Every year movie studios and theater owners come together in Las Vegas for the CinemaCon convention. There are presentations about upcoming movies, sure, but CinemaCon is also a trade show, and that means the various vendors that serve the theaters have the opportunity to show off their wares. Think of it like CES, but for reclining chairs and designer popcorn buckets.

We're talking about an event that has an entire trade show floor devoted just to food products, and I'm not going to lie — visiting that ballroom was amazing. Overwhelmed by the smells of butter, sugar, and soda, I flashed back to my childhood trips to the movies, where the candy selection was always endless. But at CinemaCon, junk food is actually a business, and you're not just looking at the selection that's available today — you're trying what theater owners may buy to stock in your local multiplex tomorrow. (Candy is such an important part of the show that no less than 24 different food products were included in this year's swag bag for attendees.)

Below are some of the cool, weird, and frankly horrifying items I came across while walking the aisles of The Candy Show. If some of these haven't already made their way to your local theater, don't worry — they will be. This is your movie theater future.

Grid View Imagine a taco, but the shell is a bag, and inside are Cheetos and anything else you want to dump inside. Enjoy?

Oreo Churros. These aren't new, but I'm not eating them right now, either, so clearly there's work to be done.

Most of the vendors proudly announced they were part of the concessions industry trade association. Also, I want White Castle at the movies.

Filling a gaping hole in the "Movie Food That Won't Kill You" market comes movie edamame.

This isn't technically food, but the patented Hands Free Popcorn Bucket lets you share popcorn in your cup holder. Shockingly logical.

The booth for candy company Mars was promoting its candy Maltesers as a movie theater exclusive (even though the candy's been around in the UK forever). The booth staff also didn't want me to use this picture because the chocolate coating wasn't perfect. That's attention to detail.

Also not food, but it's a popcorn maker from a company called RoboLabs. You read that right: Robot Popcorn Machine.

Complicated makes a line-up of flavor enhancers that you can use to spruce up your cocktail... or soda, if you're boring.

Coke's "Freestyle" drink machines let people make any soda they want, and the idea is catching on everywhere. Why mix two Icee flavors yourself when technology can do that hard work for you? (Also big on the show floor: "flavor shots" built directly into dispensing machines.)

Look, a company was promoting a video loop of a woman projected on a cardboard cut-out as a "virtual assistant" to help with lobby crowd control. There's no way I wasn't going to include this.



