The curious rise of novelty popcorn buckets (Encore)

0:00This week, we are running some of our favorite episodes from 2024. On today's show, we look at how movie theaters are turning to a unique source for extra income, the novelty popcorn bucket. N.P.R.

0:23There's something unsettling happening at the movie theaters lately. I have a bad feeling about this. People aren't going to the movies like they used to. Box office numbers are way down from their pre-pandemic levels. Some of the summer's big releases didn't do as well as expected. I could have been a contender. On top of that, last year's Hollywood labor strikes mean there are fewer movies in the pipeline than normal. Sheriff, this is no time to panic. This is the perfect time to panic. These famous film characters are upset. But out of these dark, uncertain times for Hollywood, a possible hero is emerging.

0:59Something that movie theater chains are hoping will get more dollars flowing into local megaplexes. This potential savior? A novelty popcorn bucket. That is right. Maybe you've seen the infamous sandworm bucket that was released for the Dune Part 2 movie this spring. Saturday Night Live actually did a whole song about it.

1:21This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. And I'm Adrienne Ma. Ah, movie theaters make most of their money by selling two things, movie tickets and food. Now they're getting into the business of collectible merchandise. Today on the show, we track the rise of the popcorn bucket from its pre-pandemic origins to its afterlife in the resale market. This message comes from NPR sponsor Zendesk, introducing the next generation of AI agents built to deliver resolutions for everyone. With an easy setup that can be completed in minutes, not months, Zendesk AI agents resolve 30 % of interactions instantly, quickly giving your customers what they need.

2:03Loved by over 10 ,000 companies, Zendesk AI makes service teams more efficient, businesses run better, and your customers happier. That's the Zendesk AI effect. Find out more at Zendesk.com. Nels Storm is a classically trained French chef. But these days, he's not making bouillabases and cassouletes because, I mean, for starters, those things might be kind of hard to serve in a movie theater. And Nels cares a lot about that because he's actually vice president of food and beverage strategy for AMC theaters. So things like an overstuffed burrito present challenges. A chopped salad, very difficult to eat at the movies.

2:42We do sell a chopped salad or have in the past. We have it in a bowl that, you know, instead of leaning over, you can kind of bring it to your mouth. Honestly, what a time to be alive. We need a chopped salad at the movies, Adrian. But, you know, concessions have evolved way past popcorn and candy and soda. Some places you can even get dinner and cocktails. And movie theaters want to sell you more than just a ticket and snacks these days. Nels also oversees merchandise for AMC. And in the last few years, that's meant souvenir popcorn buckets as tie-ins with major releases. Now, these are not disposable paper tubs with the logo printed on them.

3:21No, these are solid, usually plastic objects. And they're often in the shape of something related to the movie, like a hot pink Corvette convertible in the case of last year's Barbie movie. Nell says a lot of these vessels, as the industry calls them, are basically movie props that you can put popcorn in. Maybe. be. Yes, it has to hold popcorn, but it's not. We're not designing around a tub. We're designing popcorn into a really cool prop in many cases. We want our guests to see this piece in our social feed and just run, not walk to the theater to get it. Nell says AMC aims to sell out of the buckets during the film's first weekend.

4:00That maximizes the hype around the release, and it ensures theaters aren't stuck with a whole inventory of unsold buckets when the next blockbuster lands. We want to make sure to make every Despicable Me 4 guest happy and then move on to A Quiet Place Day 1 and then move on to Twisters and then move on to Deadpool and Wolverine. And so we want to keep the keep the wheels turning. AMC's first big popcorn bucket was for Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. The company released a bucket in the shape of R2-D2, the lovable round droid. Nell says AMC drew on the expertise of Disney, which of course owns Star Wars.

4:36But Disney also has a long track record of selling collectible souvenir popcorn buckets at its theme parks. The R2-D2 buckets were priced at 50 bucks a piece, and they sold out opening night. We believed it was going to be something huge. And then, of course, the world stopped turning, and we had to take a pause. EMC's next popcorn bucket wouldn't come until 2021, with the release of Ghostbusters Afterlife. Other movie theater chains like Regal and Cinemark are also selling souvenir popcorn containers. For Despicable Me, Regal came out, did you see this, Adrian? It's a popcorn bucket that looks like a baby carrier with straps that go over your shoulder.

5:15This frees up both hands. It allows you to do the selfie while you're eating your popcorn. And then despite this trend, these novelty objects are still a small part of the movie theater business. In 2023, merchandise sales totaled$54 million for AMC. And that is just 3 % of the total food and beverage revenues for the year. But these collectibles are increasingly an important part of the competition between movie theaters. And this is because the chains are battling over a smaller pool of customers. Alicia Reese analyzes publicly traded media and entertainment companies for the firm Wedbush Securities.

5:51Alicia estimates that box office revenues in North America are down 40 percent from pre-pandemic levels. Moviegoers are pickier now about what they want to see in the theaters. But Alicia says when people do venture out, they're willing to spend. One of the things that we've seen post-pandemic that's been really interesting is people are increasingly buying premium tickets. People are going to see movies on IMAX screens or on other premium large format screens. They're also spending more on concessions. Spending more on concessions is good for the theaters because the profit margin on food and beverage is really high, 80 plus percent, according to Alicia.

6:30She says the popcorn buckets are helping boost concession revenues even more. And these collectible containers are aimed at the movie fans. These are the people who are hyped to buy a ticket on opening day for a big new release, what the industry calls a tentpole film. Theaters want those diehards to open up their wallets. When there's a movie that hits really well, they're maximizing that. The large tentpole movies, especially ones that people have been looking forward to for a long period of time, that's really where you can upsell. Now, we've seen from history that when there's a pop culture collectible, a secondary market will follow.

7:05And that is definitely the case for the souvenir popcorn buckets. There's a whole economy of resellers flipping these things for a profit. My name is Marcus Vasso. I'm a reseller on eBay with the company I created called Bucket Bandits with a Z. Marcus got into the bucket resale game at the behest of a friend. He spent$75 on three buckets for Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, and his friend put him on eBay. And like in three days, he brought me back like$300. I was like, wait, what just happened? You mean people are willing to pay this much for this? They are. It turns out people aren't routinely willing to pay two or three times the retail price of a popcorn bucket.

7:48Now, when there are new releases, Marcus and his team will fan out and buy up dozens of containers. Yeah, for example, you remember the Dune Sandworm bucket, bucket, bucket we were talking about earlier? Well, Marcus says demand for those things was really high, and he bought 130 of them for about$25 a piece. And he says he was able to resell one of them for as much as$99. It went viral, so we kind of got that world audience. It was cool, you know, shipping things off to South Africa, the Netherlands. Yeah, it's awesome as well, too. And just like in the primary market, the selling window for these buckets is short.

8:28Marcus puts it at two weekends. So if he bets big on a container for a movie that flops, well, let's just say that he's still trying to offload a couple buckets for the Garfield movie that came out in May. I didn't even know there was a Garfield movie. That's the problem in a nutshell, Adrian. People took to this movie like Garfield takes to Mondays. Meanwhile, back at AMC, Nell Storm says there's even more movie merchandise coming. The company's rolling out hundreds of souvenir kiosks at its locations that'll sell things like keychains and posters. And Nell says there's also an opportunity to sell popcorn buckets for theatrical re-releases of classic movies.

9:11as long as the Hollywood studios are on board. I'd love to, you know, if we re-release Caddyshack, you can bet we'd have gophers and golf bags and all the fun things happening 100%. Adrian, if you could turn a movie prop from your favorite movie into a collectible popcorn bucket, what would it be? My first answer would be Zoolander. You could do the gas station pump from the gasoline fight. Or like an orange mocha frappuccino cup. That'd be really good. We wanted to take a moment as the year comes to a close to say thanks. Your support is what keeps NPR and The Indicator going. An easy way to support our work is through NPR+.

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