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Oct 14, 2024

Netflix Launches Its Own Line of Popcorn

By Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix will now sell you a ready-to-eat bag of popcorn to go with your ready-to-binge TV show. The streamer is teaming with popcorn company Popcorn Indiana for the

By Todd Spangler

NY Digital Editor

Netflix will now sell you a ready-to-eat bag of popcorn to go with your ready-to-binge TV show.

The streamer is teaming with popcorn company Popcorn Indiana for the new line of Netflix’s Now Popping snacks. The two flavors are “Cult Classic Cheddar Kettle” and “Swoonworthy Cinnamon Kettle.” The Netflix-branded popcorn will be available at Walmart stores nationwide and at other retailers; Popcorn Indiana has a locator search for where to buy it at this link.

An 8-ounce bag of Netflix Now Popping costs $4.49, according to grocery chain Shoprite. That means if you buy one bag of each flavor, you’ll already have paid more than the monthly cost of the Netflix Basic plan with ads ($6.99/month in the U.S.).

Netflix likely doesn’t expect to suddenly start making a bucketful of money by selling snacks — rather, the more important part of this is getting its brand in front of shoppers at thousands of retail outlets. Note that AMC Theatres also has its own line of popcorn, launched in 2021 as a bid to extend its branding and perhaps make some extra revenue after movie theaters suffered a dramatic drop-off during the pandemic.

SEE ALSO: Netflix to Open Massive Entertainment, Dining and Shopping Complexes in Two Cities in 2025

Meanwhile, Netflix’s Now Popping isn’t the first food-related brand extension for the company. In 2020, it inked a deal with Ben & Jerry’s, which introduced Netflix & Chilll’d flavor (peanut butter ice cream with sweet-and-salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownies). That’s still available on store shelves.

A “movie night and popcorn go together like a hot dog and a bun, ice cream and sprinkles, or a beach day and a lounge chair,” the streamer said in announcing the popcorn line. “That’s why Netflix and Popcorn Indiana have teamed up to debut Now Popping, a new ready-to-eat popcorn line available to snack on now.”

Among other moves it has made to instantiate the Netflix brand IRL, the company — famously averse to long theatrical release windows — now runs three movie theaters: New York’s Paris Theater, the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades, Calif. And in 2025, it plans to launch entertainment, restaurant and retail complexes (dubbed “Netflix House”) in Dallas and King of Prussia, Pa., occupying more than than 100,000 square feet each at abandoned department store locations.

Popcorn Indiana was started by “a team of folks out of the Northeast” and named after the small town of Popcorn, Ind., according to its website. In 2017, Cleveland-based Eagle Foods acquired Popcorn Indiana and the product is now produced at a single facility located in Waukegan, Ill.

Netflix announced the new popcorn line as part of touting its summer lineup of TV shows, movies and games. Those include the third and final season of “Vikings: Valhalla” and new seasons of “Too Hot to Handle” and “Barbecue Showdown”; rom-com “A Family Affair” starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King and Zac Efron; and “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” starring Eddie Murphy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

As for what’s next: perhaps a Demogorgon-shaped Netflix popcorn bucket?