GRAND RAPIDS, MI — When the team at Celebration Cinemas first laid eyes on the Shake N’ Share, they saw the solution to a classic movie-going conundrum.

Namely, “how do I mix butter and other flavorings into my popcorn and get it throughout without making a mess or having to put it into another bag?" said Steve VanWagoner, Celebration's vice president in charge of marketing.

The answer to the "joke of tradition" came calling in the form of a simple plastic bucket lid; a kind of why-didn’t-I-think-of-that invention which “answered a lot of needs for our customers.”

Celebration Cinemas’ first order of 80,000 units this spring was a major milestone on a new invention journey that a mid-Michigan family is making a big gamble on.

Justin Kovitz, 22, a Mount Pleasant college student entrepreneur, and his father, Ray, have spent the past year developing and pitching Shake N' Share to movie theater chains around the United States.

Manufactured in Grand Rapids at Display Pack, the product is simple: A clear plastic lid which snaps over the bucket rim, helping users evenly distribute butter or toppings over their popcorn with a couple shakes. Afterwards, the lid doubles as a bowl for sharing or snaps back on to keep popcorn fresh to take home.

So far, the Kovitzs have sold about 220,000 units to multiple theater chains and have invested more than $150,000 in the quickly-scaling startup venture, which they say projects to hit a million units sold by the end of the year.

Since its debut in Grand Rapids, Shake N’ Share has enjoyed exposure at trade conventions in Las Vegas and Barcelona, Spain, and the family is negotiating with distributors for placement of lids in stadiums, arenas, big box retail stores and other venues.

“If it wasn’t for Justin, there wouldn’t be any of this,” said Ray Kovitz. “Sometimes you just have to go for it, and that’s what he did.”

In November, Kovitz was at the theater in Mount Pleasant watching patrons fumble and spill popcorn when he realized there was a better way.

While sipping a frozen Coke, the Central Michigan University business student, who is employed as a waiter at the Soaring Eagle Casino, thought the dome lid keeping his slush in the cup might have broader application.

“It just clicked in my head,” said Kovitz, who flew the idea past dad at home.

Ray Kovitz is a manufacturers representative in the chemical and coating business. A father of four kids ages 12 and 25, he was used to getting pitched on strange ideas, but this one was different.

“Most of the time when they come to you with ideas, it’s either already been done before or it’s something I don’t understand, like an app,” he said. “This one kind of rang true. It sounded like something that should be done.”

The father-son duo quickly applied for design and utility patents and sought out a manufacturer. After looking around the Detroit area, they turned west and found Display Pack, a family-owned packaging company with facilities in Grand Rapids and California.

With prototypes in hand, Justin and Ray began pitching theater chains in Michigan. Much to their surprise, the innovation proved an easy sell. Two days after showing Shake N' Share to the brass at Celebration Cinemas, they got their first order.

“We thought we might sell them a case, and the next thing you know they are buying 80,000 of them,” said Ray Kovitz.

The idea got a publicity boost in April when an industry writer for the Las Vegas Weekly, covering CinemaCon, the annual trade show for the National Association of Theater Owners, called Shake N' Share the "kind of basic, convenient advancement that movie theaters should embrace."

This week, Kovitz is in New Orleans showing Shake N’ Share at the National Association of Concessionaires convention. To date, he has sold the lids to more than 15 theater chains, including Celebration, NCG and Emagine in Michigan. The lid can be found at theaters in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, California and Washington.

Next steps for Kovitz and his father include developing versions to fit different bucket sizes, as well as exploring opportunities to co-brand Shake N’ Share with new and old movies, such as making an R2D2 Star Wars-themed collectable lid, he said.

There have been preliminary discussions about getting the lid on shelves at big box retailers like Sam’s Club and Costco, which Ray Kovtiz said are interested in developing a ‘home movie night’ package bucket that includes microwave popcorn, candy bags and seasonings.

With upward of 6,000 movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada alone, the potential reach of the simple plastic dome lid is great, he said.

“We have a market that could literally be 30 to 40 million units a year when we really get rolling,” he said.

Email Garret Ellison or follow him on Twitter.