AMC to start home-delivering popcorn in case this whole "theater" thing doesn't pan out
The theater chain will begin partnering with home delivery chains next year to ensure that, even if you're avoiding the theater, you can still get your corn fix
The last few years have not—to put it mildly—been especially kind to the movie theater industry, a chain of business largely predicated on the idea of shoving hundreds of people into a small dark room and asking them to breathe each other’s mouth gasses for a couple of hours. (Films are also shown.) Now, it sounds like theater chain AMC has decided it might be time to diversify its market share in these troubled times, by offering consumers the one commodity it has an iron lock on. No, not movies; everybody has movies now. We’re talking here about movie theater popcorn.
That’s right: Per Variety, AMC is now preparing to skip that whole “come sit in our boxes” schtick, and simply provide home consumers and shoppers with the reason they actually make it out to the theater from time to time: The chance to guzzle down the salt-butter-corn (in that order) slurry that makes modern film-going such an artery-clogging treat.
Plans for AMC to get really and truly into the corn business will apparently solidify some time in 2022, including a partnership with home delivery services that will bring popcorn to your door, the better to enjoy whatever new films are debuting on HBO Max or some other streaming service in gluttonous peace. The chain also expects to start selling its popcorn in shopping malls—nice to see one horrifically mauled industry try to prop up another there—and eventually hopes to offer their corn in supermarkets, too.
And, really: This is one of those ideas that falls somewhere at the intersection of hilarious, sad, and totally brilliant. Certainly, there were times, over the last few years, where we were about to start streaming some film that should by all rights have been in theaters, and the craving for that slightly stale, totally decadent, bright yellow industrial popcorn started seeping deep into our bones. At the same time, there’s something very funny about the world’s biggest movie chain looking around at the burning wreckage of its once-great empire, shrugging its shoulders, and starting the popcorn machine popping. So it goes.