Pop Goes The Easel: POPCORN review

I was all set to write a disappointing review of my play of Popcorn. During Easter weekend, my son and his wife hung out with us after the festivities to play some games. I had been itching to play Popcorn since I saw it on the table at Southern Board Game Fest, so instead of playing My Island’s sixth chapter, they agreed. 

It did not go well. The sun had long fallen in the western sky, we were all pretty tired from the long day of la fête de Pâques , and there are some issues with the game that I’ll discuss below. Suffice it to say, the promised “one hour” game lasted over two hours and I was pretty disappointed. My first impression was that this was a game that would be on its way to the trade pile soon. 

Gentle readers, we should never judge a game by its first impression, especially a late night, no teacher, first game. That’s a con rule we’ve had for a long time, and that rule should be extended everywhere. I am chagrined to admit that we’ve played Popcorn many times since that first play both in person (at two players multiple times) and online on BGA, and it is much better than I first thought. I still have some issues, but let’s get into the gameplay first.

Popcorn is a 2025 release from Blue Orange / Iello designed by Victor Saumont with art from Emilien Rotival. If you are like me, you’ve always dreamed of running your own movie house. I remember well living on campus at LSU right next to the “dollar cinema”, which as broke students we frequented almost weekly. It was run down, had worn carpet, only showed movies that were a month or two old, but the price was perfect and the snacks were cheap. Can I make the brand new Gumbo Cinema a better experience? 

Each round, players will take turns to purchase the rights to new movies coming out for showing in the theater, and upgrade the theater itself (represented by upgrading the seats.) There are combos all over the place in this part of the round, which is a little unusual. Normally, we see the combos coming from placing out meeples or taking actions, but here, good players will spy ways to get points or actions or upgrade their theater just from getting movies that match what’s in your theater already — or upgrades to your seats that you purchased with purposeful planning. 

The game is essentially an optimization puzzle mixed with some bag building. The bags represent your patrons coming to visit your theater each week, and they spend money like wildfire at your house, especially if you can match the color of the patron to the color of the seat or the type of movie that is playing. Of course, like any movie house, the longer a movie is showing at your theater, the less interesting it is for your patrons to see. Who would really want to see Project Hail Mary three times a row in three weeks? Hmm. That’s a bad example, ’cause I certainly would. (I’ve seen it twice already). 

The well-done dual layer boards have a clever system where the patrons slowly fill up the theater each round, causing you to cover up the juicy bonuses as you go along. Eventually, the move is so stale, that you’re only getting rewards from people filling the seats, not from the movies themselves, and it’s time to hunt down a new release to add to your theater. In fact, the production of the game is first rate and impressive on the table, with the popcorn buckets for points. I was expecting funnier puns on the movie titles, though, and was a little disappointed. Picayune? Maybe, but the titles could have used Grant Lyon’s touch or Steve O’Rourke’s wit. 

I’m checking my notes, and here’s where I told myself to diverge. (This is that part in the Christopher Nolan movie when the music and sound effects stop, and there’s a hard break in the scenery. The wind whistles, and something important is disclosed.)

I’m here to talk about BGA.

Publishers, BGA is such a powerful tool in your array now. Take Popcorn, for example. After our poor first impression, I was ready to move on, but I saw that Popcorn was on BGA. So, I jumped into a game with Rob and the krewe from The Board Boys Podcast. By the end of the game, I was getting it. And then, I played a two player game with my son, and we were completely immersed in the gameplay. I headed back to the table twice this week with my wife for some two player gaming (intermixed with Tipperary) and our plays averaged about 48 minutes per session. This game was singing! Back to BGA again for two more games with Matt, and by this time, our scores had shot up from 14 – 30 (yes, I scored 14 points even in my second game!) to 60+ points for each us. 

Rules issues from the rulebook? Not a thing, because we watched BGA handle some of the fiddly bits. Trying out different strategies? BGA games go so quickly that it is easy to deviate from what you think is the right move and try something different. My BGA plays not only helped me learn the game better, they also helped me play the game better on the table. 

Back to Popcorn. It’s been a wild trajectory of a poor first impression to digging the game as a two player date night game. But I have a few quibbles. While the rule book has a good icon reference, and there are some handy dandy player aids, some of the icons are very confusing. One in particular seems to be used two or three times but meaning different actions, which takes more time than it should to grok. The timing of the game is also strange, but that may be because when I think of Blue Orange games, my thought is family friendly, lighter fare, and Popcorn feels like a gamer’s game rather than a family game. 

Plus, while it has been less of an issue the more we explore the game and get better at “defending” our meeples, the fact that players effectively steal each other’s meeples feels weird in a bag building game that at least appears to be advertised as a cozy game. There have been many times where my wife just looked at me and said, “why can’t we just use this big pile of meeples that came with the game instead of stealing from each other?” I have no clue, dear, just pass the cayenne please. 

Popcorn is a keeper for me as a two player game. It slots in nicely with our other date night games. But, this one would be a recommendation for trying the game first. As a distillation of some of the mechanics of Orleans, down into more family friendly fare, I think Popcorn loses a bit of the discovery feeling that you get when you craft a bag full of possibilities. But, the more we play, the breezier our plays have become. I don’t see how we could ever get a four player game in 60 minutes as advertised on the box, but maybe other people have cracked that code. 

(Editor’s note: I posted this to the Gumbo blog on BGG a few weeks ago, and forgot to post here. Since then, my wife and I have played many more two-player games, and surprisingly, we finish each one in about 45-50 minutes. So, the play time definitely comes down with two experienced players. Plus, my son and I rock this out pretty quickly on BGG, too.)

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo

Pop Goes The Easel: POPCORN review
** A complimentary copy of the game was provided by the publisher. **