The Next Thing to Be Ruined: Movie Theater Popcorn

If canceled flights and sky-high gas prices have led you to decide on a movie-filled staycation instead this summer, we're about to rain on that parade, too. While the big movies are back in theaters—Insider flags the coming Jurassic World: Dominion in particular—some other things are in short supply: among them, popcorn. So reports the Wall Street Journal, which talks to the head of Preferred Popcorn, which sources kernels from about 150 farmers. Norm Krug tells the Journal that he's been forced to pay those farmers more to keep farming popcorn, as crops like soybeans become more lucrative for them (and don't involve the use of the same costly fertilizers, which are just getting pricier due to the war in Ukraine).

Even with that higher pay, he fears the output won't match that of previous years. But that's just one issue: Another is having enough truckers to get the popcorn kernels where they need to go, and a third is the bags the popped corn comes in. It turns out the material that lines the bags in is in short supply, too, so much so that some theaters are opting to serve the snack in plastic and metal containers. As for soda, cups are a problem, to such a degree that the Journal reports some theaters are buying up what closing theaters have left over, rivals' logos and all. (Read the full story.)