Frank Butters you up – Canadian Tire – 150g – $2.49 ($0.016/g)

Not bad, but not great. The flavour is very mild and the seasoning seems inconsistently applied, which isn’t really what you want when you buy something explicitly labelled as butter flavoured and shows cartoon characters in a movie theatre. The kernels are fairly small or broken and had a lot of the hull got stuck in my teeth. My wife thought it lacks flavour and likened it to eating packing peanuts and would not buy it again. 2 out of 5 kernels.

Compliments – Pop Simple – IGA – 190g – $3.99 ($0.021/g)

This is the only one in our test that isn’t “Movie Theatre Style”. Compliments makes one, but I couldn’t find it at any of my local grocery stores that carry the brand. Like the name states, the ingredient list is simple. Popcorn, vegetable oil and sea salt. That’s it. I think because of this, the very mild saltiness is evenly distributed and it allows the corn flavour itself to come through. The kernels are large and fluffy, so while the suggested serving size is the same 50g as Frank, they approximate the volume to be 6 1/2 cups, while Frank’s is 3 1/2 cups for the same weight. My wife had no complaints about it, but she added salt to her bowl. If you are watching your sodium intake, or want to eat less in a bowl the same size as you usually do, I would recommend this one. 4 out of 5 kernels.

Great Value – Movie Theater Butter Flavoured – Walmart – 150g – $3.93 ($0.026/g)

My wife liked this one. “Finally one with flavour” she said. I did not enjoy it though. I found it did not taste like butter at all but reminded me more of cheese. “Tastes like nutritional yeast.” Was my wife’s opinion, I suspect the “modified milk ingredients” is the culprit, but it could also be the “may contain soy or mustard” on the ingredient list. Mustard? Where are they making this? Also, more expensive per gram than both Compliments and Frank, so the value isn’t really great, despite the name. The kernels are medium sized, mostly rounded with very few broken or undersized ones but still, I was happy when we finished bag and I could move onto the next one. 1 out of 5 kernels

Orville Redenbacher – Movie Theater Butter – IGA – 150g – $4.79 ($0.032/g)

There was a TV series on History Channel I really liked called “The Food that Built America”, I remember the episode they did about Orville Redenbacher and I was impressed by the man’s dedication to breeding the best strain of corn, just for making popcorn. I like their popcorn generally. The fruits of Mr. Redenbacher’s labour is a nice round fluffy popcorn that is easy to grab and leaves very chaff, compared to others. I didn’t like this specific one though, as it appears to use the same “modified milk ingredients” as Great Value. So while I generally have a high opinion of their corn, I can’t rate this one high due to really not liking the flavor and it being the second most expensive popcorn in this review. 2 out of 5 kernels.

Imperial Popcorn – Movie Cinéma – Dollarama – 300g – $3.50 ($0.011/g)

I couldn’t review my previous favorite, Bad Monkey, because the company went bankrupt and Imperial bought them. I think they only did so for the facilities though because this didn’t taste as good as Bad Monkey did. Sad face emoji. That being said, it isn’t bad. It doesn’t attempt a fake butter flavour, just salt and artificial yellow color, by way of Beta-carotene, making for a mild, medium salty popcorn. Not my favorite, but I didn’t actively dislike it, and being the cheapest out of all of them (slightly over a penny per gram) it’s a better value than Great Value, so I gave it 3 out of 5 kernels.

French Cancan – Movie Style – IGA – 150g – $5.29 ($0.035/g)

I liked this one, it reminded me the most out of all of them of movie theater popcorn. Didn’t really taste of butter like the package promised, but it also didn’t remind me of cheese like some other brands did. Probably down to “natural flavours” being in the ingredient list and not “modified milk products”, it also wasn’t overly salty like real movie theater popcorn is. I also liked the large kernel size. One down side to this popcorn is the price tag. This was the most expensive of the brands I tried and while it’s not on the packaging, research showed me that this is made by Imperial and is their “upscale” popcorn brand. I think I now know what they did with the Bad Monkey facility. It tastes good, but I can’t give it top marks due to the high cost. I mean… it’s still popcorn, you can’t tell me it really costs them three times what it does to make their clown branded popcorn. 3 out of 5 kernels.

Smartfood – Movie Night Butter – Walmart – 150g – $4.46 ($0.030/g)

It’s not explicitly stated on the bag, but I think the “Smart” part is the reduced sodium, as it has half that of Franks, for a comparable 50g serving size. It doesn’t affect the taste though, it’s pretty good. Doesn’t taste like butter, but at least it doesn’t taste like nutritional yeast either. Still, for a middle priced popcorn, I liked it. Because it’s made by Fritto Lay, and isn’t a house or specialty brand, it’s available from a lot of retailers and easy to find. I’m going too give it a 4 out of 5 kernels.

Conclusion

Make your own. I’m not being snarky, it doesn’t take long, requires no special equipment and will be both cheaper and better tasting. I’ll see if I can rouse the motivation to put up a video on how I do it.

But for the times I’m just too lazy to do it myself, I’m picking the Compliments one, or Imperial, simply because they are cheap and inoffensive. At least until I can find one that really tastes like the movie theater, my quest continues.