As a father of a young child, my feet know the discomfort of stepping on Optimus Prime’s miniature axe left in the middle of the room (no room in particular, to be honest). That’s usually followed by another step that brings the calming squish of Bluey’s little ears.
These plastic toys, from Barbie to Squishmallows, have brought joy to generations, and their influence is everlasting. Last year, I interviewed the owners of Sharpies, a Detroit-style pizzeria in Chicago. The owners complimented me on my laptop sleeve — a jet-black leather Darth Vader case from Orbitkey that is no longer in stock. Upon hearing the praise, I calmly retorted, “I’m a mark.”
In recent months, I find myself dwelling on message boards, trying to ensure I secure the latest Transformers toys. It started out as a trial balloon when I innocently purchased Blaster, the heroic red and yellow boombox — an ‘80s-era loud and brash portable music player. I wanted my son to understand the world of analog music through Blaster’s minions, the cassettes Eject and Ramhorn. But thanks to the child’s enthusiasm, it’s turned into an excuse, a fully formed gateway into the world of collectables, something I never thought I would find myself a part of. I’ve bored my wife with various minutiae over the release of these things that are most definitely not dolls.
My experience is not unique, and the film industry understands this, with its recent push toward extravagant collectable popcorn buckets and cups, which can range from $30 to $80 (contrast that with ticket prices in big city markets, which average around $15). As the industry struggles to fill seats, any new revenue stream is welcomed. Popcorn is a foundational part of the movie experience, something that dates to the early 1900s, and concessions is always where theaters have made their money. But as audience tastes shift, the thrill of paying movie theater prices for everyday snacks has dwindled. Recent efforts to increase revenue include sale of alcoholic drinks and full meals at select theaters including Alamo Drafthouse and AMC Dine-In.
Novelty buckets aren’t new, and it’s not that different from a bygone era when summer blockbusters stocked retailers, like private equity casualty Toys “R” Us, with merchandise tie-ins. I still have a bucket with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst’s faded photos from 2002’s Spider-Man. When Star Wars returned to the theaters in 1997 with George Lucas’s special editions, the rabid fanbase snapped up a line of buckets and cups decorated with Stormtroopers, Sith Lords, and other examples of scum and villainy. The new generation of buckets goes far beyond a tub with a photo printed on it. Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey brings a Trojan Horse-shaped bucket aimed at fans of Homer’s original poem. Another bucket is shaped like an IMAX camera, for film aficionados who know Nolan filmed the movie entirely with IMAX cameras. The movie doesn’t come out until July 17, but the $50 bucket is already sold out.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You want to cosplay as He-Man? A giant sword that screws off to reveal a flask is available, giving you 40 ounces of power. All for the low price of $46.99. The sword-flasks won’t arrive until October well after the movie’s June 5 release. That means Masters of the Universe fans will only be able to be masters of their own living rooms.
Then there’s our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. For the webhead’s latest adventure, slated for a July 27 release, Disney and Cinemark are brewing up something… amazing?
We weren’t the only folks who noticed. The bucket reminds me of the aforementioned Spider-Man flick from 2002. An early scriptment of the film included teenage Peter Parker waking up in a pool of web fluid shortly after gaining his powers. Perhaps Martin Scorsese would appreciate the bucket’s crude callback to classic cinema?
A rep for Cinemark Theaters tells Yahoo that manufacturing these special buckets, like an $80 specimen shaped like Fantastic Four foe Galactus, is expensive. But it’s worthwhile because they drive concession sales. That makes sense in a vacuum with more and more consumers likely to watch a movie without their once-customary Milk Duds and a soda. Or with a rising cadre of folks electing to — gasp — sneak their own food into theaters. NBC News reports Cinemark merchandise sales spiked 40 percent from 2024 to 2025.
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And just like the collectable toy market, when you snooze you lose. Miss a pre-order window and you’ll be doomed to scour eBay and platforms where scalpers are waiting to take advantage of your compulsions. And it’s not just restricted to traditional geek culture — fandom is for everyone now. A sold-out $40 bucket shaped like a red handbag from The Devil Wears Prada 2 is listed at $175 on eBay. NBC also reports that while in 2019 there was only one movie developing fancy popcorn containers, there are now between 20 to 25 productions, including Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. In 2024, SNL took notice of Dune 2’s special bucket with a sketch that included Ayo Edebri, star of The Bear.
Cinemark’s website has a section about portion control and how a few kernels won’t do you harm. Most of these giant vessels aren’t exactly ergonomic making snacking a chore while many don’t fit a large payload and collectors of these fancy containers certainly don’t care about calories — they’ll tell you that these containers are for display. They’ll eventually make their ways into a landfill, which sounds like a plot for a new Toy Story movie. If that feels like a killjoy, I’ll twist the knife even further. I have no plans to refill my 25-year-old Spider-Man container. In the ‘90s, you didn’t hear much about BPA, which is presumably Peter’s Kryptonite. Don’t tell me there’s anything wrong with that last sentence, it flowed as smooth as movie theater butter.
