When the official account for the new Scary Movie posted an Instagram video and a static image on May 21 teasing popcorn buckets shaped like a bong, director Michael Tiddes weighed in on the frenzy with a single, plain response: "is real."
The reveal set off a scramble online. The bong-shaped bucket, shown in four sizes, prompted excited comments — one user wrote, "Finally, a multipurpose popcorn bucket!" while another declared, "First popcorn bucket I’ll have to fight to get" — and sent some fans dialing their local theaters to ask where and when they could buy one.
The pushback arrived within 24 hours. On May 22, Paramount said, "The popcorn buckets were created for promotional purposes and are not for sale." That same day, AMC Theatres told a news outlet that "it has no plans to release such popcorn buckets." Regal, Alamo Drafthouse, Showcase and Cinemark did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
The timing made the tease feel urgent: the new Scary Movie, billed as a spiritual successor that reunites the original cast, is set to return to theaters on June 5. Fans — some of whom said they had called their local amc theaters without much luck — quickly debated whether the buckets would turn up as a theater giveaway, a chain-exclusive souvenir or a limited online novelty.
That debate matters beyond a gimmick. The Scary Movie franchise has long leaned on weed-related imagery in its advertising and merch, and the sixth installment already carries a formal tie-in with Pax, the brand collaboration announced to promote the film. A prop that doubles as a novelty smoking device would fit that history — and help explain why the buckets, though real in the director’s view, were immediately framed by Paramount as purely promotional.
The friction is plain: the director’s offhand confirmation and the social-media tease drew demand in hours, yet the studio and the nation’s largest exhibitor moved to close the door the next day. Fans who called theaters reported little clarity; some speculated online that the items might be part of a limited online novelty collection that could go on sale later, but there is no confirmation of any retail offering and Paramount’s statement spells out the current position.
What comes next is straightforward. With Paramount saying the buckets were created for promotional purposes and not for sale, and with AMC Theatres saying it "has no plans to release such popcorn buckets," the likelihood that moviegoers will be able to buy the bong-shaped buckets at mainstream chains before or on the film’s June 5 return is low. The unanswered piece is whether the studio will convert the promotional pieces into a controlled online drop or a collectible later — a possibility the studio has neither confirmed nor denied.
For now, the viral item exists mostly as an internet image and a director’s short confirmation rather than a product customers can purchase at the box office. Fans itching for the novelty should expect the studio to control any future release; until Paramount or a retailer changes course, the buckets will remain promotional props, not theater merchandise.
