‘I Spent $60 for Popcorn’: Collectible Buckets Are Turning a Tidy Profit for Movie Theaters

“Mean Girls” Burn Books, “Wonka” hats and those “Dune” worm buckets are making millions for chains like AMC

Rachel Woodall had never spent $60 in a single trip to the concession stand at a movie theater. But she did just that in January when she saw that her local AMC Theaters location had a special popcorn tin made to look like the infamous Burn Book from “Mean Girls.”

“I knew I needed the Burn Book tin right when I saw it,” she said. “If it had been just a bucket shape, I may have been able to resist, but the fact that it’s book-shaped and so versatile for reuse sold it. I didn’t even eat popcorn out of it.”

Before seeing the Burn Book, Woodall said she didn’t even know theaters were offering collectible popcorn buckets. That makes her the sort of moviegoer chains increasingly hope to appeal to.

Over the past year, theater chains like AMC have turned to special collectibles, which they can sell for higher profit margins, to maximize sluggish theatrical revenue from ticket sales as the domestic box office struggles overall.

So far, they are paying off.

In its 2023 full year financial report released Wednesday, AMC reported $1.67 billion in food & beverage revenue, as well as $452 million in “other theater” revenue. Of that other revenue, $54 million came from movie-themed merchandise such as collectible popcorn buckets.

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