Cinemark recently announced a partnership with Mike's Hot Honey to bring sweet heat to U.S. theaters for the first time in the honey's history. To learn more, we jumped on a phone call with David Haywood, SVP of food and beverage, Cinemark. 

Liz Parker: Can you talk about the Cinemark and Mike's Hot Honey collaboration—how did it come about, and what products will be available for moviegoers?

David Haywood: We were trying to figure out what would entice moviegoers to add a little bit of flair to their overall experience, and Mike's Hot Honey had been something that a lot of us had used personally in our personal lives. We were like: how would that work within a movie theater? One of our [team] reached out to the Mike's Hot Honey team and we started talking about how we could make it fun to be at the movie theaters, for Mike's Hot.

That led to us coming up with a lot of R&D. We're selling a ton of stuff like Mike’s Hot Honey loaded fries, wings, grilled chicken sandwiches, fried chicken sandwiches. We've even got it on some pizzas. We thought ‘Hey, you know what? This is working well for the food.' So then we said, 'You know—we could do something with the drinks as well.’

We created a Mike's Hot Honey shake. Not every idea was a winner, but we came up with some really fun things that our guests are sure to love.

LP: I always joke that Mike's Hot Honey has the most hardworking marketing team, because every other week we get news about their partnerships—they did a collaboration with Utz Potato Chips recently. 

DH: It is pretty amazing how how hard they work. We had Mike himself in one of our theaters last night enjoying a movie and enjoying some of his own Mike’s Hot Honey products.

LP: Have moviegoers been enjoying more spicy snacks lately?

DH: They really have. Our moviegoers have really proven to love snacks—last year we had about 2.6 million spice-enhanced items at the chain. [I] really think that it's a lot to do with the younger generation and the diversity in America that people love these wonderful snacks, and we just have to be more creative to be able to provide those.

LP: In general, what are some of the most popular snacks that moviegoers purchase? I'd imagine popcorn, right?

DH: Popcorn is obviously a fan favorite here—you can't go wrong with popcornbut [also some of] our legendary items, like hot dogs, and then movie theater nachos, which are really like no other nachos in any other marketplace. [And we] sell a variety of different candies. In the U.S., we actually did a fun promotion a year or two ago [in which] we identified [every state's favorite candy].

LP: How can movie theater concessions continue to evolve, to amplify the overall moviegoing experience?

DH: [This is] something that we look at every single day. The fun part about my job is that I get to discover something new every single day. My waistline shows it these days—but we push ourselves to explore the ‘what if.' We think of ourselves as movie lovers serving movie lovers, so we think—‘What would I want to eat?’ We’re working on a few different collaborations for next year that we're really excited about. You’ll hear a lot more about it soon, but we think that there's a whole new way to imagine what it means to [eat] at a movie theater, and we really want to be at the forefront, to take guests on this kind of culinary journey.

LP: Are there any other snack collaborations coming up for later in 2024 or early 2025?

DH: I'm not able to talk about them yet, but we're working with some very large brands right now. Some of it is a little bit more spice. And we're also playing in the dessert space, which we think is a fun thing. There are the traditional favorite snacks, as far as candy and ice cream and shakes, but there are ways to explore new and exciting ways to bring dessert to a movie theater.

Related: Club's Crisps, Mike's Hot Honey debut sweet-heat snack