The Best, Worst, and Most Expensive Popcorn Buckets of 2025

Many skilled contributions to filmmaking often go unnoticed during awards season. While Oscars exist for directing and acting, areas like choreography and stunts aren’t typically recognized – though casting will be included next year. And until now, there hasn’t been any award celebrating something truly essential to the movie experience: those collectible popcorn buckets! That’s why Vulture is introducing the Bucky Awards, celebrating the best (and worst) popcorn buckets released in theaters this year. Our first-ever winners come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share a love of movies and a desire to carry popcorn in a fun, oversized, movie-themed container. These selections are drawn from over a dozen buckets I reviewed for Vulture’s Bucket or Chuck It? series – here are the best of the bunch!

When I first saw this popcorn bucket for the new Naked Gun movie starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, my immediate reaction was, ‘Nice beaver!’ – a nod to the original film. This bucket is shaped like a cheerful beaver, complete with a little log bearing that famous quote, and a hidden opening for easy popcorn access. Unlike many movie tie-in buckets that are overly bright and busy, this one is a beautifully designed, simple woodland creature that looks great as a display piece, even if you’re not a fan of the films. It’s also refreshing to see merchandise for a comedy, instead of the usual horror, kids’, or action movies. Hopefully, it will remind people that comedies are worth seeing in theaters, and at $34.99, the price felt just right.

This popcorn bucket is designed to look like an old-fashioned popcorn machine, with a metal kettle and a door that opens like a cabinet. A miniature Superman is depicted shooting a heat ray into the machine to ‘cook’ the popcorn. It’s a clever and amusing design that evokes the playful style of classic Superman comics. What I especially like is that it captures the experience of going to the movies and getting popcorn, rather than simply recreating a moment from a movie.

This bucket is the most expensive I’ve seen yet, costing $80 – the same price as a new pair of AirPods. While I’d probably prefer the AirPods, this bucket has glowing blue eyes and can hold a ton of popcorn! I’m worried that super-expensive buckets like this will drive up the price of all popcorn buckets, making even basic ones more expensive. It’s a turning point for bucket design, though – a truly remarkable piece of bucket history.

The strengths of the characters in Wicked: For Good ultimately contribute to their failures. Elphaba’s deep empathy gives her power, but it also leads to a disappointing conclusion when she gives up her fight for justice and runs away with Fiyero. Glinda’s ability to charm others is a strength, but it makes her complicit in a troubling regime in Oz. Similarly, this Wicked: For Good popcorn bucket is brilliantly designed as a working music box—a unique souvenir that plays a delicate version of the song “For Good” as the two witches spin. However, its biggest flaw is that it plays music, which is a major no-no for any popcorn bucket brought into a movie theater. Like the witches themselves, the bucket is both beautiful and surprisingly complex.

I can’t understand why anyone would want a replica of Annabelle in their house, even if it came with popcorn! This doll is a very accurate and, frankly, terrifying recreation of the original demonic toy.

This appealing statue of the famously sassy android is missing arms and legs, so it can’t pose a threat. However, it’s accessorized with a cute neck bow and perfectly styled hair. The face cleverly opens to reveal a compartment for popcorn – a detail I imagine the scientist played by Allison Williams designed.

The bucket is simple and made of plastic, but it has a small, puppy-shaped Krypto hanging on the side, standing on his back legs with his paws over the edge. He’s adorable, but I worry his fluffy white fur won’t stay clean with all the greasy popcorn.

This bucket has a vintage design, not based on any particular movie. Alamo Drafthouse released it to promote a new PlayStation game, which is a clever way to give the game a “movie-like” feel. I wasn’t interested in the game itself, but the bucket was perfectly acceptable.

I’ve tested several light-up buckets, but this one creates a warm, lamp-like glow, unlike others that just have a few small lights. It’s a great size for a bedside or side table, and even includes a built-in cup holder for water. Plus, the dinosaur fetus design is surprisingly cozy!

As a total movie buff, I have to say this new SpongeBob bucket is brilliantly designed! It’s got a built-in cup, and SpongeBob looks adorable dressed as a pirate – those puffy sleeves are a sweet touch. But what really gets me is the scene it creates: SpongeBob actually sitting in a tiny movie theater seat, complete with cupholders, a drink, and a little bag of popcorn. It’s so reminiscent of those American Girl cafes, where you and your doll match and share a meal. Honestly, it feels like you’re bringing a little buddy to the movies to share your popcorn – you’d just access it through the cute little opening in the back of his chair! It’s a fun, clever design that really captures the movie-going experience.

When Rihanna’s hit song, the deep-house track for the 2025 Smurfs movie, “Friend of Mine,” played – and she sang, “Ooh, I think the word here is déjà vu” – that’s exactly how I felt reviewing two *Smurfsthemed popcorn buckets simultaneously, one from Cinemark and the other from Regal. Both buckets were bright, colorful, and clearly designed to appeal to kids. One featured Smurfette’s house with working shutters and a door, while the other showed Papa Smurf perched on an upside-down mushroom that rocked back and forth – which, unfortunately, made it pretty unstable and caused popcorn to spill once you started moving it.

A dinosaur head? For a Jurassic Park movie? Groundbreaking.

I initially mistook this bucket for a prop from an unknown Star Wars film, especially with the Predator character attached. If it had featured a clear image of Elle Fanning from Predator: Badlands, I would have immediately recognized it.

These three works greatly advanced the creative and technical aspects of filmmaking, and I wish I’d had a chance to experience them before now. I’m hoping to see this level of innovation continue in 2026.

The Fantastic 4 H.E.R.B.I.E. 3-in-1 Bucket

This $80 Marvel bucket is packed with treats – soda, candy, and popcorn! It also has fun features like buttons that project a Fantastic Four symbol or play music. It’s more like a toy than just a bucket, and I wish more expensive buckets were this engaging.

Freakier Friday Switcheroo Set

To promote the Freaky Friday sequel, Disney cleverly created some unique containers: a soda cup filled with popcorn and a popcorn bucket that actually held soda! I especially appreciate when promotional items connect to a movie’s themes in a creative way, rather than just being simple character or object replicas. This was a truly inventive idea.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t Disappearing-Popcorn Trick Bucket

The latest movie in Jesse Eisenberg’s series about stage magic features a bucket that’s also a clever trick. It’s so good, it reminds me of a magician! I could make a large popcorn vanish right in front of you with just about any bucket.

Before the massive popularity of movie buckets, they were simple souvenirs – usually tin or plastic pails with a movie logo, sold for a little extra money. Theme parks experimented with character-shaped buckets, like Baby Simba or Figment, but these were mostly sought after by dedicated Disney fans. Everything changed with the release of Dune: Part Two, when AMC created a $26 metal bucket designed to resemble the mouth of a sandworm emerging from the desert. While the idea was cool, the bucket actually looked…unfortunate. It resembled something unsettling, even a bit disturbing. Eating popcorn from it meant reaching your hand into a hole and grabbing kernels while feeling strange textures against your knuckles. Despite (or maybe because of) its shocking design, the bucket captured everyone’s attention, uniting moviegoers in a mix of fascination and disgust. It didn’t single-handedly save movie theaters, but it did launch a whole new trend in merchandise. Looking back, the Dune: Part Two sandworm bucket seems almost simple. It didn’t have lights or moving parts, and most of it was just a regular bucket shape. But it was the original – the one that paved the way for all the elaborate movie buckets we see today.

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2025-12-23 20:57