AMC Theatres shares plummet as theater chain reels from box office struggles
Christi Carras March 28, 2024
AMC Entertainment shares plummeted Thursday after the theater chain indicated in an SEC filing that it might sell up to $250 million worth of
its
stock.
The Leawood, Kan.
sas
-based exhibition giant said it
wa
s considering selling the stock to offset
its
poor box office revenue during the first fiscal quarter of 2024. Hours after the filing came out Thursday morning, AMC Entertainment stock was down about 15%.
In the filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission
, the nation’s largest movie theater company
partially partly
blamed the disappointing box office returns on last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, which delayed several major theatrical releases and effectively shut down film and TV production for about six months.
No surprise here: Taylor Swift, Beyonc concert films boost AMC quarterly earnings
AMC
Theatres
Chief Executive Adam Aron previously implored the entertainment unions and the Hollywood studios to end their labor disputes “immediately” to mitigate the “collateral damage from these lengthy work stoppages.”
AMC The exhibitor
also cited in the SEC filing “increased seasonal working capital requirements … and the resulting cash burn” it has suffered.
“We intend to use the net proceeds, if any, from the sale … to bolster our liquidity, to repay, refinance, redeem or repurchase our existing indebtedness (including expenses, accrued interest and premium, if any) and for general corporate purposes,” the filing reads.
Oscars mark last hurrah for ‘Barbenheimer’ as 2024 box office faces uncertain future
The beginning of 2024 spelled trouble for AMC and other cinema operatorexhibitors as big-budget studio vehicles such as Sony Pictures’ “Madame Web” and Apple’s “Argylle” tanked and domestic box office revenue fell 20% from the previous year.
Though
Scattered titles such as Paramount Pictures’ “Bob Marley: One Love” and “Mean Girls” made decent money.
But pickin g s remained fairly slim untilit wasn’t until
March
, when
Warner Bros. and Lege
ndarys Dune: Part Two became the first film in four months to opened with more than above $80 million in the U.S. and Canada, the first movie to do so in four months
.
The exhibition industry was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic which shuttered theaters worldwide when
members of
the Writers Guild of America and
performers union SAG-AFTRA the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
went on strike.
In response to the overlapping work stoppages, studios pushed at least a dozen pictures to 2025 from 2024, including the eighth installment in Paramounts Mission: Impossible franchise and Disneys live-action remake of Snow White. Consequently, this year’s release calendar is thinner than exhibitors had hoped.
One pandemic and two strikes later, what will become of the movie industry?
Analysts expect full-year box office revenue for 2024 to fall somewhere between $8 billion and $8.5 billion in the United States and Canada, which would be down from 2023s $9
–
billion domestic haul despite a slew of highly anticipated sequels and franchise installments on the horizon.
Still to come in 2024 are Universal Pictures’ Wicked,” Warner Bros.’ Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Paramount’s Gladiator 2,” Sony’s “Venom: The Last Dance,” Amazon MGM’s “Challengers” and Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
