All the Wildest Movie-Themed Popcorn Buckets from 2024 That We Can’t Believe Are Real

Popcorn buckets will never be the same after 2024.

The collectibles rose to a whole new level this year with the eye-catching merchandise for fans to chow down with during blockbusters like Dune: Part Two and Deadpool & Wolverine going viral and one-upping each other.

“Years from now they will look back at 2024 as the year the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,” Ryan Reynolds wrote on Instagram in May.

Read along for a breakdown of 2024’s most interesting (and downright bizarre!) popcorn buckets offered in movie theaters.

Dune: Part Two

While March’s Dune: Part Two did not invent the popcorn bucket trend, AMC Theatres made it a viral phenomenon when it introduced one designed to resemble the fictional planet Arrakis’ iconic spaceworms. The bucket generated conversation on social media for its unorthodox, arguably NSFW design, as well as Dune‘s own stars and director’s amusing reactions to the bucket.

“That’s not okay,” Florence Pugh said, when she and the Dune cast appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February and were shown the bucket. “Who made that? That’s not okay. That’s wrong.”

When director Denis Villeneuve and star Timothée Chalamet spoke with The New York Times about the movie the same month, Chalamet joked, “I can’t tell if someone is at home right now going, ‘My design worked perfectly and everyone’s talking about it,’ or if someone’s brutally offended by the response.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s sandworm also got its own bucket at Regal Cinemas, though it looked much different from its Dune counterpart.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman made one of the most popular movies of 2024 with Deadpool & Wolverine, which brought their popular Marvel characters together in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Reynolds, 48, helped announced the movie’s special popcorn bucket — designed as the character Wolverine’s head, with popcorn spilling out of the his wide-open mouth — with an Instagram video shared May 30 that included a reference to the popularity of other popcorn buckets throughout the year. 

The launch video Reynolds posted also included a cheeky disclaimer, asking fans to “please enjoy your popcorn responsibly.” Additionally, the bucket featured an inscription that read, “Designed by Deadpool.” 

Venom: The Last Dance

Regal Cinemas had a Venom-shaped popcorn bucket to celebrate October’s Venom: The Last Dance, the final movie in Tom Hardy’s offshoot of the Spider-Man villain. The chain surprised the film’s cast with the large popcorn bucket — which holds popcorn inside of Venom’s mouth — on the red carpet in a video it shared on Instagram Oct. 22. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach and Stephen Graham costarred with Hardy, 47, in the third Venom film.

Wicked

AMC Theatres got Wicked into the popcorn and concessions game with matching pink-and-green buckets and soda cups for Glinda and Elphaba fans. The theater chain also developed limited-edition “Magnificent Mix gourmet” candy-coated pink-and-green popcorn for audience members who wanted their movie snacks as colorful as Shiz University and the land of Oz.

Regal also had souvenir Lantern Popcorn Containers and Witch Hat Cups.

The hit musical stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Jeff Goldblum and more.

Moana 2

For Disney’s Moana 2, Regal impressed with a popcorn bucket shaped like a wave that displays Moana herself connecting with the ocean.

Moana fans could also collect a boat designed to look like the ones Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) ride that also doubled as a container for nachos, combining for two of the more creative concessions items offered this year.

Gladiator II

Roman architecture and popcorn collided when the long-awaited sequel Gladiator II debuted. Cinemark offered a large tub shaped like the ancient Colosseum, complete with an augmented reality code to view a battle take place inside it.

Buckets from Regal let fans eat snacks directly out of a gladiator helmet.

Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as Lucius as he is brought captive back to Rome and unwittingly finds himself in the middle of a power struggle for the empire’s future. Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Connie Nielsen and Fred Hechinger also star.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Audiences returned to Middle-earth in the animated prequel The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. AMC and Regal Cinemas both launched popcorn buckets shaped like a giant hammer, which matches the weapon the movie’s character Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) wields in battle.

Aside from Cox, 78, The War of the Rohirrim also featured a voice cast that included Gaia Wise, Miranda Otto, Luke Pasqualino, Lorraine Ashbourne, Benjamin Wainwright, Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna and Janine Duvitski.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Video game fans who wanted to eat popcorn right out of Sonic the Hedgehog’s head got their wish thanks to AMC Theatres and Regal in time for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The vessel itself is shaped as the iconic blue character’s head, with a lid on top revealing the popcorn inside.

Cinemark also had a tub with the popular character hugging the popcorn.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 brings back Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, while Idris Elba portrays Knuckles, Keanu Reeves voices Shadow, and Jim Carrey reprised his role as the series’ villain Dr. Robotnik.

Mufasa: The Lion King

Regal and AMC Theatres had competing visions for a Mufasa: The Lion King-themed popcorn bucket. AMC released a light-up popcorn bucket that features engravings of lions and other animals audiences have come to expect in The Lion King movies, while Regal released a bucket that is actually shaped like Pride Rock itself.

The latter’s bucket holds popcorn from the top of Pride Rock, while the lion Mufasa is depicted with a figurine that stands on his throne. 

The Disney prequel featured the voices of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen and Thandiwe Newton; Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani and Beyoncé each reprised their voice roles from 2019’s The Lion King, while Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter made her feature film debut as the lion cub Kiara.

Nosferatu

Popcorn buckets got straight up spooky with Nosferatu‘s Christmas Day release. The movie, a remake of the iconic 1922 German silent film, received a bucket built to resemble the sarcophagus that vampire Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) sleeps inside.

Horror fans can chow down on popcorn from inside the coffin while watching Orlok haunt Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin in Nosferatu, the latest from director Robert Eggers.