Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Continues the Collectible Popcorn Bucket Trend

Movies

The promotional popcorn bucket is officially a trend this year, with the third big movie using them as part of its marketing campaign. It started with Dune: Part Two and its sandworm buckets, the imagery of which… well, I don’t have to tell you:

The popcorn bucket for ‘DUNE 2’.

(via: @3CFilmss) pic.twitter.com/FzNZjGJiTC

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 26, 2024

Then, Deadpool & Wolverine put out its own popcorn buckets, and they made the suggestion more overt:

Now, we’ve got Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 spooky comedy, with Michael Keaton returning to the sort-of title role (the character is actually named Betelgeuse), plus Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara back for more paranormal fun. They’re joined by Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and Justin Theroux. With Tim Burton again at the helm (and Danny Elfman scoring), it’s highly likely the sequel will capture the feel of the original, or at least come close. The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice popcorn buckets indicate that it just may, with three variants based on imagery from Beetlejuice. They include – appropriately – the Dune-inspired sandworms, the ghostly guidebook called the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, and the demonic tombstone that mysteriously appears in Adam Maitlin’s model of the town that marks the spot where Betelgeuse is buried. These popcorn buckets will be available at Regal Cinemas in time for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, with the only official release date being “soon.” You can see them below:

Popcorn bucket
Popcorn bucket
Popcorn bucket

Summon them from your local theatre soon. pic.twitter.com/Z10a0VdqLq

— Regal (@RegalMovies) August 5, 2024

A strange and unusual place to put your popcorn. The Handbook for the Recently Deceased Container is coming to Regal for #Beetlejuice #Beetlejuice. pic.twitter.com/3QH9SreF1Y

— Regal (@RegalMovies) August 5, 2024

Rest in popcorn. The #Beetlejuice #Beetlejuice Tombstone Collectible Container is coming to Regal. pic.twitter.com/WI7dA0MRw5

— Regal (@RegalMovies) August 5, 2024

It’s times like this when I curse the fact that I can’t eat popcorn anymore; I also do that whenever I walk through a movie theater lobby. I love these buckets, and this trend in general. They used to do stuff like this all the time, with new movies having buckets and soda cups as theater tie-ins, but to my recollection, only the cups were ever collectible. The popcorn buckets were just cardboard with fun pictures from the film, good only until you finished eating. These ones are built to last, and they look cool. The Dune one was fantastic, with the visual of your hand being swallowed by a sandworm as you dug into your movie snack (and I’ll leave it at that). The Deadpool & Wolverine one… well… it’s very Deadpool, and it makes a great collector’s item, but eating from it must feel weird.

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice buckets, however, are great because of how inventive and painstakingly made they are. The Handbook for the Recently Deceased is perfect because it’s something only Beetlejuice fans will get, and the detail is incredible. Afterwards, it works like one of those hollowed-out books in spy movies that hide microfilm or some such. Betlegeuse’s grave is appropriately creepy given the tone of the films, and again, it’s recreated exceptionally well. And I have to believe the sandworm is a nod to Dune: Part Two, the movie that started this marketing trend. I love that, a sort of tip of the hat, kind of like Denis Villeneuve’s joke that Dune did the popcorn bucket better than Deadpool & Wolverine.

 

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I wonder if this fun new form of marketing comes from the desperation of a movie business losing customers and having fewer films to release, thanks to last year’s strikes. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and this could be a good way to get people to make it out to the theater. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the three movies that have made these specialty popcorn buckets are movies people actually want to see; Dune: Part Two was a hit, and Deadpool & Wolverine looks like it’s going to be a mega-blockbuster. The jury is out on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and anything can happen in the current box office climate, although box office predictions at the end of April indicated a $100 million opening weekend. I imagine it wasn’t overly expensive to make, and people love the original, so it could be a big moneymaker for Warner Bros. and help out Regal and other movie theaters. Let’s hope it’s a good movie, too.

Tickets are now on sale for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which arrives in theaters on September 6, 2024. Warner Bros. made the announcement with this trailer, which made me laugh pretty hard: