The popcorn bucket wars are heating up.
After high-profile entries from Alien: Romulus and Deadpool & Wolverine, Gladiator II has entered the arena — or more accurately, entered with the arena.
The movie’s official social media accounts today featured a video of “The AR-ena Popcorn Bucket,” which is lap-sized, circular Roman Colosseum perfect for holding plenty of that titular concession. The item comes equipped with an QR code that, when scanned, conjures up a visualized gladiator battle. The promo language invites fans to “finish the popcorn, scan the code, and let the games begin.”
And it’s not just popcorn promos for Gladiator II.
Last month, Pepsi dropped their “Roman Empire” TV spot featuring featuring Queen’s “We Will Rock You” with Megan Thee Stallion and tied to the new Ridley Scott-directed Paramount sequel.That spot was produced by Ridley Scott Associates, Paramount Brand Studio and directed by Jake Scott in collaboration with Paramount Pictures.
The campaign is entitled “Make Your Gameday Epic,” and meant to coincide with start of the NFL season. It features Megan Thee Stallion as Empress Megan along with NFL superstars turned Gridiron Gladiators Josh Allen, Derrick Henry, Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelce, who are locked in an epic battle with Pepsi at the heart of the action. The spot features Saturday Night‘s Lamorne Morris and Apples Never Fall actor Jake Lacy, as well.
There’s also a limited line of collector Talking Cans featuring Pepsi’s Gladiator talent with built-in Augmented Reality capabilities that bring the can characters to life via content captured on-set. The cans will hit store shelves in early November. There’s also a Fandango $10M movie reward toward a Gladiator II ticket after consumers buy $20 of Pepsi products.