouth of a sandworm from Arrakis was gross, just wait until other horror-related merchandising items come down the pike.
Adam said that because heâs a horror movie fan, heâs excited for the âAlien: Romulusâ bucket, which is rumored to be in the form of a Xenomorph â or, the extremely dangerous and disgusting, two-mouthed, acid-for-blood extraterrestrial at the center of that storied franchise.
Be warned. The battle continues.