Cinemark’s Popcorn Bucket Day: A Delight for Movie Lovers but a Challenge for Staff!

Evidently, this past Sunday marked ‘National Popcorn Day’ (whatever that signifies), and to commemorate, Cinemark initiated a “Bring Your Own Popcorn Bucket” campaign. You can present a vessel of any form or dimension, and they would refill it with popcorn for just five bucks.

Clearly, it’s a fantastic offer, especially these days when the inflation on snacks is enough to cause your father to exclaim, “What did I smash a window?!” the instant he lays eyes on the total for a combo, and occurrences like this often lead to amusing social media posts. I recall 7-11 hosting a similar event for Slurpees a few years ago, and someone managed to fill their prosthetic leg – and this time we have images of popcorn filling five-gallon buckets, Call of Duty care packages, overflowing cabinets, enormous pots, basketballs sliced in half, baby strollers, even URNS….

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It’s a clever marketing strategy, and I completely comprehend why they would implement it. Will anyone consume their ten pounds of popcorn before it becomes stale? No, certainly not (it’s likely already stale) – but that is irrelevant. Everyone merely desires a humorous picture and tale, and that is perfectly fine.

But you know who this promotion was undoubtedly a NIGHTMARE for?! Movie theater staff members; especially the concessions crew….

Each person carries their enormous container, each one more outrageous than the last, anticipating it to be overflowing – because that was the stipulation of the promotion – yet only a limited amount of popcorn can be made at any given time! Those unfortunate teenage employees of the establishment were probably preparing batch after batch of popcorn as the queues continued to expand, while customers grew increasingly impatient.

Believe me, as a seasoned individual who served at an AMC Theaters (in Ridgefield Park, NJ) during the premiere of ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’….

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(Pictured here with a big grin on my face!)

….there are few experiences in life that are more intimidating than being inundated with an endlessly increasing line of disgruntled movie watchers. It resembles one of those tense moments out of ‘The Bear’ where the receipts just keep on coming, and you feel like you’re suffocating. Whether it’s the popcorn machine malfunctioning, being too slow, someone placing a large order amidst a busy rush, etc. – seldom does anyone have any sympathy for the situation, and all they want is to get into their movie screening as soon as possible, creating extremely rude behavior and utter disorder. I cannot fathom how chaotic it must have become with the “bring a bin, and we’ll fill it” scheme. 

My thoughts go out to all concessions personnel impacted – thank you for your dedication.