In the United States, the popcorn bucket war has been declared

American movie theaters are competing in ingenuity to bring audiences back to theaters. Their latest initiative: limited-edition popcorn buckets for current blockbusters. The Wall Street Journal analyzes the trend.

For the release of “Gladiator II” in late 2014, Regal, the largest movie theater chain in the United States, created popcorn buckets in the shape of the Colosseum (Photo taken in Las Vegas, Nevada). Photo GREG DOHERTY/Getty Images/AFP

A superhero's wide-open mouth, a baby-sling bucket, a vampire's coffin: moviegoers are ready to reach into unlikely containers to eat popcorn.

Anyone who's been to a movie theater in the United States this year will have noticed that popcorn isn't sold in ordinary tubs anymore. For most movies, there are now custom-made popcorn buckets designed to be collected, and at ridiculously low prices. There's a Superman bucket that mimics a Daily Planet newspaper dispenser; another is shaped like a safe that needs to be unlocked for the latest Mission: Impossible movie; and the one produced for Karate Kid: Legends has a lid that looks like a board that needs to be broken.

Each of these popcorn buckets generally costs between 25 and 50 dollars [between 20 and 40 euros] and some, like the one for the next Marvel movie, can even reach 80 dollars [between 68 euros].

To stand out, competition is fierce. Now, the biggest cinema operators are offering their own exclusive buckets for the same film. For example, on the occasion of the release of Jurassic World: Renaissance [at the very beginning of July

Ben Fritz

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The Wall Street Journal (New York)

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