AMC Sets Box Office Record After Reopening

Shares of AMC Entertainment tumbled after it announced a new equity offering

AMC Theatres saw a surge in ticket sales and audience attendance for the first time in more than a year.

AMC announced Monday that its locations made up six of the 10 busiest theaters in the U.S. over the weekend following its reopening. Over 2 million people visited AMC theaters between Thursday and Sunday.

Southern California locations — Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood and AMC Burbank — were among the top movie theatre locations in the country.

AMC international theatres also saw an influx of over 500,000 moviegoers at its locations in the Middle East and Europe.

Due to the release of “F9: The Fast Saga,” AMC also saw an increase in sales for premium formats, which marked the biggest audiences for IMAX, Prime, and Dolby Cinema since the reopening.

“The big screen is back! Some 2 million people came out to enjoy movies at an AMC theatre in the U.S. over the past four days. And counting our international theatres, too, we had more than 2.5 million guests,” Adam Aron, AMC Theatres CEO, said in a statement.

“At AMC, we salute our friends and partners at Universal Pictures following their post-reopening record-setting performance of ‘F9: The Fast Saga.’”

Aron credited the release of the vaccine and highly anticipated films for the company’s successful weekend. “The combination of widespread vaccination and the release once again of blockbuster movies is proving to be the magic formula for the return of moviegoing,” the AMC president stated.

“We could not be more excited about this post-reopening record weekend, and the coming slate of what look to be more blockbuster movies being released this summer and beyond.”

While “F9” raked in an estimated $70 million domestically, making it the largest opening weekend since 2019, its global box office total was over $400 million.