5 Best Movie Theater Chocolates To Choose Over Popcorn Every Time

"Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this," Nicole Kidman said in a now-iconic ad for AMC theaters (via YouTube). It's the kind of sentiment that will resonate with anyone who still goes to the trouble to see movies the way they ought to be seen. You can keep your flatscreen TVs and Netflix passwords — nothing compares to sitting in a large, dark room with strangers and watching huge, beautiful images flicker across the screen. The only way it can be made better (aside from people getting off their phones, ahem, ahem) is with a delicious, if expensive, movie theater snack.

The iconic choice, of course, is popcorn, as Tom Cruise can attest. But maybe you're sick of popcorn, or perhaps the butter pump (which, in combination with a seasoning called flavacol, makes movie theater popcorn irresistible) is broken. What do you do? Naturally, you get some delicious chocolate candies to melt in your mouth. Here are five of our favorites, with suggested genre pairings to go with each.

What's better than a Crunch Bar, that tasty Nestlé chocolate bar made delightfully crisp with a puffed rice filling? The same candy turned into crunchy bite-sized pieces, of course. You can get them outside the movie theater, but they undeniably hit different when you eat the candies out of a cardboard box in one of those reclining seats they have at Regal. Like popcorn, their robust crunch keeps you engaged with the movie in front of you. Eat them while watching a big, ambitious summer blockbuster, like "The Odyssey." Lotus flowers have nothing on these.

Are Milk Duds the most exciting candy in the world? Not really. They're just tiny little spheres of chocolate and caramel. But you know what two things are really delicious? Chocolate and caramel. There's nothing wrong with simplicity when it's done right, and when you crack open a yellow box full of these bad boys, it feels oh so right. Just be sure you have a toothpick handy because these can get stuck in your teeth. Eat them while watching one of those endangered Movies for Grownups, like "Pressure" or "The Invite."

You could argue that seeing a movie is a special occasion that warrants a snack you won't be able to get at any convenience store. But M&M's are one of America's most popular candies for good reason — they're crunchy, sweet, and, as the saying goes, they "melt in your mouth, not in your hand." You can get Peanut M&M's if you want some extra crunch and a bit of salt, but you can't go wrong with the classic version, either. Eat them while watching a fun, four-quadrant hit, like "Project Hail Mary" or "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."

In 1939 – the same year films like "Gone with the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" dazzled audiences — the predecessor to Whoppers, called Giants, was first released. Today, these malted milk balls are owned by Hershey and are a hallmark of movie theaters across the nation. Sure, they're a little tough to eat, but their mild, chocolatey flavor, enhanced by the toasty malted milk center, is worth the trouble. Eat them while watching a horror movie like "Obsession" or "Backrooms." You'll be too busy chewing to get overly scared.

If your movie theater sells Dippin' Dots (the "ice cream of the future," so they say), you may have enjoyed cookie dough flavors in the multiplex before. But these crunchy offerings do the same thing better, giving you the sweet, chocolate-heavy taste of cookie dough in a bite-sized package that, unlike real raw cookie dough, won't potentially give you salmonella. Eat them while watching a laugh-out-loud comedy, like "The Naked Gun" or "Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie."