AMC has unveiled a new Dune-themed popcorn bucket for movie fans, and it has raised eyebrows – again.
The third installment of the sci-fi movie, out in U.S. cinemas December 18, will be based on Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel Dune Messiah, the second book in the original Dune series.
To celebrate Dune: Part Three, AMC theaters have released a new popcorn container – the Double Sandworm Collectible – displaying two sandworm heads, the huge creatures native to the desert planet Arrakis in the Dune universe.
Last year, AMC released a similar container with just one sandworm head, which sparked NSFW comparisons to a sex toy and was parodied in an SNL sketch, in which comic Marcello Hernández played a frisky teenager singing to the bucket about his sexual fantasies.
The double sandworm bucket, designed for sharing, has sparked similar reactions, with some onlookers saying that the marketing team knew “exactly what they were doing” the second time around.
“The marketing team took the memes as notes,” said one onlooker on X, as one added: “Two worms now. They learned nothing.”
“Dune popcorn buckets have officially become their own franchise. Somewhere Villeneuve is reviewing bucket concept art with the same intensity as the sandworms,” said another while someone else wrote, “I am never putting my hand in there!”
Another poked fun at the sharing option for the new holder, saying: “What if we held hands in the Dune 3 popcorn bucket?”
Others were more concerned with the practicality of the design. One person said: “You can’t even take a proper fistful of popcorn through that thing.”
In 2024, The Dune: Part Two bucket’s creator, Marcus Gonzalez of the Zinc Group, told the Wall Street Journal that sexual innuendo “was definitely not the intent,” and explained, “The worm’s the worm’s the worm.”
Collectable buckets are big business for movie theaters, and AMC chief Adam Aron previously projected the company will make more than $100 million selling themed buckets this year. Other recent designs include a Trojan horse for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and a red purse for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
“The AMC Sandworm popcorn bucket for Dune: Part Two became a viral phenomenon, and we knew that Dune fans would have high expectations for what came next,” said Hank Green, AMC’s senior VP of food and beverage, told Variety.
“From the moment we started planning the Dune: Part Three collectibles, our goal was to exceed those fan expectations. The Sandworm Thumper and Double Sandworm collectibles take the experience to the next level with designs straight from the movie.”
Dune, based on Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel, follows Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet, whose family becomes embroiled in a struggle for control of Arrakis, a desert planet that holds the key to the galaxy’s most valuable resource. The third installment will star Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa and Rebecca Ferguson.
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