Microwave popcorn companies have seen a huge increase in sales compared to last year, with more people staying at home to watch movies via streaming.
At-home popcorn sales are being given a significant boost thanks to the movie theater industry shutdown. Theaters like AMC and Cinemark across the United States may be staying closed due to the coronavirus, but that’s not stopping the movie snack industry from popping off. The delay of several summer blockbusters like Tenet also means viewers are turning to streaming for their primary entertainment, leaving movie theaters a little salty.
In interviews with Variety, various at-home popcorn brands stated that they’d seen a considerable increase in the amount of popcorn this year. President of Jolly Time popcorn company Garry Smith reports that the company experienced a 40% increase in microwave popcorn sales in the first six weeks of quarantine. And since Jolly Time only takes up 3% of the market, that’s just one small kernel in the bucket - larger companies like Act II and Orville Redenbacher have experienced up to 57% increase in sales compared to last year. When combined, the top microwave popcorn companies are looking at a delicious profit of $922 million from May 2019 to May 2020.
The leaders behind these popcorn companies are the first to state that COVID-19 has directly impacted their sales. Ashley Lind, director of demand science for Orville Redenbacher and Act II, points out how popcorn is already a staple snack for at-home movie viewing. “We had seen prior to the pandemic that as people were spending more time in front of all of these devices, they were also consuming more snack foods,” Lind said. With the increase of at-home movie premieres like the upcoming Mulan release on Disney+, packaged popcorn companies have plenty more time to eat up revenue like, well, popcorn.