I love popcorn as much as the next guy, but about nine centimeters into a three-liter bucket of buttery kernels, the magic starts to disappear. The boredom comes from one of two paradoxical feelings — an increased tolerance to the popcorn’s flavor or an overdose on the simple components of the flavor. Whether you need more or less butter and salt to keep enjoying the movie-companion-food, a change of pace is in order.
Here’s my top-of-the-head solution: popcorn-flavor compartments. For a given popcorn serving (whether microwave bag or theatre-bucket), physically split the popcorn into two or three sections. In each section, have the flavor be a little different. This might mean completely different flavors of popcorn (hot-powder, cinnamon, caramel, etc), or just a sequentially increasing or decreasing level of classic butter and salt flavoring.
The compartmentalization could be accomplished through simple plastic tabs or thin paper membranes. If you seal up the ends, you can even use the same popcorn container to accommodate both types of boredom. If you’re the popcorn-junkie type, eat the compartments in the order of least flavoring to most flavoring, each step up overcoming whatever tolerance to sodium chloride you might have built up.
If you’re the type that tends to weary of butter and salt or the health risks associated therewith, start on the strong end and work towards the lightly-flavored end, kind of like starting the party with the good wine and breaking out the mulled bags of grape-juice sometime around 3:14 AM.
I for one am in favor of said popcorn enhancement, and would fully endorse any advancements in this area. I also have nothing relevant to contribute.