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How Theme Park Snack Culture Influenced the Movie Theater Popcorn Bucket Craze
Viral popcorn buckets have become the rage at cinemasâbut theme parks were on the weird snack vehicle theme well before the infamous ‘Dune’ worm.
As a connoisseur of theme park snacks, I saw it unfold as Disney Parks’ snack of choice went from general cylindrical plastic buckets to Mickey Mouse-shaped holiday containers. As is common in the age of social media, these coveted souvenirs soon found their way online – and scalpers were quick to cash in on the demand.
The request for franchise characters resulted in a plethora of novelty items, including Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets or Jack Skellington heads or Cinderella carriages to fill with buttery popped kernel delights. It’s no surprise that movie theaters, the original purveyors of concession cuisine, got into the popcorn bucket arms race and produced that Dune sandworm container cultural moment.
One-third of the revenue cinemas rely on concessions that have had ever-rising prices. Itâs really ingenious to combat people rebuffing a paper bucket of popcorn for $12 with the enticement of a limited-edition Wolverine popcorn bucket for $30 – and then, when simple recreations of artifacts from the movie or characters were turned into gimmicks.
Theme parks had long crossed over to the bonkers realm, most notably with the Thanos Infinity Gauntlet drink holder and the Iron Man Avengers: Endgame variant. Disney influencers flocked to attain these first and show them off on their platforms.
Star Wars fans were similarly courted, and the snack container wars began naturally. Movie theaters have continued presenting new popcorn buckets and drink tumblers with each new blockbuster – but so far, nobody has bested the cursed Dune sandworm container.
That doesn’t mean companies won’t keep trying.
Source: gizmodo.com
