0:00

This week we are running some of our

0:02

favorite episodes from 2024. On

0:04

today's show, we look at how

0:06

movie theaters are turning to

0:08

a unique source for extra income,

0:10

On popcorn bucket. we look

0:12

at how movie theaters

0:15

are turning to

0:18

a unique source

0:20

for extra income,

0:23

the something unsettling happening at

0:25

the movie theaters lately. I

0:27

have a bad feeling about this. People

0:29

aren't going to the movies like

0:31

they used to. to. Box numbers are way

0:33

down from their pre -pandemic levels. levels.

0:35

Some of the the big releases didn't

0:37

do as well as expected. as could have

0:40

been a contender. of that, last top of that,

0:42

last year's Hollywood labor strikes mean there

0:44

are fewer movies in the pipeline than

0:46

normal. this this is no time to panic.

0:48

This is the perfect time to panic! panic! These

0:50

famous film characters are upset, but

0:53

of of these dark, uncertain

0:55

times for Hollywood, a possible

0:57

hero is emerging, something

0:59

that theater are hoping will

1:01

get more more flowing into

1:04

local local This potential potential a

1:06

novelty popcorn bucket. bucket. That

1:08

is right. Maybe Maybe you've seen the

1:10

infamous sandworm bucket that was

1:12

released for the Dune for the Dune Part

1:14

Two movie this spring. Starring did a whole

1:16

song about it. a whole song about

1:18

it. This is

1:21

The Indicator is The Indicator

1:23

from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. Wong.

1:25

And I'm Adrian Ma. Movie make most

1:27

of their money by selling two

1:29

things, movie tickets and food. Now

1:32

they're getting to the business

1:34

of to merchandise. of Today on the

1:36

show, we track the rise

1:39

of the popcorn bucket we track -pandemic

1:41

origins to its afterlife in the

1:43

resale market. pre-pendemic origins to

1:45

its This This

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message comes from Capella University.

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3:10

Nell's is a classically trained

3:12

French chef. But these days,

3:14

he's not making bouillabases and casulets

3:16

I mean, for starters, those

3:18

things might be kind of hard

3:20

to serve in a movie

3:22

theater. And Nels cares a lot

3:24

about that because he's actually

3:26

vice president of Food and Beverage

3:28

Strategy for AMC theaters. things

3:30

like overstuffed burrito present challenges. A

3:32

salad, very difficult to eat

3:34

at the movies. We

3:36

do sell a chopped salad or have in the past.

3:38

We We have it in a bowl that, you

3:40

know, instead of leaning over, you can kind of bring

3:43

it to your mouth. Honestly, what

3:45

a time to be alive. You

3:47

eat chopped salad at the movies,

3:49

Adrienne. But, you know, concessions have

3:51

evolved way past popcorn and candy

3:53

and soda. Some places you can

3:55

even get dinner and cocktails. And

3:57

movie theaters want to sell you more than

3:59

just... the ticket and these

4:02

days. days. also oversees

4:04

for AMC. AMC. And in

4:06

the last few years, that's meant

4:08

souvenir popcorn buckets as tie as

4:10

with major releases. releases. Now, these are not

4:12

disposable paper tubs with the logo

4:14

printed on them, no. them. No. These are

4:16

solid, usually plastic objects, and they're often

4:18

in the shape of something related

4:21

to the movie, like a hot like a

4:23

hot convertible in the case of last

4:25

year's Barbie movie. year's Nell says a

4:27

lot of these lot of these as the

4:29

industry calls them, are basically are props

4:31

that you can put popcorn in, popcorn

4:33

in. Maybe. Yes, it has to hold popcorn,

4:35

but it's not. not, we're We're not designing

4:37

around a tub. a We're designing popcorn

4:39

into a really cool prop in

4:42

many cases. We want our guests

4:44

to see this piece and our

4:46

social feed walk to the theater to get it. Nell

4:48

says AMC the theater to get it. of the

4:50

buckets during the aims to sell out of

4:52

the buckets during the film's first weekend.

4:54

around the maximizes the hype around the release.

4:56

aren't it ensures the aren't stuck

4:59

with a whole inventory of buckets buckets

5:01

when the next blockbuster lands. We

5:03

want to make sure to make every

5:05

every me for guest happy move then move

5:07

on to a quiet place and then

5:09

then move to to twisters and then

5:11

move on to to and Wolverine and

5:13

so we want to keep the

5:15

to the keep the wheels turning. first first Bay

5:17

bucket was for Star Wars The

5:19

Rise of Skywalker in 2019. 2019.

5:21

The The company released a bucket

5:23

in the shape of R2 of

5:25

R2D2, the lovable round droid. Nell says AMC drew

5:27

on the expertise of Disney,

5:29

which of course course owns Wars. But

5:31

But Disney has has a long

5:33

track record of selling collectible souvenir buckets

5:35

at its theme parks. parks. The R2D2

5:37

buckets were priced at bucks a piece sold

5:40

out they sold out opening night. was believed

5:42

it was going to be something huge And then

5:44

of then of course the world stopped turning

5:46

and we had to take a pause. a

5:48

pause. EMC's next popcorn bucket went

5:50

in common till 2021 the

5:52

the release of Ghostbusters afterlife.

5:54

Other movie Other movie theater

5:56

chains like and and are also

5:58

also selling souvenir popcorn. containers. For

6:01

despicable meat, Regal came out. Did you

6:03

see this agent? It's a popcorn bucket

6:05

that looks like a baby carrier with

6:07

straps that go over your shoulder. This

6:10

frees up both hands. It allows you

6:12

to do the selfie while you're eating

6:14

your popcorn. And then despite this trend,

6:16

these novelty objects are still a small

6:19

part of the movie theater business. In

6:21

2023, merchandise sales totaled $54 million for

6:23

AMC. And that is just 3% of

6:25

the total food and beverage revenues for

6:28

the year. But these collectibles are increasingly

6:30

an important part of the competition between

6:32

movie theaters. And this is because the

6:34

chains are battling over a smaller pool

6:37

of customers. Alicia Reese analyzes publicly traded

6:39

media and entertainment companies for the firm

6:41

Wedbush securities. Alicia estimates that box office

6:43

revenues in North America are down 40%

6:46

from pre-pendemic levels. Movie goers are pickier

6:48

now about what they want to see

6:50

in the theaters. But Alicia says when

6:52

people do venture out, they're willing to

6:55

spend. One of the things that we've

6:57

seen post-pandemic that's been really interesting is

6:59

people are increasingly buying premium tickets. People

7:02

are going to see movies on iMac

7:04

screens or on other premium large format

7:06

screens. They're also spending more on concessions.

7:08

Spending more in concessions is good for

7:11

the theaters because the profit margin on

7:13

food and beverage is really high, 80

7:15

plus percent according to Alicia. She says

7:17

the popcorn buckets are helping boost concession

7:20

revenues even more. And these collectible containers

7:22

are aimed at the movie fans. These

7:24

are the people who are hyped to

7:26

buy a ticket on opening day for

7:29

a big new release, what the industry

7:31

calls a tentpole film. Theaters want those

7:33

die-hards to open up their wallets. When

7:35

there's a movie that hits really well,

7:38

they're maximizing that. The large tentpole movies,

7:40

especially ones that people have been looking

7:42

forward to for a long period of

7:44

time, that's really where you can upsell.

7:47

Now, we've seen from history that when

7:49

there's a pop culture collectible, a secondary

7:51

market will follow. And that

7:53

is definitely the

7:56

case for these souvenir

7:58

popcorn buckets. There's

8:00

a whole economy of

8:03

resellers flipping these

8:05

things for a profit.

8:07

things for a My I'm

8:09

a reseller on I'm a reseller on

8:11

company the company I created called Bucket Marcus

8:13

got into the bucket got game

8:15

at the behest of a

8:17

friend. game He spent behest of a

8:19

friend. He buckets for for Spider-Man across the

8:21

and his friend put him

8:23

on eBay. his friend in three

8:25

on eBay. And like me three days, he bought

8:28

me back I was like, I was like,

8:30

what just happened? You mean You mean people

8:32

are willing to pay this much

8:34

for this? are. It turns out people It

8:36

turns out people willing willing to pay

8:38

two or three times the retail price

8:40

of a popcorn bucket. when Now new

8:42

there are new releases, and and his

8:45

team will fan out and buy up

8:47

dozens of containers. Yeah, for

8:49

example, you remember the the

8:51

Dune Sandworm Bucket, Bucket? We were

8:53

talking about earlier. Well, Well,

8:55

for those things was really

8:58

high, those and he bought really

9:00

high of them for about of

9:02

bucks 25 bucks a piece. And he says

9:04

he was able to resell one of

9:06

them for as much as them as much

9:08

as $99. went viral, so we kind

9:10

of got that world audience. It was

9:12

cool It was things off to South

9:14

Africa, off to the Netherlands. the Netherlands. Yeah, awesome

9:16

as well, too. too. And just like

9:19

in the primary market, the selling window

9:21

for these buckets is short. buckets puts

9:23

it at two weekends. it at So

9:25

if he bets big on a container

9:27

for a movie that for a movie that

9:29

let's just say that he's still trying

9:31

to offload a couple buckets for

9:33

the Garfield movie that came out in

9:35

May. Garfield I didn't even know there was

9:37

a out in May. So that's a problem in the a

9:39

problem in a nutshell, took to

9:41

this movie like Garfield Takes to this

9:43

movie like Garfield back Mondays. Nell Storm

9:46

back at AMC, movie

9:48

says there's even The movie

9:50

merchandise coming. of

9:52

is rolling out hundreds of souvenir

9:54

kiosks at its locations that'll sell

9:56

things like key chains and and posters. And Nell

9:58

says says also... an opportunity to

10:00

sell popcorn buckets for theatrical re -releases

10:02

of classic movies, as long as

10:05

the Hollywood studios are on board. I'd

10:07

love to, you know, if we

10:09

re -release Caddyshack, you can bet we'd

10:11

have gophers and golf bags and the

10:13

fun things happening, a hundred percent. Adrienne,

10:16

if you could turn a movie prop

10:18

from your favorite movie into a

10:20

collectible popcorn bucket, what would it be?

10:23

My first answer would be Zoolander. You

10:25

could do the gas station

10:27

pump from the gasoline fight?

10:30

an orange frappuccino cup. That'd be

10:32

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