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Did you think landing Imax 70mm tickets to “The Odyssey” was hard? Trying landing those tickets and snagging one of the limited-edition popcorn buckets tied to the recent release of Christopher Nolan’s epic, which included
designs of the iconic Trojan Horse and a replica of the Imax camera (complete with a real viewfinder!) that the film was famously shot on by Hoyte van Hoytema.
The craze around these popcorn buckets, and the conversations they spark on social media, is nothing new. Just this past weekend, the box office juggernaut that is “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” came with its own set of popular buckets, including a replica of Spider-Man’s head and a drink-popcorn combo featuring a web-slinger shooting out of Peter Parker’s hand.
The craze has gotten so overwhelming that these premium buckets can sell out in minutes after dropping online. For “The Odyssey,” Imax got involved with movie merchandise for the first time to bring a realistic replica of its 15/65mm camera to life. But this growing excitement has also caused some theater chains to limit how many buckets guests can purchase per visit for certain releases, and scalpers have taken to eBay to sell these limited-edition items for increasingly high price tags — and have seen success in doing so.
With the box office on track to have its strongest year since 2019, premium popcorn buckets have only become bigger money drivers for theater chains, which heavily rely on merchandise and concession sales since they typically only keep around half the revenue generated from ticket sales. In 2025, AMC Theatres reported $80 million globally from merchandise sales (including their international Odeon Cinemas) and is on track for a $100 million gross for 2026, according to Nels Storm, AMC’s VP of food and beverage.
“It’s become a vehicle for the future of moviegoing,” Storm tells Variety. “These are tangible movie memories. They’re the concert T-shirts of our industry.”
Chains like Regal estimate that the total number of premium buckets they offer throughout the year will total 50, and that figure extends to over 100 when including collectible popcorn tins.
The level to which directors get involved with designs can vary. “The Odyssey” Imax bucket is a key example of how theater chains and studios are celebrating the filmmakers getting audiences excited to go to the movies again, as Imax has become synonymous with Nolan’s brand over the years.
“The persona rubs off, and it’s like a parasocial relationship,” says Russell Belk, a professor of marketing at York University. “Cross marketing is usually part of the plan from the start. The film studios and now the actors involved are trying to get a piece of the action as well.”
Storm says: “There is so much respect for moviemaking that went into this camera. When you think about how a director like Christopher Nolan likes to film his movies and likes for them to be shown, this was a natural transition to be able to do something like this.”
Imax CEO Rich Gelfond says the camera bucket sold out in 90 minutes, and they had to borrow more from China to meet the high demand: “The scope of this is larger than anything we’ve done before, and it certainly shows the promise of a bigger merchandising effort among Imax fans. I’m a really optimistic guy, but the crazy interest in Imax among the fans would have been hard to predict.”
Kristy Breneman, Regal’s director of food and beverage activations, confirms that filmmakers are involved with the bucket designs: “As we’re seeing these concepts, if any changes are asked for, we do hear that everything has to go through the filmmaker for approval on certain projects.”
Going to the movies and buying a tub of hot popcorn have long gone together. But these collectible buckets aren’t always the most practical for moviegoers hoping to actually munch on some food throughout a long movie — a frequent topic of discussion online.
“The rule is it has to hold popcorn, and that’s where the rules stop!” Storm says with a laugh, referencing the tiny Bowser key chain that was sold with the release of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” earlier this year.
However, not being able to fit much popcorn into certain buckets doesn’t seem to make a difference in which designs fly off the shelves.
“We try to think about what comes after. It may be a piggy bank for somebody, it may be a toy bucket for someone, and it may be a really neat, sculpted item to put on a shelf,” says David Haywood, Cinemark’s SVP of food and beverage. “We never try to box people into how they’re going to use it.”
Haywood, of course, adds that Cinemark gives out extra popcorn to guests buying certain buckets to ensure that no one leaves the theater on an empty stomach.
Since a majority of these buckets are sold across all the major chains, one way for competing theater chains to distinguish themselves is by securing an exclusive on certain designs that then get promoted online. This comes from locking in a certain number of buckets they want to buy far in advance, according to Haywood.
AMC’s biggest exclusive this year has been the bucket shaped entirely around Spider-Man’s head, which goes for $34.99 and is currently sold out on the theater’s website. “This is the first time that vessel has existed in this way ever,” Storm says, with Marvel and Sony’s input making sure it was as size-accurate as possible.
Another popular bucket, the iconic “Devil Wears Prada 2″ purse, started out as a Cinemark exclusive before becoming more widely available, selling online for $39.95.
Popular membership programs like AMC A-List and Regal Unlimited, which encourage frequent moviegoing, also provide greater incentives for guests to spend money on these buckets since they’re not paying out-of-pocket for individual tickets each time they go to the theater.
“Not to give too much away about what we’re planning, but we absolutely want to incentivize those loyal customers who do purchase more,” Breneman teases.
But just as scalpers have snatched up coveted tickets for big blockbuster releases, they have found their way into the popcorn bucket craze. For “The Odyssey’s” Trojan Horse, for example, one eBay seller has it currently listed as high as $165, compared to its original $69.99 listing, and has actually sold some at or near that inflated price tag. The same can be said of the “Spider-Man” buckets, which are listed for up to $110.
“That’s been a big topic of conversation recently,” Breneman says. “It’s definitely a challenge for us and we are continuing to learn from these different experiences. Whenever you have products that are limited to a specific release, there’s naturally going to be strong interest from collectors. From our perspective, our priority is to make sure the guests have the opportunity to purchase these items as part of their visit to the theater.”
To meet the high demand for “The Odyssey,” Regal instituted a one-bucket-per-guest limit — something they’ve never had to do before. “And it is possible that it’ll be something we implement moving forward,” Breneman says.
Belk adds that having a short supply of limited-edition items can be a strategic tool to encourage customers to spend more on a whim.
“If you have a limited-time option and you’re not announcing when that’s going to be ahead of time, people that are young and don’t have jobs have a lot of time to hang out online and wait for it,” he says. “You need to find ways to make it seem scarce. It’s a way of generating excitement.”
As these buckets are typically made from plastic, Storm says that theater chain owners and manufacturing companies like Zinc, Golden Link and Snap have been conscious of designing them to “not be disposable,” when asked about any potential pushback from environmental groups.
That points to perhaps the biggest appeal of these popcorn buckets — they’ve become some of the hottest collector items on the market, designed to sit on someone’s shelf for years to come as a token of their favorite moviegoing experiences. Add them next to your favorite Funko pop!
“The fans are now making the moviegoing experience more personal than they ever have before, and these collectibles give them a tangible way to extend that experience all the way to their house,” Haywood says. “People always say, ‘If you don’t show it, it didn’t happen!’”
But with the increasing out-there designs, from the infamous “Dune: Part Two” sandworm-mouth popcorn bucket to the overwhelmingly giant Trojan horse, is there growing pressure for studios and theater chains to keep topping themselves in order to generate online conversation, especially for upcoming major releases like “Dune: Part Three” and “Avengers: Doomsday?”
“The excitement and reaction on social media has definitely raised the bar for everyone involved,” Breneman says. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we need to make things bigger and more elaborate every time. But when there is that opportunity to have something more interactive, if it really goes with the storytelling and is authentic to the film, I do see them pressing the limits.”
Rebecca Rubin contributed to this report.
