AMC Theatres’ top brass has misgivings about the Dune popcorn bucket

Dune: Part Two is a sprawling sci-fi epic that The Verge’s Charles Pulliam-Moore called “categorically breathtaking” in his March review. And for AMC moviegoers, the film came with an equally epic exclusive popcorn bucket — one that, apparently, the top brass at AMC Theatres wishes it had never made.

That’s because it kind of looks like a butthole. And the internet noticed. Elizabeth Frank, AMC’s chief content officer, told Variety in an interview published on Monday that collectible popcorn buckets are “a material part” of the company’s food and beverage business. But she said the company “would have never imagined the ‘Dune’ thing” and wouldn’t have made the bucket topper if it had known “it would be celebrated or mocked.”

The internet adored the bucket and its gaping maw filled with baleen. But its mouth also drew the forbidden low-hanging fruit of fleshlight jokes when pictures of it emerged. TikTok had a great time with it, of course, but it also made mainstream entertainment — see Stephen Colbert and Dune: Part Two star Josh Brolin dancing around the obvious by demonstrating how to get your hand into it. Or Saturday Night Live’s shameless reveling in a skit about a high schooler losing his virginity to the sandworm bucket:

The bucket is a collector’s item now — because of course it is. Plenty of recent eBay listings ended over $100. That’s a nice return on a $25 investment at the theater, but I do hope the people buying it are taking extra care when looking at the pictures on the listings. You know, in case it was used.