‘They did me the same way with the Mean Girls popcorn bucket’: Customer says AMC didn’t give her the souvenir for exclusive ‘Inside Out 2’ showing. Viewers suspect something shady

An attendee of an Inside Out 2 Fan Event is calling out AMC Theatres, saying they didn’t give her the keychain promised in the promotion. TikToker Kayla (@thek.print) shared her frustration in a viral video posted on June 16.

The Pixar film premiered on June 14, and AMC held the Inside Out 2 RealD 3D Fan Event as a promotion on June 16 in select AMC theaters across the country. Purchasing tickets to the event promised a 3D screening of the film, plus one of nine mystery keychains based on the movie’s characters.

In her video, Kayla describes arriving at her select theater, being handed her 3D glasses, and then receiving a confused reaction from staff when she asks for her keychain.

“Here’s my ticket. Why am I here, and they don’t have it?” she asks.

Kayla also expressed that the staff’s reaction made her feel crazy, noting that their response upset her the most about the situation.

“And I think what’s making me even more mad—I don’t like when people look at me crazy,” she says. “So they give me my 3D glasses, and I’m like, ‘Where’s my keychain?’ They’re like, ‘What keychain? We don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

@thek.print #greenscreen like please be so frrrrrr #thekprint #amc #amctheaters #insideout #insideout2 #reald3d #insideout2fanevent #pixarfilms #moviesuggestions #movierecommendation #solodate #solomoviedate ♬ original sound - Kayla’s Archives????????

Commenters posit theories on AMC's missing collectibles

Her initial clip has over 360,000 views. Users in the comments sympathized, offered similar experiences, and posited theories about why AMC collectibles went missing so quickly.

“They did that to me. They ended up just putting the free gift for the fan event out on the counter for people to grab,” one user said. “So no one at the event got anything. I stopped attending them.”

“They did me the same way with the Mean Girls popcorn bucket talking they didn’t receive any,” another user added. “I got my money back and emailed them to send me one.”

“We went to see Inside Out and ALL the popcorn buckets were gone. They don’t hold them until the movie opens,” a third commenter said. “They put out the Haunted Mansion ones out 2 weeks before the movie came out.”

A top commenter urged Kayla to complain to AMC corporate. “Too many of these employees steal it and then resell them smh,” they finished. 

This isn’t the first time guests felt disrespected while attending a screening of the recent Pixar movie. Just a few days ago, a guest waiting for Inside Out 2’s rumored post-credits scene posted a TikTok claiming a staff member pressured them to leave the theater early so he could clean up.

Kayla made an update video Friday, in which she elaborates on the incident and responds to negative comments.

“Clearly, it’s not just me—AMC’s been getting away with this for a long time. All the people in the comments talking about their experience, it’s sickening,” she says. She goes on to clarify that she knows it didn’t have anything to do with the staff themselves, but that she still found their behavior disrespectful.

“The only due diligence they owed me was to be respectful,” she says. “A simple, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’m sorry,’ would have sufficed.”

In an additional follow-up clip, Kayla says she followed commenters’ advice and reached out to AMC on Twitter and Instagram. The TikToker also emailed AMC corporate, calling out the seemingly common issue she and many commenters have faced. 

However, she says her attempts to secure a keychain or a refund were fruitless. “It’s giving lawsuit,” she says.

“You either need to give me a refund, because I literally paid for this, or you need to cough up the keychains,” Kayla urges.

@thek.print They didn’t even offer me a refund ????????#thekprint #amc #amctheaters #insideout #insideout2 #insideout2fanevent #pixar #disneypixar #pixarfilms #scammeralert #scammed #insideout2keychain ♬ original sound - Kayla’s Archives????????

What’s the deal with AMC collectibles?

Between the viral Dune 2 popcorn bucket and the aforementioned Mean Girls popcorn tin, AMC collectibles have become something of a phenomenon over the past year. 

While AMC Theatres have been doing tie-in collectible promotions and popcorn buckets for years, they’ve recently upped their game, with exclusive events, more elaborate detail, and higher prices.

An article from Jeremy Fuster at The Wrap speculates that the company is focusing on collectibles to make up for lost revenue, and notes that if that’s the case, it’s working. Fuster examined the AMC yearly financial report for 2023 and found that collectible popcorn buckets and merchandise generated $54 million of AMC’s revenue that year.

Considering that 2023 saw the release of Barbie and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, both event movies with huge fan bases, this makes sense. 

But, as Kayla and her commenters noticed above, there have also been issues with the AMC collectible economy. Whether it be manufacturing problems that cause the staff extra work, or scarcity issues that have fans waiting up to three hours online to buy exclusive merch bundles, there’s no shortage of issues individual AMC theaters face when it comes to novelty goods.

Like most collectibles, the AMC buckets also generated a large online resale market. Recent Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire buckets are selling for up to $65 on eBay, and according to Bailey Richards at People, the infamous Dune Part 2 buckets have been listed anywhere between $40 and $800. Reselling frustrates many casual theatergoers, as it inflates prices of limited edition items, and intensifies artificial scarcity.

As of publication, there are no known cases of employees reselling the Inside Out 2 Fan Event merchandise.

The Daily Dot reached out to Kayla for comment via TikTok direct message and email, and to AMC via Facebook and email.

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