They are available at my workplace snack shop. They're 'movie theater candy' because they come in a box, but I haven't seen them in a movie theater in a long time.

I think the standard Mike and Ikes are not popular. Their alternative flavors, like their "Hot Tamales" cinnamon ones and the Tropical medley, seem a lot more popular and are the ones I always see at the store. The tropical kind is the one sold at the work snack shop, not the original. I like them, and will buy them if I want a snack with a firm, chewy texture (sometimes, you just want to bite something). My retired father likes Hot Tamales as a favorite candy. I tend to buy a box at random on a whim.

They are a bit old fashioned, and chocolate candies are probably the most-favorite, followed by sour gummy things, and then other cadies after that.

Their appeal is likely the long shelf life, so it's fine if they don't sell right away, and that they don't melt or get messy, so you see them more in the summer months. But you can't really give them to small children, because they're so chewy and seem like a choking hazard. I agree that they're a 'background candy'.

FYI: the reason why boxed candy is seen as "movie theater candy" is because snack hawkers in movie theaters got banned as disruptive, and an entrepreneur created a vending machine to replace them. He would offer theater owners a small percentage of the profit for permission to place the vending machines in their theater lobbies. The machines required the snacks to be in a standardized box. He commissioned and supplied the boxed candies for his machines. The vending machines were insanely profitable and the man had thousands of them, but soon theaters shifted to full, staffed concession stands, and the entrepreneur shifted away from the vending machines, and instead became a candy supplier, selling the now-familiar and expected boxed treats to the concession stands. There is an episode of "The Food that Built America" about it, and it's very interesting.