As Wicked-themed popcorn buckets sell out, Tom Cruise and James Cameron are getting involved in designs for 2025 movies.
If you want to know where the real money in cinema exhibition sits, it’s in the concession stand. With studios taking a sizeable amount off the ticket price, cinemas get their profits from selling us food and drink at not-very-cheap prices.
The biggest margin is in popcorn, a food product that costs pence to produce, yet in some places requires a minor mortgage to supply for a family.
It’s not just the popcorn, though. You may have spotted more and more cinemas don’t just want to sell us a drink, they want to get a bit more cash by getting us to pay for a premium receptacle for both. And while it’s nothing new, the collectable popcorn bucket and cup has become a useful money-maker.
So much so that filmmakers are getting hands-on. There’s a new report over at Time about the whole phenomenon, which details how Tim Burton was heavily involved in the bucket designed for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice earlier this year.
Now comes the perhaps unsurprising news that Tom Cruise is getting in on the act. He’s reported to be working with the AMC chain in the US – the ultimate owner of Odeon in the UK – on a special bucket for next year’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. He’s hardly in the factory making the buckets, but the designs have gone before his eyes.
James Cameron is also reported to have what’s described as “final approval” over the buckets that are being designed for next year’s Avatar: Fire And Ash, which presumably won’t involve your hands being singed when you reach in for something salty.
There’s a clear nod to influencer and social media culture in the growing popularity of these tie-in buckets and cups. Cineworld is reporting it’s sold out of its Wicked tie-ins for instance, and they’re popping up all over people’s social feeds.
Hopefully, this all paves the way for a special tie-in popcorn cup for the upcoming Jason Statham thriller Levon’s Trade due next month. We’re open to design ideas in the comments.
