I can’t really judge anyone who buys novelty popcorn buckets at the movie theater because I have two Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ones sitting on my shelf. However, the sheer ridiculousness of Wicked: For Good’s collectibles masquerading as bowls for your popcorn proves the trend has flown too close to the sun. We’re done. Everybody, pack it up and go home. Give me generic paper bowls that say the name of the theater on them, Hollywood. Your popcorn bucket privileges have been revoked.
But what’s the issue here, you ask. What could Elphaba and Glinda’s second musical act have done to merit such a sweeping decree? Well, the Wicked: For Good popcorn buckets are so impractical, expensive, and showboaty that whoever designed them needs to simmer down, maybe by way of a bucket of water (just don’t melt). Listing them all is quite the task: the sequel is big enough to have half a dozen different buckets dedicated to it and marketing partnerships with multiple theater chains. So shoutout to TikTok user @noahglenncarter for compiling most of them in one video:
Each of these is basically just a collector’s item that a movie theater can sell, when, if held in a very particular way, could technically house a salty snack. But they’re basically just toys and display pieces. One is made to look like the Wizard’s hot air balloon, another is a light-up orb resembling Glinda’s bubble with a translucent figure of the Good Witch herself inside, taking up space where the popcorn should go, and then there’s the one based on Elphaba’s Grimmerie spellbook that opens up and reveals your popcorn. The one that is most baffling to me is Regal’s music box bucket, which plays a jingle version of “For Good” whenever you open it. I’m sure that goes over well in a crowded theater trying to watch a movie.
I love a good novelty popcorn bucket, but when these expensive collectibles’ frills get in the way of actually doing what they’re ostensibly meant to do, they just feel like a ploy to get people to spend more money at movie theaters. Which, to be clear, is what they are. But they might as well hold my damn popcorn, too.
