Movie theater’s weirdest survival tactics explained, and what’s worth watching this weekend

The struggle movie theaters face filling their seats has been long documented, and their attempts to stay afloat continue to get stranger and stranger.

Movie theaters have been releasing limited-edition popcorn buckets for their tentpole films over the past year, with the trend escalating rapidly. The concept is similar to a novelty cup from a baseball park, except much more eccentric and themed to the film it pairs with.

The latest example? The latest Mission: Impossible pairing itself with a bucket that requires a two-part cruciform key (a MacGuffin from the previous film) to unlock it. Others include a popcorn bucket modeled after a BabyBjorn for “Despicable Me 4” or one shaped as Wolverine’s head with a gaping mouth for “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

They come with a price tag between $25 and $65 because it’s all about getting as much money from each patron as possible. It won’t be long before movie theater trips cost as much as sporting events.

Now, Moviepass, a company that tried to simplify the movie ticket process by making it a monthly subscription, announced recently it is creating a fantasy football-type platform. This game will allow users to assume the role of an executive, predicting box office results, per-screen averages, review scores, and awards success for films. With tournaments and head-to-head matchups, it will operate like a legitimate fantasy sports league, in theory.

It’s bizarre, but when times are desperate, why not cheat off the most successful entertainment product in the country—the NFL. Multiple studies have found that fantasy football has led to higher NFL viewership. It led to more people watching the sport, and how much of the sport they consume per week, typically watching more than just their favorite team.

For reference, the NFL averages 9.2 million viewers per game. The NBA is second with 711,000 per game, while MLB ranks third with 398,000 average viewers.

We’ll see if these prove to be anything more than short-term gimmicks, but at least AMC theaters announced it has simply decided to reduce prices by 50% for certain weekdays (starting with Wednesday). The idea is to increase revenue during weekdays to avoid being so weekend-dependent.

Lowering prices is only what everyone has been asking for.

Here’s what’s new this weekend and what to watch.

What & How to Watch

On Peacock: Poker Face Season 2

Rian Johnson’s (“Knives Out,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) stylish case-of-the-week caper is back for a second season. Filled with Natasha Lyonne’s smoky voice, wide-ranging guest spots, and its crackling moment-to-moment action, once our protagonist Charlie Cale appears on screen, Season 2 keeps up the momentum its previous season delivered.

A modern detective procedural with clear inspirations from “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote,” episodes drop weekly as different cases come across Cale’s metaphorical desk. Previously nominated for four Emmys, winning one, “Poker Face” currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% score, two points higher than its debut season.

(And if you think everything on Rotten Tomatoes gets a ridiculously high score, “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” which hit theaters Friday, debuted with a 0% score.)

On Hulu: Welcome to Wrexham Season 4

Hollywood actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took over the third-oldest professional fútbol club in the world, Wales-based Wrexham AFC, in an attempt to turn its down-on-its-luck fortune around. 

And success Wrexham AFC has found under the improbable duo. Over the documentary series’ first three seasons, audiences got a behind-the-scenes look at sports management and ownership as the club got promoted three times. Now, by the start of Season 4, Wrexham AFC has been introduced to a suite of new issues.

Wrexham’s competition has never been fiercer since being promoted to the EFL League One, and the cost to stay competitive begins to weigh heavily on owners Reynolds and McElhenney. It also doesn’t help that Wrexham AFC has to spar with Birmingham City and its owner, Tom Brady, by the season’s second episode.

And there’s no need to be a die-hard fútbol fan in order to get swept up in the drama of “Welcome to Wrexham.”

On HBO Max: The Brutalist

For those not brave enough to take on “The Brutalist” and its maxamalist 216-minute runtime, now’s your chance with its streaming debut on HBO Max.

Adrien Brody became the fourteenth actor to win multiple lead acting Oscars for his performance as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who immigrates to the U.S. to escape war-torn Europe in 1947.

It can be a challenging film, filled with choices and decisions that can mess with the audience’s heads, but it’s, at times, unassailable in its mastery as a film. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards last year, this weekend could be the opportunity to watch what some have deemed the latest great American epic.

In theaters: Final Destination Bloodlines

The latest in this gorefest series of films would not normally be a recommendation here, but the movie opens with a sequence following a young couple dining at what’s dubbed the Skyview Restaurant. The eatery sits atop a tall, white tower with an exterior elevator that takes you all the way to the top, paired with a glass observation deck overlooking the city.

The movie doesn’t call it the Space Needle, but c’mon, there’s no way it isn’t. So, for those with the morbid curiosity of wondering what it would be like to be in the middle of a disaster atop Seattle’s shining monument, “Final Destination Bloodlines” scratches that itch.

As long as you understand “Final Destination” is a series of movies about people meant for death in increasingly gruesome and macabre ways, I can feel comfortable enough to mention it here.

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