Purchasing popcorn at the movie theater is not a healthy option if you are concerned about the amount of calories, fat or sodium you consume. Many big movie theater chains use coconut oil to pop their corn, according to the 2009 "USA Today" article, Movie Theater Popcorn: You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll get fat!" This oil is high in saturated fat and contributes to an increase in calories. If you must have popcorn at the movie theater, choose a kid-sized portion without butter and refrain from adding more salt to the product.
Serving Information
Movie theaters sell popcorn in a variety of sized bags and containers. The sizes include a child's 5-cup serving, small 7-cup, medium 11-cup and large16- or 20-cup serving. Container and bag sizes may vary between each theater chain. The nutritional information listed for movie theater popcorn represents the entire container as one serving.
Calories
The child's-size popcorn has 300 calories for unbuttered popcorn and 470 calories for buttered popcorn. A small container of popcorn has 400 calories for unbuttered popcorn and 630 calories for buttered popcorn. Medium-size movie theater popcorn has 650 calories for unbuttered popcorn and 910 for buttered popcorn. The large bucket of movie theater popcorn has 1,160 calories for unbuttered popcorn and 1,640 calories for buttered popcorn. The caloric values are approximate and may vary at each theater chain.
Carbohydrates
The carbohydrate value for movie theater popcorn varies depending on the container size. The child's popcorn has approximately 25 g carbohydrates while the large bucket has approximately 90 g. There is approximately 5 g fiber in the child's popcorn. A large bucket has up to 20 g fiber. The carbohydrate value may vary with each movie theater chain.
Fat and Protein
Child-sized movie theater popcorn without butter has approximately 14 g saturated fat and 20 g total fat. With butter, it has 22 g saturated fat and 37 g total fat. A large-sized bucket of popcorn without butter has approximately 55 g saturated fat and 77 g total fat. The large bucket with butter has 73 g saturated fat and 126 g total fat.
A few movie theaters use canola oil instead of coconut oil to make their popcorn. This lowers the saturated fat in the popcorn but does not affect the total calories. Small-size movie theater popcorn has approximately 8 g protein while a large has 16 g. The total fat and protein values may vary with each movie theater chain.
Vitamins and Minerals
Movie theater popcorn does not contain significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Small-sized popcorn has 2 percent of the recommended daily value for iron based on a 2,000-calorie diet. The iron value increases slightly with larger popcorn sizes. Movie theater popcorn is high in sodium. A small-sized container has approximately 150 mg of sodium. This value increases with larger popcorn sizes. The sodium value does not account for consumer added salt before eating.
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