No modern blockbuster is complete with its very own popcorn bucket . It’s a trend that’s been happening for a few years but rose to viral levels when Dune: Part Two released one that, well, looked like a sex toy. Since then, the popcorn bucket wars have taken theatergoers on all types of adventures and now the latest one, for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, is adding a whole new element.
Coming exclusively to Cinemark theaters, the Gladiator II popcorn bucket isn’t just a popcorn bucket shaped like the Roman Colosseum at the center of the franchise. It also has an AR element that allows you to watch an actual battle happen inside the Colosseum itself..
. just hopefully not while you are still in the theater. You can watch a little example below from the Gladiator II social media account.
So the idea here is you order the Gladiator II popcorn bucket, finish the popcorn, then after the movie scan the AR code and watch the battle. Which, we have to admit, is not a bad idea. It does promote phone use with something you can only buy through a movie theater, which isn’t great, but the idea of extending the story out of the theater is a good one.
Plus, in terms of actual popcorn receptacles, the Colosseum is one of the better-shaped buckets yet. Plus it is decidedly asexual, which we can’t say about every popcorn bucket released this year. Overall though, what the 2024 popcorn bucket wars—with such films as Dune: Part Two and Deadpool & Wolverine, but also Ghostbusters: Fr.