Will Hollywood Go Gaga Over Pop-Up Marketing?

Forget popcorn buckets. What about exclusive jackets tied to December’s hippest film?

Hollywood struck gold by pairing new releases with specialty popcorn buckets.

Our Avatar: Fire and Ash Banshee popcorn bucket is now available in theatres! pic.twitter.com/t9QpRTxTti

— Cinemark Theatres (@Cinemark) December 2, 2025

At a time when the theatrical experience looks wobbly and streamers aren’t cashing in as expected, the good news proved more than welcome.

Collider noted how BucketMania is boosting the film industry.

The eventizing of movies has always been a priority, both for studios and theater chains; the more a movie is ingrained into pop culture— whether it be through memes, advertising, or otherwise— the more casual audiences feel the need to venture out to the cinema. Nobody wants FOMO, and popcorn buckets provide that extra incentive to get even the biggest couch potatoes out of the house for the latest Hollywood epic.

But why stop there?

“Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet recently appeared at a trendy New York store to promote his Dec. 25 film. And, in the process, he helped hawk fancy jackets tied to the Josh Safdie film.

… the line to buy “Marty” merch snaked back for over two blocks, slowly funneling the throng to purchase $250 wind-breakers and $95 sweatpants bearing the title of a movie that most, if not all of them, will not see until it is released on Christmas Day.

You can’t just drop an A-list star like Chalamet into dozens of cities, of course. But the Big Apple event likely got a boost from social media users sharing clips from the appearance.

Chalamet isn’t the only star to try the pop-up approach.

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, playing a married couple in the somber romance “Song Sung Blue,” broke out their pipes in, where else, New York City earlier this week.

The duo dropped in at the Aussie pub Old Mates where the couple crooned a few numbers from the Neil Diamond songbook. “Song Sung Blue” (Dec. 25) follows a Diamond tribute band through the ups and downs of their middle-aged careers.

The event drew more star power, including appearances by Chris Rock, Christian Slater and Zoey Deutch.

Hollywood marketers are scrambling to make movies “events,” much like the mania surrounding “Barbenheimer” two years ago. Popcorn buckets tied to flashy films nudged Hollywood in that direction.

It also helps to get a social media push, a la “A Minecraft Movie’s” signature scene from earlier this year.

That kind of digital synergy is all but impossible to predict. Pop-up events, in comparison, give marketers a chance to catch social media lightning in a bottle.

So, you’re saying there’s a chance…

Now, compare that to a once-common practice of flying stars hither and yon to promote their projects. This journalist interviewed dozens of stars in both D.C. and Denver over the past 20-odd years. The actors would fly in for a day, chat with a dozen or more local journalists, then jet off to another mid-sized city to repeat the process.

If that practice continues, it now excludes Denver. It’s more likely that stars embrace virtual press conferences instead, where marketing teams have more control over the flow of questions and travel costs are minimal.

Times change. So does Hollywood marketing. We’ll have to see how people react to viral videos tied to recent pop-up events to learn if more stars will appear in a city near you … or just the Big Apple.