Cold Stone Creamery is rolling out two limited-time products — a Supergirl's Popcorn Supernova Creation™ and a Supergirl's Cosmic Kettle Corn shake — timed to the theatrical release of Supergirl, the DC Studios and Warner Bros. feature arriving in cinemas nationwide on June 26. The promotional window runs through July 21, 2026, giving the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based chain a roughly 25-day overlap with the film's opening-weekend momentum.
The launch marks Cold Stone Creamery's latest foray into entertainment-driven limited-time offers, a strategy that quick-service and fast-casual operators have increasingly leaned on to drive incremental traffic without permanent menu expansion. Franchise-heavy chains have found that film tie-ins can compress marketing spend by piggybacking on studio promotional budgets, though the revenue uplift is typically confined to the promotional window. Cold Stone operates more than 1,500 locations across the United States under the Kahala Brands portfolio.
Entertainment co-branding has become a staple mechanism for dessert-category operators competing against a crowded summer landscape. Rivals including Baskin-Robbins and Dairy Queen have deployed similar film partnerships in recent years, making studio relationships a recurring line item in franchise marketing calendars. For Warner Bros., the arrangement extends Supergirl's consumer touchpoints into food-service retail ahead of what the studio is positioning as a flagship summer tentpole. The broader QSR co-branding trend has shown that tie-ins with superhero IP command above-average social engagement relative to standard seasonal offerings.
Cold Stone has not disclosed financial terms of the Warner Bros. arrangement or projected sales targets for the two SKUs. Industry standard for similar quick-service co-branded deals typically involves a combination of licensing fees and coordinated media buys, with franchisee participation governed by existing marketing fund structures. Operators in the franchise and licensing segment will be watching sell-through data as a signal of whether popcorn-forward dessert profiles resonate beyond novelty.
The products are available at participating Cold Stone Creamery locations in the United States. The chain, which is part of Food & Beverage Magazine's broader coverage universe on franchise innovation, has not indicated whether the items will extend beyond the July 21 cutoff or migrate to a permanent menu slot.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
