Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Gets a Popcorn Bucket That Has Fans Completely Divided
Few summer films have generated as much anticipation as ‘Disclosure Day,’ the long-awaited return of Steven Spielberg to the kind of alien-tinged spectacle that shaped his career. The film is scheduled to open in theaters and IMAX on June 12, 2026, and it marks what observers have called Spielberg’s first plunge back into alien-based sci-fi after a 20-year absence.
The project has been shrouded in deliberate mystery from the start. The plot has been intentionally kept under wraps since the film was first announced in April 2024, and even the early trailers revealed remarkably little about the story. The official premise asks audiences simply: if someone showed you proof that we were not alone in the universe, would that frighten you? It is a question that has kept fans spinning theories for months.
The cast assembled for the film includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, with most of their roles still tightly under wraps. Blunt plays an unnamed Kansas City meteorologist, and she has described the moment Spielberg called her about the part as so moving that she cried. The screenplay was written by David Koepp, whose previous collaborations with Spielberg include the scripts for ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘War of the Worlds,’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’
With the film closing in on its opening weekend, the marketing push has arrived in force. Just hours after the final trailer dropped and tickets went on sale, the movie’s official popcorn bucket was revealed. The item in question is not a slick alien-head design or a glowing spacecraft, but a stag-shaped sculptural piece with a red cardinal bird perched between its antlers, as seen in the image circulating online. It stands 16.75 inches tall, holds 85 oz, and is priced at $49.95.
Available only as an online pre-order and not in any physical theater location, the bucket is being sold through chains including Regal, AMC, Cinemark, and Cineplex. Pre-orders close on June 23, 2026, or whenever the limited supply runs out, with delivery beginning October 28. There will be only one production run, making this the single opportunity to secure the item, and customers are capped at three units per order with all sales final.
The stag bucket is just one piece of a growing collectible landscape around the film. Regal has also launched a separate in-theater Collectible Combo featuring a matte-black bucket with a glowing blue alien eye and the phrase “WE DESERVE TO KNOW” stamped across the front, with a clear acrylic window running down one side to let the popcorn inside remain visible. The design leans fully into the film’s themes of transparency and revelation.
Online reaction to the stag bucket has been genuinely split, with many fans openly puzzled about what a deer with a cardinal has to do with a movie about alien contact, while others suspect the imagery may connect to plot details still hidden from the public. Whether the stag is a red herring, a creature from the film itself, or something else entirely, it has done exactly what good marketing should do in the weeks before a release: keep people talking.
If you have a theory about what the deer actually means for the story of ‘Disclosure Day,’ now is the time to share it.
