Kaohsiung, Dec. 3 (CNA) A movie theater in Kaohsiung celebrated its formal opening Saturday by offering customers all the popcorn they could take away for NT$50 (US$1.60), but it could not have bargained on some of them showing up with a 1,600-liter container.

Three young men in their 20s arrived at the theater in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen District with a round container roughly the size of a hot tub, which they rolled in on a platform trolley.

According to the theater, customers needed to purchase two movie tickets and pay an additional NT$50 to participate in the promotion, which turned into an instant hit after information about it was shared on social media.

One of the men that showed up with the container, surnamed Chang (張), said the three of them bought it in Pingtung County for the occasion at a cost of about NT$5,000.

As big as it was, the theater honored its deal, filling the container to about 80 percent full before the three men left.

The men said they would give away the popcorn to homeless people and visitors at the Pier-2 Art Center about 3.5 kilometers away for free, and called on people looking to get some of it to bring their own containers to the center.

Another man surnamed Hsu (許), who brought a 40-liter storage box, said he intended to put the popcorn in bags and give it to school children participating in sports day events.

The theater's management said they modeled the event after a similar promotion organized by a movie theater in Vietnam, and prepared more than 10 times the amount of corn kernels that would normally be needed on a regular business day to satisfy all comers.