How the popcorn bucket brought movie theaters back from the brink

A few years ago, sticking your buttery fingers into the mouth of Dune sandworm would have been the stuff of a fever dream. Today, it’s just part of the moviegoing experience.  In the past several months, a market for wacky popcorn buckets has taken the movies by storm, creating a new revenue stream—and, perhaps more importantly, source of hype—for theater companies. These “collectible concession vessels” (CCVs), as industry professionals call them, aren’t just regular buckets with...