'Dune: Part 2' is going viral for its popcorn bucket that some joke is NSFW
By: NBC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Jan. 28, 2024, 9:11 PM UTCBy Angela Yang
"Dune: Part 2" is going viral more than a month before its scheduled release in theaters — for reasons that have nothing to do with the movie. It was the film's purported promotional popcorn bucket that turned into immediate meme fodder for its … questionable design.
Covering the bucket is a lid fashioned to look like a replica of a sandworm — the giant extraterrestrial creatures from Arrakis, a fictional planet featured in the "Dune" novels and movies. The sandworm's open mouth consists of a ring of long, sharp "teeth" with a small hole in the middle, where a hand could reach inside and grab popcorn.
But that's not the use case that crossed people's minds when photos of the bucket circulated online this weekend. Instead, internet users had a field day comparing the lid to a fleshlight and joking about engaging in sexual activity with the bucket.
"Just hear me out for a minute," one X user wrote in a reply that accumulated 12,000 likes.
"Six pumps of butter, hold the popcorn," another user wrote to 11,000 likes.
"Someone's getting fired," a TikTok user joked in a video sharing photos of the bucket. "I mean, from the side, great. But then you see it from another angle — this is gonna be a high-demand popcorn bucket."
Some online even speculated the film's marketing team "knew what they were doing." Whether that's true or not, the unconventional bucket's virality succeeded in getting people talking: "Dune 2" quickly shot into X's trending topics over the weekend.
Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The buckets will be available starting Feb. 29, according to a social media post by AMC Theaters. That would make "Dune: Part 2," set to premiere March 1, the latest film to tout collectible popcorn tins as part of the moviegoing experience.
As major blockbusters and concert films brought millions of people back into movie theaters over the past year, many flocked to purchase a pink Corvette convertible popcorn container before seeing "Barbie." Others were eager to snag an "Eras Tour" or "Renaissance Tour"-themed popcorn bucket and drink cup when viewing Taylor Swift's and Beyonce's respective concert films, the containers becoming just another limited-edition item in fans' merch collections.
The sandworm popcorn bucket is also not the first popcorn container to spark creative interpretations. When the "Mean Girls" musical movie opened in theaters this month, it also came with a Burn Book-themed popcorn tin — which much of the internet immediately saw to be a perfect box for their weed stash.
For many moviegoers, the unintended, memeworthy interpretations of these collectibles are part of the fun. As one X user riffed, "mean girls popcorn weed box daughter or dune 2 popcorn fleshlight son?"
Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.
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A marketing fail, maybe.