AMC Theatres has revealed two new Dune: Part Three popcorn buckets, including a double-worm design built for two people sharing. The company is bringing back the sandworm gimmick that helped turn its Dune: Part Two bucket into a viral object of ridicule and fandom, this time with two collectibles tied to the film’s Dec. 18 release.
The new items are the Sandworm Thumper Collectible and the Double Sandworm Collectible for Dune: Part Three, and both come with a large popcorn. AMC said they will be sold at its locations in the United States and at Odeon Cinemas throughout Europe, with other film tie-ins in the lineup as well, including drinkware, mystery keychains and a Sandworm plush.
The reason the Dune 3 Popcorn Bucket is back in the conversation is simple: the first one traveled far beyond movie marketing. The AMC Sandworm popcorn bucket for Dune: Part Two became a viral phenomenon, helped fuel a wave of popcorn bucket collecting, and was mocked in a Saturday Night Live musical sketch for looking suggestive. That reaction followed the same object wherever it went, online and in theaters, even as fans kept treating it like the must-have souvenir of the year.
Marcus Gonzalez of the Zinc Group, which worked on the design, pushed back on the reading that the bucket was meant to be sexual. He said the innuendo was definitely not the intent, adding, “The worm’s the worm’s the worm.” The new Double Sandworm Collectible makes that point in its own way: it is set up as a shared design for two people, rather than a single bucket meant to stand alone, which is AMC’s clearest attempt to turn a joke into a sellable format.
What AMC still has not said is the price. That will be announced closer to the film’s Dec. 18 release date, though collectible buckets often sell for $25 to $50 and one recent movie bucket reached $80. Dune: Part Three is already showing strong advance sales, including at London’s BFI IMAX, where ticket sales beat a previous record set by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. For AMC, the question now is not whether the bucket will draw attention. It is how far that attention turns into sales once the price finally lands.
