I wanted to take a moment to celebrate another enormously successful National Popcorn Day for cinemas across North America! Social media lit up on Sunday, January 19th with a wide range of creative promotions tailored to the most popular movie snack there is. Among all of the exhibitors’ creative campaigns, here are select highlights:
- Cinemark’s Bring Your Own Bucket Campaign spurred moviegoers to come up with an eclectic mix of vessels: from kitchen pots to duffle bags to trick-or-treat buckets.
- Cineplex didn’t stop at one day. They offered moviegoers in their SCENE+ loyalty club a free small popcorn all weekend long.
- Premiere Cinemas brought an element of chance to National Popcorn Day by giving customers Scratch & Win tickets that offered prizes ranging from one bag of popcorn to Popcorn for a Year.
- AMC had moviegoers coming back for more by offering unlimited refills on any size popcorn.
- Families showed up dressed in their pajamas in order to get a free popcorn at Warehouse Cinemas.
- D’Place Entertainment offered a special card for sale on National Popcorn Day that comes with free popcorn for the rest of 2025.
- The Philadelphia Film Society held a poster contest that encouraged their customers to incorporate popcorn into collectible posters.
- USA Today, The TODAY Show, NPR News, New York PIX 11 and NBC Bay Area featured specific stories on National Popcorn Day.
- National Popcorn Day caught the attention of Flight Risk star Mark Wahlberg: the actor sent out a message celebrating the day on Instagram.
- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences released a video highlighting some times that popcorn has appeared in the movies instead of just being enjoyed at the movies.
Bryan Braunlich
Executive Director, The Cinema Foundation
