AI image: Dune popcorn bucket with two sandworm heads on the lid, on a cinema counter
The Dune: Part Three popcorn bucket with two sandworms on the Tennispalatsi cinema counter in Helsinki – an illustration, not a photo taken at Tennispalatsi. According to Muropaketti, Finnkino has confirmed that some Dune popcorn products are coming to Finland, but it hasn’t said whether the Double Sandworm bucket is among them. (AI-generated illustration.)

Dune: Part Three gets a popcorn bucket with two sandworms – AMC did it again

About 5 min read

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Preview: AMC will announce bucket prices closer to the film’s release. This story is based on reports about AMC’s announcement; we haven’t seen the bucket ourselves.

Remember the 2024 Dune popcorn bucket that became the internet’s most talked-about piece of movie merch? US cinema chain AMC clearly wasn’t scared off by the meme storm, because Dune: Part Three is getting a bucket with not one but two sandworms. Two mouths rise from the lid of the Double Sandworm Collectible, and according to AMC, that makes sharing popcorn easier.

Key facts

  • Product: Double Sandworm Collectible popcorn bucket with two sandworm heads on the lid
  • The other new design: the Sandworm Thumper bucket with a working thumper
  • Sold by: AMC Theatres in the US and Odeon Cinemas in Europe
  • Included: each bucket comes with a large popcorn
  • Price: to be announced closer to release (the Dune: Part Two bucket was $24.99 plus tax)
  • Film release: 18 December 2026 in the US and 16 December 2026 in Finland, where it is titled Dyyni: Osa kolme

Two mouths, one lid

AMC revealed the buckets on 29 October 2026. The Double Sandworm does what the name says: two heads of Arrakis’s giant worms sit on the lid, and you reach the popcorn through either of the round, tooth-lined mouths. The idea is that two moviegoers can dig in at the same time.

The other new design is the Sandworm Thumper. The Fremen use thumpers in the desert to pound the sand and lure the worms, and on AMC’s bucket the thumper actually works. The range also includes a light-up Atreides–Fremen cup, a Spacing Guild navigator cup, mystery keychains and a sandworm plush.

According to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the buckets will be sold at AMC cinemas in the US and at Odeon Cinemas across Europe. Finland’s Finnkino also belongs to the AMC-owned Odeon Cinemas Group. According to the Finnish site Muropaketti, Finnkino has confirmed that some Dune popcorn products are coming to Finland, but it hasn’t said whether the Double Sandworm bucket is among them.

Why everyone’s talking: the previous bucket

The single-worm bucket for Dune: Part Two spread across the internet as a meme in early 2024. Plenty of people saw something other than a popcorn holder in its open mouth, and it even got its own Saturday Night Live sketch, in which a teenager played by Marcello Hernández sings to the bucket about some very inappropriate plans.

The bucket’s designer, Marcus Gonzalez of the Zinc Group, told the Wall Street Journal at the time that innuendo was never the intention: the worm is just a worm. Now that there are two mouths, the online reaction has been predictable. Comments collected by The Independent included the observation that the marketing team took the memes as notes and that nobody learned anything. More practical commenters doubted you could get a proper fistful of popcorn through such a narrow mouth.

Hank Green, AMC’s senior vice president of food and beverage, acknowledges that the previous bucket became a viral phenomenon. He says fan expectations were high as a result, and that the new designs come straight from the movie.

Buckets are big business

Collectible buckets aren’t just a joke. AMC CEO Adam Aron has projected that the chain will make more than $100 million from themed buckets this year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, collectible buckets often sell for $25 to $50. Recent AMC buckets include a Trojan horse for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and a red handbag for The Devil Wears Prada 2. The previous Dune bucket cost $24.99, but it sold for much more on resale sites such as eBay.

The film itself

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Three is based on Frank Herbert’s 1969 novel Dune Messiah and concludes Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy. Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, alongside Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa and Rebecca Ferguson, among others. The film opens in the US on 18 December 2026.

The Hilavitkutin verdict

A two-headed sandworm is either a brilliant sharing solution or a carefully calculated wink from the marketing team, and probably both. If the bucket makes it all the way to Finnkino, we’ll certainly take a close look. We might still not dare to put a hand in it, though.

Read also

Sources

  1. The Independent (30.10.2026): New Dune double-entry popcorn bucket raises eyebrows (accessed 1 Nov 2026)
  2. Variety (29.10.2026): ‘Dune 3’ Popcorn Bucket Has Two Sandworms That ‘Make It Easier to Share’ (accessed 1 Nov 2026)
  3. The Hollywood Reporter (29.10.2026): AMC’s Infamous ‘Dune’ Sandworm Popcorn Bucket Is Back for ‘Part Three’ (accessed 1 Nov 2026)
  4. Finnkino: About Finnkino (accessed 1 Nov 2026)
  5. Muropaketti (30.10.2026): Photos of the official Dune 3 popcorn bucket (in Finnish) (accessed 1 Nov 2026)