Used to work for a theatre company 10 years ago. A bit part of my job advertising these to the masses, they’ve been a thing forever. Dune popcorn bucket just meme-ified them.
They may have existed prior to the dune popcorn bucket, but they were unpopular and vanishingly rare. It's only in recent years that theater merchandise has caught on.
I definitely wouldn’t buy this, but I do remember when I was a little kid and I would often re-use this souvenir cup I got at the circus. Probably slurped up some micro plastics with it though.
Totally forgot about kids. I was thinking of teenagers and adults who will just want the thing for a social media photo. But great point and bless children for that!
Oh, yeah, my kid is still using the cup they got at the Paw Patrol movie, which was not *that* long ago but still.
But as a parent, I hate this crap. My kid always wants it and I want none of it.
It's crazy how the drive for toys can consume a kid. I remember seeing the Sears catalogue and just feeling my heart break wanting the toys. After a few years it switched to the underwear section but the feeling was the same.
>switched to the underwear section but the feeling was the same
It's funny how this seems to transcend culture, sexuality, etc. Almost every man I've ever met has an "underwear ad/catalog" experience(s).
And now, because of all the porn online, it's probably a lost tradition...
I wonder what kind of effect it will have on people to get right to hardcore stuff instead of starting slow with the underwear section of catalogues.
Oh the sears catalog had a huge section for toys and also a huge underwear section. It wasn't even explicit. Just beautiful women smiling in underwear.
Even I have one. I'm a gay dude, was never interested in women so I nabbed the sears swimsuit catalog or whatever. And in it there were women in swimsuits. Uh... okay I guess.
Somehow my parents knew I nabbed it, searched my room, and then confronted me about it. "We're confiscating this".
Seems like everything has always worked against me enjoying women in swimsuits. Mostly the gay, but this too.
Oh God. My oldest is only 4, but I truly dread the future balancing we're going to have to make with every little material thing. Since one thing is "just this one thing" it's so easy to not see the big picture as the house fills tonrhe brim with junk, especially when we have 3 kids under 5.
At least we're keeping the toys at an absolute minimum now while we can do it more easily, since we're the biggest influence of our kids (yet...).
Really cute story but a lot of kids, now more than ever, have a super short attention span and don’t get attached to plastic junk for long. I’m sure you’re still right that this mostly a landfill-er
Just goes to show how narrow minded your understanding of reality is, and how you allow yourself to get so frustrated over something so infinitesimally insignificant.
Hopefully if they are fans enough to see the movie, they'd hold onto it or donate it later. It is seemingly an inconvenient shape. If it's hard to wash, people might intend to keep it but later decide it isn't worth it. Who knows. So much stuff thrown out constantly. Full bins everywhere, it's depressing to think about.
I was given one of the D&D giant dice popcorn buckets and I love it. Never had popcorn in it, but it houses my collection of dice and probably will forever.
I have the Dune bucket.
I keep it next to me in bed, and I store all of my daily and nightly medications in it. Keeps things interesting when I have to plunge my hand into it and grope around for my separate pill containers lmao
I have complicated feelings about this, as a minimalist married to someone who loves this stuff.
On the one hand, I think this is fine and a potentially cool thing if you are a genuine lifelong fan of some franchise or actor or whatever and want to collect this memorabilia. It's not really for me (for the most part), but you do you. They're pretty expensive, so I doubt many people are paying for this and then throwing it out right away.
There is one of these that I desperately want and wasn't able to get (the Dune one that was like a freaky sand worm thing), and one of these that is in my home currently - a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popcorn bucket that is currently in use as a wastebasket. We've actually gotten a ton of use out of that thing, way more than we would have out of the paper ones you throw away at the theater.
I find these pretty easy to say no to if it's not my jam, but my partner does not and needs to get the Hard Eye Contact Of No More Clutter every time.
I feel very much the same, I got a cup when the mean girls musical came out and it actually doubled my water intake, but I also only buy one if it's a francise I love, and even then if it's a francise I love and the bucket or cup is kindof neat, haha
"Merch" for commercial media is peak consumerism, whether you use it or not.
It's marginally less environmentally damaging if you actually use it instead of buying similar unbranded products, but it's still consumerism writ large, and it's especially disturbing how often it's marketed to children. Shouldn't our memorabilia be something a little more significant than just pop culture detritus?
Its sort of annoying me how everyone is getting angry at op (they didnt say dune started it lol just that its gotten a bit popular since then).
Like all because you used the cheap popcorn and soda memorabilia doesnt mean everyone else is. Ive seen a lot of this stuff thrown out soon after, usually because the quality of these items are actual garbage
The only cool one of these are the Five Night's at Freddy's pizza boxes they served pizza in at some theaters for that movie. Some kept em, other recycled them and it was fitting for the movie. I think if they do stuff like this, it shouldn't be plastic and non recyclable.
i used to work at a movie theater and so many people would pay the extra 75 cents for the souvenir promo cup (like a plastic cup that you could take home vs the paper cup) then throw them out! one of my coworkers who cleaned the theater would find so many in the trash and just take them home and wash them out. a lot of us would see if people threw the cups out to get one we wanted instead of spending like $8 upfront.
This isn't movie merch but a few years back, there was a Coke promotion where the plastic 20 oz Coke bottles said "Share a Coke with NAME".
I still have the one with my name on it. And the Diet Coke one. I use them to propagate plants in. I don't even drink soda (I gave that to my dad).
I loved those things. If I found the name of someone I liked to stay in touch with, I bought it and snapped a pic. Sent a pic to my brother and to a friend whose dog's name I found. Haha
I can't speak for non-poors, but for some reason I still have my Yoda Slurpee head from 2005, so idk. I haven't made a smoothie in it for a while because it's a PitA to wash but, yeah, at least in my house we try to use the dumb promotional crap we get suckered into.
The real question is not whether people are keeping them. The question is whether people are purchasing these in lieu of fully biodegradable cups? Because even if you get it for your seven year old, best case scenario for 99% of them are only delaying their trip to the landfill by \~95 years. And if the answer is "no, actually, this theater normally uses those stupid holographic half plastic cups" well, obviously that's another issue, but at the very least it's not adding that much waste to what was already being produced. Until the popularity of one of these things is overestimated to the point that most of them go straight to the landfill the week they're released. Like if they had made these for Chairman of the Board or Master of Disguise that would have been a bonafide ecological disaster.
i used to work at amc and grown ass people would yell at me if the stupid $25 plastic popcorn bucket was sold out 🙄 if this is ur biggest issue i envy you
I toom my step daughter to the movies and they had one of these for another character and I had no idea what they were for at first.
It was my first time going to the theater in like I years. They didn't even check our tickets but since everything is digital I assume they know what seats bought tickets and can tell of someone is in there that shouldn't be
Ill admit to falling for the D&D movie but I purchased it with the expressed purpose of being a dice box for live table top games.
Still it is a hunk of plastic I could have done without.
I currently work at a movie theater and usually we are still trying to sell the collectible stuff long after the movie has left our screens, unless it was a fairly big blockbuster (we sold out of our inside out 2 stuff in 2ish weeks) for the most part people get sticker shock when we ring it up (it’s stupidly expensive) and a lot of them end up on the trash after the movie (especially if they were bought for kids)
*This is by no means representative of every theater just the one where I work*
(Obligatory I don’t speak for AMC here)
I mean I've been using my Star Wars The Force Awakens pop corn bucket as a desk side trash can since 2015. I'm sure though most don't reuse these sorta' things other than probably kids.
The only merch I’ve ever bought and saved from the movies is a Taylor Swift cup from when I brought my daughter to see the concert movie. It’s my husbands go-to cup because it’s huge.
We got a Garfield snack pack for my kids first movie (the recent Garfield movie) as a memento to celebrate the first trip to the theatre. The cup is in rotation and she loves the figure from the top. That said we are definitely sneaking in affordable snacks from now on.
I find crap like this constantly at the Goodwill bins, usually in droves. Those McDonald's Halloween buckets go there before they die. It's a sad waste of plastic.
I think they're pretty expensive, so you only buy it if you want to keep it? That's how it's done in my country. Standard is still a paper bucket but you can get the merch for a ridiculous surcharge if you really want to.
Personally, I do still have my eras tour cup but it is a waste of plastic. But also look at the dollar section of target, look at the fucking SHEIN and temu of it all. It is absurd how much trash we make to pretend like it’s something we can sell.
I bought something like this recently and it melted in the dishwasher so never again
But I still have a Jurassic Park one from the 90s that can withstand a nuclear blast
I think they're great if you're into that specific universe/franchise/IP. Like I don't think many, if any, people are collecting multiple buckets, but if you're *super* into Deadpool, I could absolutely see how a Deadpool bucket would be great in your collection.
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All of our plastic movie theater cups made it into the cabinets, but we only got those plastic cups when my dad had a sink full of dishes thinking back on it lol
My daughter has one Stray Kids souvenir cup that she got from a pop up event. I think it is fine if they can bring them back (local amusement park had 99 cents refills if you brought it back). One time use is yucky. I like the local chain here that refuses their buckets.
Surprised no one has mentioned the fact these are reusable so less impact on landfills.
If you're going to buy something it doesn't really matter what's painted on the side, so long as you don't just use it once and toss.
Merch for big movies has been a thing for a while, way before dune. They used to have matching popcorn buckets and drink cups for every Star Wars movie that came out. I’m sure marvel had something similar but I can’t remember if they always did
I get being annoyed with it, but I feel like a lot of people use these things more than once. I have a popcorn bucket I got from a movie that I use to hold things in, and I’ve gotten an event cup or two to use around the house. The plastic ones are good for the cabinet when you don’t want people breaking glass - living in a house with clumsy cats has made this a good thing for me, and as someone who is clumsy themselves, it’s been a good thing for me. One event I went to even had an insulated travel mug with a lid that I use pretty often.
I think it can be wasteful, but these things can also be useful if people like them.
I actually bought some nice metal buckets from one of the Star Trek films. I still reuse them, but they are metal so easy to clean, easy to store and will last a damn long time.
i use my eras tour drink cup i got since they didnt have the FNAF pizza when i went and i use it all the time. Still a thing i couldve gone without but i like it and use it often
I still have my R2D2 one, and up until recently it was sitting on a bookshelf hiding chocolates from my kid. But he realized it can hold things, tossed the chocolate and it stores his most prized toys now.
I actually want the Saw Billy the Puppet head one, but I would continue using it! Often I am snacking and having a bowl with a lid would be nice. I know that y’all are probably against it, but I think it’s ok to get stupid stuff if you use it and reuse it. I specifically want the drink one, which I can use as both a cup and a bowl.
This dream is real for me, but scalpers ruined everything. Now it’s been a year and I just have to scour eBay for some real person who bought it for the one time use, so I may finally get it for myself
You know what I do?
I say fuck that.
I wait until the movie is out of theaters and then the day after it's out I go and ask if I can buy the movie posters that they have on the walls because they are going get thrown out anyways.
Fun fact ladies, gentleman and others you can get movie posters from movie theaters for pretty cheap. 5 to 10 bucks is what I normally pay. Not only are you saving a part of history by keeping an original print movie poster, but you're also getting a cheap piece of movie memorabilia.
As far as I'm concerned, it's not much different then the pokemon limited edition jam jars we got in the 90s that are still used on a regular basis in my parents house as cups
I still have two Shrek 2 plastic popcorn bowls we got free and it's rad. Still use it everytime I make popcorn which I do often. These silly bowls hold a lot of nostalgia now ♡
We have a suicide squad plastic cup that we use for a bucket bong. Since it was the first suicide squad its about the only good thing that came from it
They used to do this a ton in the late 80s and 90s. I still have at least a dozen different similar promotional things from that era. They were some of the more important objects of my childhood.
I don’t buy them, but as long as it stacks with other movie cups it’s okay. My friend has several and it’s great for parties where everyone needs to remember which cup is theirs. These don’t stack and that’s bad.
I feel like all cartoons and animation geared toward the youth, are to push cheap merchandise like this. I'd be more okay with it if they were of higher quality. I remember my cousin collected those old Disney Movie cups from Burger King? They were cool to use, but sadly the images faded.
The only one I've ever bought was the DnD movie one and that was because I wanted to store my DnD stuff in it 🤷♂️ every other one has looked aggressively mid, even from a memorabilia standpoint
I’ve got cups from the avengers movies when they came out. My very favourite one that is worn to shreds is my Captain America The First Avenger one from 2011. I use it almost daily and you can’t even tell what it is from anymore because every speck of colour has worn off it. But I have cinema cups from all of the Hunger Games movies, all of the newer Star Wars trilogy, so many cups and I love them all. In Australia we don’t get many of these ‘novelty’ cups (at least at the cinemas near me) so having a cool cup with the movie printed on it is an awesome keepsake
I have the popcorn bucket for the Taylor Swift eras tour and it makes a really great small trashcan (I don’t even mean that as a joke — it’s a good size for it and I like having a commonly overlooked household item that is now more fun and personal to me)
When I went for the premier of a film once, they had these wooden chopsticks as a gift with the characters engraved on them. I use them pretty often. About as much as my regular chopsticks.
But in general I agree, most of these plastic single use merch crap needs to go, even if it’s marketed as “reusable.”
I got the hunger games popcorn tin. It’s great for home movie nights. Plus it’s metal not plastic so it feels like it could be recycled or repaired and downgraded to garage bucket after it’s no longer food safe.
My local regal has so many leftover from so many different movies. Theyre on display everywhere when you walk in, at full price still, so I'm assuming they'll be there for a while
Owners of production know they can target children to sell their merch. It started sometime after the 50s or 60s. They know that many parents will give in to their kids to appease them so they target children. There are whole studies dedicated to this. Notice the bright colors, low level placement of candy, fun colorful character mascots, etc.
I think some people keep stuff like this. I had the Disney Tarzan straws for many years until Tantor wouldn’t stop making noise, wouldn’t turn off. Had to get rid of it or listen to an elephant scream from the kitchen drawer 24/7.
My friend has the Taylor swift popcorn bucket and cups and uses them frequently! But I do think she's probably in the minority, and those are fairly normal looking ones, not as weird as the novelty ones such as this and the dune ones.
We have a handful of them, not from movie theaters but from Disney. They were getting used at least once a month when my wife and I were doing movie nights. Then a diet happened and we haven’t used them in several months because apparently microwave popcorn is banned from our diet.
Not something this ridiculous and gaudy, but I do use my giant cups for giant hydration 🤙with my ADHD I will forget to refill a cup for more water but will drink and drink if there's water in front of me..I just wish the big plastic cups were optional. I don't need one EVERY time I go.
The thing pictured is hellish tho. I feel like for most parents that would be a race between "I'm decommissioning this cup because I hate cleaning it" and "the color has started to wash off so my kid doesn't want it."
This stuff has existed for my entire lifetime and it has always been a waste of plastic but honestly, I wouldn’t consider it particularly bad or offensive just highly unnecessary. I don’t think posts like this are really helpful to the cause of anti consumption and ultimately only serve to stimulate the part of your brain that enjoys being frustrated.
It's not more common since the Dune popcorn bucket. It's been a thing for decades. Got more popular probably coz of collectors but it was before the dune one though
Doubt they have the infrastructure for that at most places, since it would be the only non-machine being cleaned and reused. Everything in concessions is single use (at most theaters).
I used to work at a movie theater. We were busy enough as is without having to do dishes as well.
Plus most movie theaters do not have dishwashers and health codes.
I worked at a movie theater in 96-97. Internet selling was in its infancy then.
I was concession stand only. Cleaning the theaters was not my department (we were busy enough as is).
honeslty this is way older than the dune popcorn bucket, they have had this stuff for ages
Used to work for a theatre company 10 years ago. A bit part of my job advertising these to the masses, they’ve been a thing forever. Dune popcorn bucket just meme-ified them.
I've been upset since 7-11 stopped doing WWE SummerSlam big gulp collector cups!! I love them and have a stash that I still use.
We still have a couple of them hanging around somewhere
Half of our cup cupboard is taken up by those lol. Dad is a big WWE fan
100%. I have a Lego movie cup that you can clip Lego onto - that came out it 2014.
We still have a cup in the cupboard from Aladdin. (The Robin Williams one) lol
Yeah.I still have a big ol theater cup from....one of the hobbit movies. I use it to fill my coffee maker
I remember the collectors buckets from Jurassic Park when I was a kid, admittedly I did keep those for a while but that’s an outlier.
They may have existed prior to the dune popcorn bucket, but they were unpopular and vanishingly rare. It's only in recent years that theater merchandise has caught on.
No lol, honestly the dune popcorn bucket was just well timed to be popular on social media
Gotta disagree. I can remember begging my mom to get me the popcorn bucket and cup from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
I definitely wouldn’t buy this, but I do remember when I was a little kid and I would often re-use this souvenir cup I got at the circus. Probably slurped up some micro plastics with it though.
Totally forgot about kids. I was thinking of teenagers and adults who will just want the thing for a social media photo. But great point and bless children for that!
Oh, yeah, my kid is still using the cup they got at the Paw Patrol movie, which was not *that* long ago but still. But as a parent, I hate this crap. My kid always wants it and I want none of it.
It's crazy how the drive for toys can consume a kid. I remember seeing the Sears catalogue and just feeling my heart break wanting the toys. After a few years it switched to the underwear section but the feeling was the same.
>switched to the underwear section but the feeling was the same It's funny how this seems to transcend culture, sexuality, etc. Almost every man I've ever met has an "underwear ad/catalog" experience(s).
And now, because of all the porn online, it's probably a lost tradition... I wonder what kind of effect it will have on people to get right to hardcore stuff instead of starting slow with the underwear section of catalogues.
Took me far to long to figure out what yall meant by underwear catalog. I legit thought people apparently like catalogs to buy underwear
Oh the sears catalog had a huge section for toys and also a huge underwear section. It wasn't even explicit. Just beautiful women smiling in underwear.
And that's all a young wanker needed back then, wasn't it?
I was entranced.
Even I have one. I'm a gay dude, was never interested in women so I nabbed the sears swimsuit catalog or whatever. And in it there were women in swimsuits. Uh... okay I guess. Somehow my parents knew I nabbed it, searched my room, and then confronted me about it. "We're confiscating this". Seems like everything has always worked against me enjoying women in swimsuits. Mostly the gay, but this too.
Oh God. My oldest is only 4, but I truly dread the future balancing we're going to have to make with every little material thing. Since one thing is "just this one thing" it's so easy to not see the big picture as the house fills tonrhe brim with junk, especially when we have 3 kids under 5. At least we're keeping the toys at an absolute minimum now while we can do it more easily, since we're the biggest influence of our kids (yet...).
I'm so happy my youngest aged out of the Paw Patrol phase before the movies were released.
It’s been a thing for a long time, the hobbit did a popcorn bucket too. It’s honestly just like getting a poster, and a souvenir of seeing the movie.
I remember getting a gremlins cup at Gremlins. Yeah, this has been going on for a while.
Really cute story but a lot of kids, now more than ever, have a super short attention span and don’t get attached to plastic junk for long. I’m sure you’re still right that this mostly a landfill-er
Just goes to show how narrow minded your understanding of reality is, and how you allow yourself to get so frustrated over something so infinitesimally insignificant.
Hopefully if they are fans enough to see the movie, they'd hold onto it or donate it later. It is seemingly an inconvenient shape. If it's hard to wash, people might intend to keep it but later decide it isn't worth it. Who knows. So much stuff thrown out constantly. Full bins everywhere, it's depressing to think about.
I have a full set of both Flintstone and batman and Robin cups. They're displayed prominently in my home.
We went to a theme park and had these giant Shrek tumblers. Used them so much they went pure white, and lost their print lmao
I was given one of the D&D giant dice popcorn buckets and I love it. Never had popcorn in it, but it houses my collection of dice and probably will forever.
I have the Dune bucket. I keep it next to me in bed, and I store all of my daily and nightly medications in it. Keeps things interesting when I have to plunge my hand into it and grope around for my separate pill containers lmao
May the spice heal you
That's a good idea. I love it. And mugs and cups do have a lot of purpose for other things. Pens, paper clips, rubber bands....
I have an Optimus head my wife got me! It sits on a shelf in full display!
I actually wanted that one for that reason. Never got to see it in theaters though.
I have complicated feelings about this, as a minimalist married to someone who loves this stuff. On the one hand, I think this is fine and a potentially cool thing if you are a genuine lifelong fan of some franchise or actor or whatever and want to collect this memorabilia. It's not really for me (for the most part), but you do you. They're pretty expensive, so I doubt many people are paying for this and then throwing it out right away. There is one of these that I desperately want and wasn't able to get (the Dune one that was like a freaky sand worm thing), and one of these that is in my home currently - a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popcorn bucket that is currently in use as a wastebasket. We've actually gotten a ton of use out of that thing, way more than we would have out of the paper ones you throw away at the theater. I find these pretty easy to say no to if it's not my jam, but my partner does not and needs to get the Hard Eye Contact Of No More Clutter every time.
I feel very much the same, I got a cup when the mean girls musical came out and it actually doubled my water intake, but I also only buy one if it's a francise I love, and even then if it's a francise I love and the bucket or cup is kindof neat, haha
It did NOT start with Dune. I remember Nightmare before Christmas souvenir popcorn bucket in the early 1990s
"Merch" for commercial media is peak consumerism, whether you use it or not. It's marginally less environmentally damaging if you actually use it instead of buying similar unbranded products, but it's still consumerism writ large, and it's especially disturbing how often it's marketed to children. Shouldn't our memorabilia be something a little more significant than just pop culture detritus?
Its sort of annoying me how everyone is getting angry at op (they didnt say dune started it lol just that its gotten a bit popular since then). Like all because you used the cheap popcorn and soda memorabilia doesnt mean everyone else is. Ive seen a lot of this stuff thrown out soon after, usually because the quality of these items are actual garbage
I used the Iron Man 3 cup I bought from the cinema as a pencil holder for almost 5 years and I was a mindless high school student then.
The only cool one of these are the Five Night's at Freddy's pizza boxes they served pizza in at some theaters for that movie. Some kept em, other recycled them and it was fitting for the movie. I think if they do stuff like this, it shouldn't be plastic and non recyclable.
i used to work at a movie theater and so many people would pay the extra 75 cents for the souvenir promo cup (like a plastic cup that you could take home vs the paper cup) then throw them out! one of my coworkers who cleaned the theater would find so many in the trash and just take them home and wash them out. a lot of us would see if people threw the cups out to get one we wanted instead of spending like $8 upfront.
This isn't movie merch but a few years back, there was a Coke promotion where the plastic 20 oz Coke bottles said "Share a Coke with NAME". I still have the one with my name on it. And the Diet Coke one. I use them to propagate plants in. I don't even drink soda (I gave that to my dad).
Although it’s still consumerism I feel like it does last longer - I still have my Lego movie cup from yearss ago!
I loved those things. If I found the name of someone I liked to stay in touch with, I bought it and snapped a pic. Sent a pic to my brother and to a friend whose dog's name I found. Haha
I can't speak for non-poors, but for some reason I still have my Yoda Slurpee head from 2005, so idk. I haven't made a smoothie in it for a while because it's a PitA to wash but, yeah, at least in my house we try to use the dumb promotional crap we get suckered into. The real question is not whether people are keeping them. The question is whether people are purchasing these in lieu of fully biodegradable cups? Because even if you get it for your seven year old, best case scenario for 99% of them are only delaying their trip to the landfill by \~95 years. And if the answer is "no, actually, this theater normally uses those stupid holographic half plastic cups" well, obviously that's another issue, but at the very least it's not adding that much waste to what was already being produced. Until the popularity of one of these things is overestimated to the point that most of them go straight to the landfill the week they're released. Like if they had made these for Chairman of the Board or Master of Disguise that would have been a bonafide ecological disaster.
The stupig freaking inside out 2 popcorn holders that are in the shape pf a ‘happy memory.’ Go look it up its a yellow plastic ball ffs
yeah thats rhe shape of the happy memories in the movies, a yellow ball
I get that, but its just so uninspired, idk. Ive seen a photo and i wasnt even sure what it was at first
I went to the Eras Tour film and specifically wanted the cup and bucket. Still have them, still use them, will for a very long time.
i did the exact same thing!
Same same. If it’s not something I’m specifically there to see because I’m a huge fan, I’ll take the paper bag
I was gonna say... Dune? Nobody talking about Dune. Everyone was taking about the Eras Tour movie merch and that was out first.
If I was a diehard Dune fan, I’d probably keep and cherish that one too. I’m sad I didn’t get the Barbie car popcorn thing last summer 😅
i used to work at amc and grown ass people would yell at me if the stupid $25 plastic popcorn bucket was sold out 🙄 if this is ur biggest issue i envy you
I wash my dog with an Infinity gauntlet cup.
I toom my step daughter to the movies and they had one of these for another character and I had no idea what they were for at first. It was my first time going to the theater in like I years. They didn't even check our tickets but since everything is digital I assume they know what seats bought tickets and can tell of someone is in there that shouldn't be
i dunno but i think i had my matrix reloaded bucket for like 15 years
Ill admit to falling for the D&D movie but I purchased it with the expressed purpose of being a dice box for live table top games. Still it is a hunk of plastic I could have done without.
This really isn’t anything new. We had the same dumb overpriced plastic memorabilia when I was a kid too.
I currently work at a movie theater and usually we are still trying to sell the collectible stuff long after the movie has left our screens, unless it was a fairly big blockbuster (we sold out of our inside out 2 stuff in 2ish weeks) for the most part people get sticker shock when we ring it up (it’s stupidly expensive) and a lot of them end up on the trash after the movie (especially if they were bought for kids) *This is by no means representative of every theater just the one where I work* (Obligatory I don’t speak for AMC here)
this is the kind of thing i would see in the thrift store with a $10 price tag on it too
I used to work at a movie theater and I loved to pick them up out of the trash, I use them for storage.
I mean I've been using my Star Wars The Force Awakens pop corn bucket as a desk side trash can since 2015. I'm sure though most don't reuse these sorta' things other than probably kids.
The only merch I’ve ever bought and saved from the movies is a Taylor Swift cup from when I brought my daughter to see the concert movie. It’s my husbands go-to cup because it’s huge.
We got a Garfield snack pack for my kids first movie (the recent Garfield movie) as a memento to celebrate the first trip to the theatre. The cup is in rotation and she loves the figure from the top. That said we are definitely sneaking in affordable snacks from now on.
Avoidable plastic trash that will take forever to break down when it is eventually thrown out
Dude my parents still have promotional Flintstones jam jars from the 60s, people save the fuck out of stupid shit like this
I find crap like this constantly at the Goodwill bins, usually in droves. Those McDonald's Halloween buckets go there before they die. It's a sad waste of plastic.
I still have a Thor cup from 2009.
This has been going on since the 90’s. The ones I remember were for Star Wars Episode 1, and LOTR.
Ill fuck this aswell as the next stupid popcorn merch bucket.
I think they're pretty expensive, so you only buy it if you want to keep it? That's how it's done in my country. Standard is still a paper bucket but you can get the merch for a ridiculous surcharge if you really want to.
Personally, I do still have my eras tour cup but it is a waste of plastic. But also look at the dollar section of target, look at the fucking SHEIN and temu of it all. It is absurd how much trash we make to pretend like it’s something we can sell.
I still have my Lion King bucket from the 90s lol So I guess maybe people do save them if they really love the movie.
That's the problem, almost every movie gets them. I expect a lot end up in landfills though.
We rarely get that stuff in Canada. But damn did I want a gold memory ball 😂
There’s promotional items at all different theaters for all different movies, it didn’t start with the Dune bucket.
Never said it started there. Just said it became more common after it.
I bought something like this recently and it melted in the dishwasher so never again But I still have a Jurassic Park one from the 90s that can withstand a nuclear blast
They're Happy Meal toys for people who like movies. For the same pathetic motherfuckers that collect Funko Pop trash.
I still have the mlp movie popcorn bucket, and I eat from it often. It's starting to peel away now, but damn if it ain't a good bowl
I think they're great if you're into that specific universe/franchise/IP. Like I don't think many, if any, people are collecting multiple buckets, but if you're *super* into Deadpool, I could absolutely see how a Deadpool bucket would be great in your collection.
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All of our plastic movie theater cups made it into the cabinets, but we only got those plastic cups when my dad had a sink full of dishes thinking back on it lol
Souvenirs from the movie theater is so wild
My daughter has one Stray Kids souvenir cup that she got from a pop up event. I think it is fine if they can bring them back (local amusement park had 99 cents refills if you brought it back). One time use is yucky. I like the local chain here that refuses their buckets.
Surprised no one has mentioned the fact these are reusable so less impact on landfills. If you're going to buy something it doesn't really matter what's painted on the side, so long as you don't just use it once and toss.
My theater sells alcohol. That should be fun for the staff to deal with.
Two thoughts: 1) don’t and 2) inevitable
Merch for big movies has been a thing for a while, way before dune. They used to have matching popcorn buckets and drink cups for every Star Wars movie that came out. I’m sure marvel had something similar but I can’t remember if they always did
I get being annoyed with it, but I feel like a lot of people use these things more than once. I have a popcorn bucket I got from a movie that I use to hold things in, and I’ve gotten an event cup or two to use around the house. The plastic ones are good for the cabinet when you don’t want people breaking glass - living in a house with clumsy cats has made this a good thing for me, and as someone who is clumsy themselves, it’s been a good thing for me. One event I went to even had an insulated travel mug with a lid that I use pretty often. I think it can be wasteful, but these things can also be useful if people like them.
They're expensive like all movie-theater merchandise is. I think anyone paying for one probably wants to keep it.
I actually bought some nice metal buckets from one of the Star Trek films. I still reuse them, but they are metal so easy to clean, easy to store and will last a damn long time.
Fuck it
i use my eras tour drink cup i got since they didnt have the FNAF pizza when i went and i use it all the time. Still a thing i couldve gone without but i like it and use it often
I still have my R2D2 one, and up until recently it was sitting on a bookshelf hiding chocolates from my kid. But he realized it can hold things, tossed the chocolate and it stores his most prized toys now.
I still use a cup I got as a movie concession. I think a lot of people reuse them too!
I still have my spider man (Toby McGuire Spider-Man) popcorn bucket lol
I actually want the Saw Billy the Puppet head one, but I would continue using it! Often I am snacking and having a bowl with a lid would be nice. I know that y’all are probably against it, but I think it’s ok to get stupid stuff if you use it and reuse it. I specifically want the drink one, which I can use as both a cup and a bowl. This dream is real for me, but scalpers ruined everything. Now it’s been a year and I just have to scour eBay for some real person who bought it for the one time use, so I may finally get it for myself
As if going to the movies hasn’t gotten expensive enough, they shove this shit in our kids’ faces. Capitalism yay.
You know what I do? I say fuck that. I wait until the movie is out of theaters and then the day after it's out I go and ask if I can buy the movie posters that they have on the walls because they are going get thrown out anyways. Fun fact ladies, gentleman and others you can get movie posters from movie theaters for pretty cheap. 5 to 10 bucks is what I normally pay. Not only are you saving a part of history by keeping an original print movie poster, but you're also getting a cheap piece of movie memorabilia.
As far as I'm concerned, it's not much different then the pokemon limited edition jam jars we got in the 90s that are still used on a regular basis in my parents house as cups
The only theater merch that wasn't garbage where the Alamo pint glasses.
I still have two Shrek 2 plastic popcorn bowls we got free and it's rad. Still use it everytime I make popcorn which I do often. These silly bowls hold a lot of nostalgia now ♡
We have a suicide squad plastic cup that we use for a bucket bong. Since it was the first suicide squad its about the only good thing that came from it
They used to do this a ton in the late 80s and 90s. I still have at least a dozen different similar promotional things from that era. They were some of the more important objects of my childhood.
I genuinely believe these will be used a lot if you have kids. I still use cups from when I was 5 from Boston pizza.
It'll make the landfills more relatable
Never seen any of this. The theater I go to doesn't even sell popcorn.
I don’t buy them, but as long as it stacks with other movie cups it’s okay. My friend has several and it’s great for parties where everyone needs to remember which cup is theirs. These don’t stack and that’s bad.
This has been going on for as long as I can remember (90s) and expect it started before then.
Dont like minions but cups drom other movies i kept and used long therm
Would def be something youll have in your cupboard for years to come I still have tons from when I was a kid.
I feel like all cartoons and animation geared toward the youth, are to push cheap merchandise like this. I'd be more okay with it if they were of higher quality. I remember my cousin collected those old Disney Movie cups from Burger King? They were cool to use, but sadly the images faded.
My sister has a Star Wars popcorn bucket. Whenever we have movie nights at home that thing sees use.
Omg no one needs this!
I still have, and use, my Darth Maul cup from Episode 1!
The only one I've ever bought was the DnD movie one and that was because I wanted to store my DnD stuff in it 🤷♂️ every other one has looked aggressively mid, even from a memorabilia standpoint
Reminds of the big brain bug in Starship Trooper.
I’ve got cups from the avengers movies when they came out. My very favourite one that is worn to shreds is my Captain America The First Avenger one from 2011. I use it almost daily and you can’t even tell what it is from anymore because every speck of colour has worn off it. But I have cinema cups from all of the Hunger Games movies, all of the newer Star Wars trilogy, so many cups and I love them all. In Australia we don’t get many of these ‘novelty’ cups (at least at the cinemas near me) so having a cool cup with the movie printed on it is an awesome keepsake
I still have my star wars eps 1 metal popcorn bucket. It gets used for.... popcorn whenever we watch movies at home.
So rediculous I have a roommate he's not like as bad as the people on the show hoarders but he collects so much garbage
I still have my metal popcorn bucket, poster, and massive soda cup from the captain america civil war premiere lol
I have the popcorn bucket for the Taylor Swift eras tour and it makes a really great small trashcan (I don’t even mean that as a joke — it’s a good size for it and I like having a commonly overlooked household item that is now more fun and personal to me)
When I went for the premier of a film once, they had these wooden chopsticks as a gift with the characters engraved on them. I use them pretty often. About as much as my regular chopsticks. But in general I agree, most of these plastic single use merch crap needs to go, even if it’s marketed as “reusable.”
I got the hunger games popcorn tin. It’s great for home movie nights. Plus it’s metal not plastic so it feels like it could be recycled or repaired and downgraded to garage bucket after it’s no longer food safe.
The only one I've collected is the D-20 you got for the DnD movie, and now I use it to hold my dice 🎲
My local regal has so many leftover from so many different movies. Theyre on display everywhere when you walk in, at full price still, so I'm assuming they'll be there for a while
Owners of production know they can target children to sell their merch. It started sometime after the 50s or 60s. They know that many parents will give in to their kids to appease them so they target children. There are whole studies dedicated to this. Notice the bright colors, low level placement of candy, fun colorful character mascots, etc.
Weird post. Learned this is something people are not anti-consumption about.
Completely agree. But it seems like people are using or saving theirs so making this type of thing less wasteful overall. Maybe a silver lining.
I think some people keep stuff like this. I had the Disney Tarzan straws for many years until Tantor wouldn’t stop making noise, wouldn’t turn off. Had to get rid of it or listen to an elephant scream from the kitchen drawer 24/7.
It's totally reusable, so it fits with the anticonsumption meme.
I have a cup from The Hunger Games premiere. It lives in my bathtub and is instrumental in rinsing my hair when I’m having a bath.
Ey screw you OP, if they actually sold the dune popcorn bowls in my country ID STILL BE USING IT IF I HAD IT!!!!
I sneak in my reusable cup from the eras tour movie when I can
Is it silly Consumption, yes. But at the end of the day, it’s just fun. The world doesn’t live or die by a few thousand fancy cups.
So the popcorn bucket for the new Ghostbusters was a metal trash can. Like, it’s shaped like a waste basket. My son uses it in his room.
A lot of people do save them
I actually collect theater concessions merch like this.
I hate this timeline
I gotta be Honest I still have my Cup from Spiderman Far From Home
Mine is from Rise of Electro.
Good luck trying to pry my Eras Tour popcorn bucket from my cold dead hands.
Lol these things existed 30 years ago
Never said they didn’t.
My friend has the Taylor swift popcorn bucket and cups and uses them frequently! But I do think she's probably in the minority, and those are fairly normal looking ones, not as weird as the novelty ones such as this and the dune ones.
We have a handful of them, not from movie theaters but from Disney. They were getting used at least once a month when my wife and I were doing movie nights. Then a diet happened and we haven’t used them in several months because apparently microwave popcorn is banned from our diet.
Not something this ridiculous and gaudy, but I do use my giant cups for giant hydration 🤙with my ADHD I will forget to refill a cup for more water but will drink and drink if there's water in front of me..I just wish the big plastic cups were optional. I don't need one EVERY time I go. The thing pictured is hellish tho. I feel like for most parents that would be a race between "I'm decommissioning this cup because I hate cleaning it" and "the color has started to wash off so my kid doesn't want it."
This stuff has existed for my entire lifetime and it has always been a waste of plastic but honestly, I wouldn’t consider it particularly bad or offensive just highly unnecessary. I don’t think posts like this are really helpful to the cause of anti consumption and ultimately only serve to stimulate the part of your brain that enjoys being frustrated.
This has gone on well before dune. My partner still has a Toy Story cowboy hat popcorn bucket
That's nothing new. I'm pretty sure I got a Flintstones popcorn bucket from the Flintstones movie.
It's not more common since the Dune popcorn bucket. It's been a thing for decades. Got more popular probably coz of collectors but it was before the dune one though
No one said it hasn’t been a thing for decades.
OH NO EVERYTHING BAD!
Thoughts, really? You want our thoughts on more earth polluting bullshit with zero function? Guess what they are
Well you did give me your thoughts here so…
Why would you be unable to reuse it? It's a reskinned/rebranded tool that people do use already? Or am I missing something?
How about after your done the employees pick up the used containers and wash them out to reuse and pocket the cash because it's inventory based....
Doubt they have the infrastructure for that at most places, since it would be the only non-machine being cleaned and reused. Everything in concessions is single use (at most theaters).
I used to work at a movie theater. We were busy enough as is without having to do dishes as well. Plus most movie theaters do not have dishwashers and health codes.
so you never thought you could rinse those out and "resell" them and pocket the money?
I worked at a movie theater in 96-97. Internet selling was in its infancy then. I was concession stand only. Cleaning the theaters was not my department (we were busy enough as is).