The above-pictured monstrosity of a popcorn bucket has been circling parts of the internet recently, based on a character from the new Fantastic Four movie: Galactus. Galactus is a character that can grow and shrink to any size, but specifically in Fantastic Four: First Steps, he is almost 30 feet tall, hence why they decided to make this popcorn bucket ginormous.
The Galactus popcorn bucket sits at a height of 17.5 inches and is 20 inches wide with LED eyes and removable horns all for the low, low price of eighty dollars. If this isn’t the most outrageous piece of plastic you’ve eaten popcorn out of, I don’t know what is.
It started back in 2019, during an anniversary screening of Star Wars: Episode One – A Phantom Menace. AMC put out an R2-D2 popcorn bucket – still not practical but was marketed more as a collectable – it was sold as a popcorn-drink combo for $49.99.
Everyone loved it, as this bucket was the reason theaters continued with this merchandise. The most memorable popcorn bucket was the Dune: Part Two sandworm design that took the world by storm, being shown on Late Night segments for its…unique design. The sandworm bucket was really the start to seriously making collectable buckets.
There have been several popular movies coming out over the past few years that hopped on the bandwagon. Deadpool and Wolverine added their design to the roster, which had Wolverine’s face as the lid, making you stick your hand in his mouth to grab popcorn. A more creative one was for Freaky Friday 2, where the popcorn looked like a soda container and vice versa.
But that meant that the bucket couldn’t nearly hold the amount of popcorn that should be consumed during a two-hour movie.
Of course, it’s obvious that these buckets aren’t actually for eating popcorn but being marketed to the collectors. It’s a great strategy; I’ll give them that. Cinema revenue is booming. AMC theaters made $54 million in revenue last year. Which is great considering concessions are the majority of revenue theaters get – hence, the age-old question of sneaking candy into the theater or not.
But these popcorn buckets are getting out of hand – the Galactus bucket is being sold for eighty dollars! If you want to sell collectables, that’s fine, but marketing them as popcorn buckets when they can only hold the hopes and dreams of popcorn is just wrong.
As an avid popcorn fan, I want to be able to eat one bag of microwave popcorn, and have it fit in the container I wish to consume it in. Wicked put out a plain, square bucket that had the movie design wrapped around it last November. Gladiators II had a simple circular design of the Colosseum.
Those are promotional popcorn buckets. Not something with horns and light up eyes. That is a toy.