When people think about movie theaters, they rarely think about food. Sure, you can get a hot dog, some chicken tenders, or maybe a lousy pizza, but efforts to make eating a meal part of the movie-going experience have largely failed.
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Yes, there are specialty theater chains like Studio Movie Grill that offer restaurant-quality meals, but those are niche operations, not the norm. In most cases, when people go to the movies, they want candy or the one thing that towers above all others in a movie theater, filling the air with its scent -- popcorn.
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Movie theater popcorn has long been the traditional treat people have while watching a film and in recent years some theaters have gone beyond just offering the classic version with butter. Many AMC Entertainment (AMC) - Get Free Report theaters have been selling flavors of popcorn including cheddar cheese and caramel corn.
Now, McDonald's (MCD) - Get Free Report has looked to this modern spin on a classic movie theater treat for its latest dessert offering. The fast-food giant has integrated popcorn -- specifically caramel corn -- into its iconic McFlurry and brought the new treat to its menu in Canada for a limited time.
McDonald's McFlurry is vanilla soft serve with a mix-in. It's basically a Dairy Queen Blizzard that's only offered in very limited flavors.
That actually seems like an odd choice because McDonald's could shake up its menu more often simply by adding a new mix-in. The company has only done that on a very limited basis (perhaps because of the legendary unreliable nature of the McFlurry) machine, but when it does add a new flavor, its customers are generally eager to try it.
Its Canadian customers will likely be excited about its latest take on the classic dessert, which was reported by Brand Eating.
"McDonald's Canada's Caramel Popcorn McFlurry features vanilla soft serve mixed with caramel sauce and caramel popcorn. The new McFlurry flavor is available for a limited time now at participating locations in Canada," according to the food news blog.
While Wendy's (WEN) - Get Free Report and Restaurant Brands International's (QSR) - Get Free Report have regularly added new limited-time-offers (LTOs) McDonald's has done that very sparingly in the United States. That's largely because the company has been focusing on growing its digital operations.
CEO Chris Kempczinski talked about those efforts, which are part of its overarching "Accelerate the Arches" program during the company's first-quarter earnings call.
"With Accelerating the Organization, we're now structured to work much more seamlessly in a horizontal fashion to solve these problems once and then scale solutions across markets, for example, is our app offering a seamless and personalized user experience. We're continuing to increase our speed of service," he said.
Basically, the company has changed its structure so that it tackles problems across the world, not just in siloed regional groups.
"Our biggest challenges and opportunities are rarely limited to just one market," he added.
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