AMC’s New Hello Kitty Popcorn Bucket Is a Wearable Backpack
AMC and Sanrio team up on a Hello Kitty backpack popcorn bucket and a 20oz cup with five mystery toppers, now rolling out at select theaters.
Sanrio’s biggest export has checked into the multiplex. AMC Theatres has quietly launched a new Hello Kitty collection at select locations, and it is easily one of the chain’s cutest concession tie-ins yet: a wearable backpack popcorn bucket and a 20oz collector’s cup packaged with a blind box topper. A promotional graphic spotted confirms the lineup is “now at select theaters,” though AMC has not issued a formal press release, so availability is still limited and location dependent.
The Hello Kitty Popcorn Bucket Works as Backpack
The headliner is a popcorn bucket shaped like Hello Kitty’s head and shoulders, complete with her signature red bow, yellow nose, and blue overalls. What sets it apart from a typical character bucket is the backpack functionality. The promotional art shows the piece from the back, revealing adjustable straps and an embroidered AMC logo, so guests can wear their popcorn instead of just carrying it. The bucket’s round white body doubles as the popcorn well, printed with a smaller Hello Kitty graphic and logo along the front. AMC has leaned into wearable and novelty buckets over the past few years (its Nightmare Before Christmas and Marvel lines among them), and this one continues that trend while giving the Sanrio fan base something built specifically for them rather than a licensed afterthought.
The 20oz Cup With Blind Toppers
Paired with the bucket is a 20oz plastic cup wrapped in a pastel Hello Kitty print, complete with a reusable straw. The twist is the topper: each cup ships as a mystery pull from a set of five, based on the characters shown in the promo art. Collectors can land Hello Kitty herself, Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, Keroppi, or Chococat, each rendered as a small figural topper that clips onto the straw opening. Blind packaging has become a reliable way for theater chains to turn a single drink purchase into a repeat one, and a five-character set is enough to make a full run genuinely tricky (and fun) to complete.
Hello Kitty Popcorn Bucket: Where, When, and Price
AMC’s graphic labels the promotion as arriving at “select theaters,” which typically signals a phased or regional rollout rather than a chain wide debut. Neither pricing nor an exact start date has been officially confirmed as of this writing. Guests who want to track one down should call ahead to their local AMC or check the concession stand app listing before making a special trip, since stock on backpack buckets in particular tends to move fast once a theater’s allocation goes on the shelf.
Currently, the Hello Kitty Popcorn Bucket is sold out online at AMC.com. However, guests lucky enough to find one should expect to pay $49.99.
More Collectible Buckets and Cups Worth Chasing
Hello Kitty isn’t the only character getting the wearable treatment lately, and mystery toppers have become a theme park and theater staple all their own. A few recent releases worth a look:
- AMC’s Transformers: The Movie 40th anniversary popcorn tin, cup, and blanket
- Woody’s Boot popcorn bucket from Disney On Ice
- Cars 20th anniversary popcorn buckets and cup, arriving in theaters September 7
- The Boo to You Halloween popcorn bucket and drink sipper at Disney World
- McDonald’s Hello Kitty x Godzilla Happy Meal toys
For more theme park-related news and information, visit MSM News.
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