The movie industry was completely shaken up by the worldwide pandemic. The spread of the virus shut down film sets, impacted production schedules, movie stars caught COVID-19, and movie theaters struggled to get back on their feet after being forced to shut down. But now last thing to cross anyone’s mind is also taking a hit: popcorn.
While microwave popcorn sales have seen a significant surge over the past few months, movie popcorn is understandably struggling. Of course, that’s taking into account that movie popcorn is the same kind served at sports games, local fairs, concerts and most large public events, all of which have been severely affected by the pandemic.
As highlighted by The Washington Post, 70% of popcorn consumed in the United States is eaten at home, while the remaining 30% share is sold at movie theaters and other public events. Brands like Act II, Jolly Time, Pop Secret, Orville Redenbacher and other microwaveable products get to reap the benefits of people spending extra time binging at home; it’s quite the contrary for other large and small scale farmers, whose product usually ended up on the floors of cinemas but now are left without anyone to sell to.
One example of this is Preferred Popcorn, a company headed by farm owning families. Preferred Popcorn sources their product from over 100 farmers spread across the Midwest, and normally sells over half their corn directly to movie theater chains or distributors in charge of making sure there’s plenty of snacks in stock for moviegoers. Since these companies lack the machinery necessary for retail packaging, they’ve been forced to either outsource new ways to get their product out there or find new storage space for it.
Years of market tradition had made it usual business for these companies to rely on sales from customers that flooded theaters to see all the new summer blockbusters and festivals, and then get another boost in winter, as people grew eager to see all the films making a buzz during awards season. However, as the pandemic has taught many, not even the 50 year long-running business scheme of movie popcorn is safe from its reach.
Source: The Washington Post
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