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Dune 3's Popcorn Buckets Are Back — And Wilder Than Ever
AMC and Cineplex are selling two new sandworm popcorn buckets for Dune: Part Three, including one that vibrates.
#Dune 3’s Popcorn Buckets Return — Bigger, Bolder, and More Outrageous!
The sandworm popcorn bucket is back, and it brought reinforcements.
Ahead of Dune: Part Three, AMC and Cineplex have unveiled two new collector popcorn buckets that are, somehow, even more suggestive than the original 2024 design that broke the internet. Movie theatres have officially decided that subtlety is not a marketing strategy.
Two Worms Are Better Than One
AMC's new offering features a "shareable" tub with not one sandworm but two — positioned, per AMC's own description, to make it "easier to share." The internet has taken that framing and run with it.
Cineplex, Canada's largest theatre chain, is going a step further with an updated version of the original single-sandworm bucket. This one comes with a functional "sandworm thumper" — the in-universe device used to pound desert sand and lure the creatures to the surface. The key detail: it vibrates.
The Original Set the Bar Low Enough to Trip Over
The first sandworm bucket launched alongside Dune: Part Two in 2024 and immediately became one of the most memed pieces of movie merchandise in recent memory. Director Denis Villeneuve summed up his reaction in a New York Times interview: "Hoooooly smokes. What the [expletive]!?"
Saturday Night Live even ran a sketch riffing on the bucket's more unconventional potential uses — confirming that, yes, everyone online was thinking the exact same thing.
Canadians Are Already in the Comments
Cineplex's Instagram post announcing the new designs drew the kind of engagement that marketing teams dream about. "Double the worms double the fun," one commenter wrote. "Me ordering 12 of them," posted another.
Over on X, reactions ranged from romantic to chaotic: "Holding my wife's hand in the Dune 3 popcorn bucket, you sick freaks should take notes," one user joked.
The Novelty Bucket Arms Race Is Real
Theatrical popcorn containers have been a thing for decades — limited-edition tins, shaped buckets, oversized cups. But the viral success of the original Dune bucket appears to have inspired a full-blown arms race among theatre chains. Other recent standouts include a transparent bucket for You Can See Everything, a giant dinosaur footprint container for Jurassic World Rebirth, and a red handbag for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
For Canadians heading to Cineplex for Dune: Part Three, the vibrating sandworm thumper bucket will be waiting at the concession stand. Whether you buy one for the popcorn or the bragging rights is entirely your business.