How many calories are in butter popcorn?
One regular microwave bag of butter popcorn holds 85 g of popped kernels and 440 calories. Per 100 g the popped corn runs 518 calories, and most of that is fat: 26.0 g per bag, 12.2 g of it saturated. A single cup is a much gentler 73 calories. The bag is the number that trips people up.
You'd need to walk about 88 minutes to burn the 440 calories in one regular microwave bag (85 g).
How long does it take to burn off butter popcorn?
One regular microwave bag (85 g) is 440 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 440 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 1 hr 28 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 55 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 1 hr 3 min |
| Jogging | 52 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 1 hr 38 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (85 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Butter popcorn quick facts
- US servings, from one cup to the whole bag
- Microwave, movie theater and air-popped butter popcorn
- Saturated fat and sodium are the rows to watch
- How does butter popcorn compare?
- Most popular butter popcorn brands
- Butter popcorn FAQs
Butter popcorn quick facts
In American kitchens "butter popcorn" almost always means the microwave bag, so the numbers below come from FNDDS 2708227, "Popcorn, microwave, butter flavored" — popped weight, the way it lands in the bowl. Movie theater popcorn and air-popped corn with real butter are different foods nutritionally, and both get their own rows further down.
The 85 g column is USDA's own household measure for a standard bag, not a scaled estimate.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 regular microwave bag (85 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 518 | 440 | — |
| Total fat | 30.57 g | 26.0 g | 33% |
| Saturated fat | 14.3 g | 12.2 g | 61% |
| Carbohydrate | 54.99 g | 46.7 g | 17% |
| Dietary fiber | 10.2 g | 8.7 g | 31% |
| Total sugars | 0.61 g | 0.5 g | — |
| Protein | 9.13 g | 7.8 g | 16% |
| Sodium | 764 mg | 649 mg | 28% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
There is no added sugars row and no trans fat row here, because USDA does not publish either value for this FNDDS record. Cholesterol is 0 mg, since the flavoring in a microwave bag is usually a vegetable oil blend rather than dairy butter. Potassium comes to 197 mg per bag, about 4% of the Daily Value.
Two numbers stand out immediately. Sugar is essentially absent at half a gram per bag, while sodium hits 649 mg — the bag salts the corn far more aggressively than most people expect from a snack that tastes mild.
US servings, from one cup to the whole bag
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cup, popped | 14 g | 73 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28 g | 145 kcal |
| One 100-calorie package | 30 g | 155 kcal |
| One snack or mini bag | 43 g | 223 kcal |
| One regular microwave bag | 85 g | 440 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 518 kcal |
The cup, the 100-calorie package, the mini bag and the regular bag are all USDA household measures for this record. The 1 oz line is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving, and it is the one worth memorizing: an ounce of buttered popped corn is two cups, not a handful.
Note also that the "100 calorie" package weighs in at 155 calories once popped by USDA's accounting. That is not a typo — it is the gap between the marketing name and the measured food.
The packages on the shelf make this worse in a different way. A microwave box lists its serving in unpopped grams: Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter is 170 calories for 35 g unpopped, which USDA describes as roughly 5.5 cups popped, and ACT II Butter is 100 calories for 31 g unpopped, about 5 cups. Ready-to-eat bags list popped weight instead — SkinnyPop Butter is 140 calories per 28 g. So a "170 calorie serving" and a "140 calorie serving" on two shelves a few feet apart are not the same amount of popcorn at all.
Microwave, movie theater and air-popped butter popcorn
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microwave, butter flavored | 518 kcal | one regular bag, 85 g | 440 kcal |
| Ready-to-eat, butter flavored | 530 kcal | one single-serve bag, 28 g | 148 kcal |
| Movie theater, butter poured on | 656 kcal | one medium order, 182 g | 1194 kcal |
| Movie theater, no butter added | 603 kcal | one medium order, 143 g | 862 kcal |
| Air-popped with butter | 430 kcal | 1 cup popped, 11 g | 47 kcal |
| Air-popped, no butter | 385 kcal | 1 cup popped, 8 g | 31 kcal |
Movie theater popcorn is the outlier by a wide margin. At 656 calories per 100 g it beats the microwave bag by 138 calories in the same weight, because the kernels are popped in coconut oil and then have melted topping poured over them. A medium order runs 1,194 calories. Skipping the butter pump drops the record to 603 calories per 100 g, and because the unbuttered medium order also weighs less, it lands at 862 calories — still a full meal's worth.
Air-popped corn is the other extreme. Even with butter stirred in it is 430 calories per 100 g, 88 below the microwave bag, and a cup of it is 47 calories. Plain air-popped corn is 385 and a cup is 31. That single word "cup" is doing a lot of hidden work: a cup of plain air-popped popcorn weighs 8 g, a cup of buttered theater popcorn weighs 14 g, and the two are 31 and 92 calories respectively — almost three times apart for the same measuring cup. The 92-calorie figure is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g value.
Ready-to-eat butter-flavored bags sit close to the microwave version per 100 g, at 530, but the saturated fat is very different: 4.38 g per 100 g versus 14.3 g. Bagged brands generally use a liquid oil, while microwave bags lean on solid fats that survive the popping cycle.
Saturated fat and sodium are the rows to watch
The calorie count is not the interesting part of a microwave bag. The saturated fat is. One bag delivers 12.2 g, which is 61% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping saturated fat under 10% of daily calories. Eat a whole bag in front of a movie and most of that allowance is gone before dinner.
The theater version is in another category entirely. A large tub with butter weighs about 238 g, which by our arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure is roughly 1,561 calories and about 84 g of saturated fat — some 422% of the Daily Value, or more than two days' worth in one container.
Sodium follows the same pattern quietly. At 649 mg per bag you are at 28% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, or about a quarter teaspoon of table salt, from a snack that reads as light. If you are watching sodium, the home-popped routes are dramatically better: popcorn popped in oil with butter carries 223 mg per 100 g and air-popped with butter 227 mg, against 764 mg for the microwave bag.
The good news is real too. Popcorn is a whole grain, and MyPlate counts it as one. A bag brings 8.7 g of fiber, 31% of the Daily Value, which is more fiber than most breakfast cereals deliver. Protein is a respectable 7.8 g. Air-popped corn keeps the fiber and the protein while shedding most of the fat — 14.4 g of fiber and 12.89 g of protein per 100 g with no butter at all.
How does butter popcorn compare?
| Popcorn | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter flavored, microwave | 518 kcal | one regular bag, 85 g | 440 kcal |
| Plain, microwave | 518 kcal | one regular bag, 85 g | 440 kcal |
| Cheese flavored, microwave | 516 kcal | one regular bag, 85 g | 439 kcal |
| Kettle corn, microwave | 504 kcal | one regular bag, 85 g | 428 kcal |
Our take: switching flavors inside the microwave aisle changes almost nothing. USDA's plain microwave row is identical to the butter row — 518 calories, 30.57 g of fat, 9.13 g of protein per 100 g — because the fat that pops the corn is already there whether or not the box says butter. Cheese is two calories lighter per 100 g and kettle corn is the lightest of the four at 504, a saving of 12 calories over a whole bag. If you want a real reduction, the flavor label is the wrong lever; the popping method is the right one. Air-popping the same corn and adding your own butter cuts the density to 430 calories per 100 g and the sodium by roughly two thirds.
Most popular butter popcorn brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| SkinnyPop Butter Popcorn | 500 cal |
| Clover Valley Butter Popcorn | 643 cal |
| Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter | 486 cal |
| Popcorn Indiana Movie Theater Butter | 500 cal |
| Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop Butter | 324 cal |
| ACT II Butter Popcorn | 323 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Butter popcorn FAQs
How many calories are in butter popcorn?
Butter popcorn is 518 calories per 100 g of popped corn, so a regular microwave bag of 85 g comes to 440 calories. A single cup is 73 calories and one ounce, which is about two cups, is 145. The fat, 26.0 g per bag, does most of the work.
How many calories are in a bag of microwave butter popcorn?
A regular microwave bag is 440 calories once popped, USDA's household measure being 85 g. A snack or mini bag of 43 g is 223 calories, and a 100-calorie package actually weighs 30 g and delivers 155. The regular bag also carries 12.2 g of saturated fat.
How many calories are in 1 cup of butter popcorn?
One cup of microwave butter popcorn is 73 calories, at 14 g per cup. But the cup is a slippery unit here: air-popped corn with butter is 11 g and 47 calories a cup, plain air-popped is 8 g and 31 calories, and buttered theater popcorn reaches 92 calories a cup.
Is butter popcorn healthy?
A bag brings 8.7 g of fiber, 31% of the Daily Value, plus 7.8 g of protein and essentially no sugar at 0.5 g. Against that sit 12.2 g of saturated fat, 61% of the DV, and 649 mg of sodium. Popcorn is a whole grain; the butter flavoring is what loads it.
How much sodium is in butter popcorn?
Microwave butter popcorn holds 764 mg of sodium per 100 g, which is 649 mg in a regular 85 g bag, or 28% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value — roughly a quarter teaspoon of table salt. Home-popped versions are far lower: 227 mg per 100 g air-popped with butter, 223 mg popped in oil.
How many calories is movie theater butter popcorn, medium versus large?
A medium order with butter poured on, 182 g, is 1,194 calories at 656 calories per 100 g. A large tub of about 238 g works out to roughly 1,561 calories by our own scaling of the USDA figure. Ordering it without the butter topping drops a medium to 862 calories.
Air-popped popcorn with butter versus microwave butter popcorn: what changes?
Air-popped corn with butter is 430 calories per 100 g against 518 for the microwave bag, a difference of 88 calories in the same weight. Sodium is the bigger gap: 227 mg versus 764 mg per 100 g. Air-popped also holds more fiber, 12.2 g against 10.2 g.
How many carbs, fiber and protein does butter popcorn have?
Per 100 g there are 54.99 g of carbohydrate, 10.2 g of fiber and 9.13 g of protein. A regular 85 g bag gives 46.7 g of carbs, 8.7 g of fiber and 7.8 g of protein — 17%, 31% and 16% of their Daily Values. Total sugars are negligible at 0.5 g.
Similar foods
- Popcorn — 73 cal per cup popped
- Kettle corn — 74 cal per cup
- Sesame sticks — 151 cal per oz
- Peanuts — 164 cal per ounce
- Peanut Butter — 191 cal for 2 tbsp
- Churro — 189 cal each
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the popcorn for you, bag size and all.
