CNN
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Final summer time, the “Barbenheimer” boom, fueled by the smash success of movies “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” breathed recent life into the movie show enterprise after months on the sting of a pandemic-induced extinction.
However now that the pink outfits and porkpie hats are off the large display screen, issues stay concerning the well being of the film enterprise because it faces elevated competitors from streaming companies, an uneven restoration and delays brought on by final 12 months’s Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes.
AMC Leisure, usually seen as a bellwether for the trade because the world’s largest movie show chain, is just not resistant to these challenges.
To assist its restoration, AMC is diversifying its in-theater choices and reducing extra offers with musicians for live performance movies. It’s juicing ticket costs by including higher-end viewing experiences and shutting, renovating or relocating theaters. In search of new sources of income, AMC is launching its personal branded concession-stand snacks and merchandise, together with collectible popcorn buckets, for $25 apiece.
The corporate reported its fourth-quarter outcomes Wednesday after the closing bell, reporting a web lack of $182 million, narrower than its loss in the identical quarter the 12 months earlier than.
“It was one other full 12 months of continued significant restoration from the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic,” AMC CEO Adam Aron mentioned in a press release.
However buyers appear cautious; the inventory is buying and selling beneath $5 per share, simply above its all-time low – and AMC’s inventory dropped as a lot as 15% in after-hours buying and selling on Wednesday after AMC launched its quarterly outcomes.
Few firms have discovered themselves within the heart of cultural moments like AMC has lately. Covid hobbled it with debt. In 2021, “meme stock” merchants adopted, then deserted, its shares, inflicting wild swings in worth. Final summer time and fall’s field workplace, fueled by “Barbenheimer,” delivered the perfect week ever for the corporate based in 1920 — and an unique deal to display screen Taylor Swift’s ultra-popular “Period’s Tour” live performance film adopted shortly after. Then, the Hollywood strikes shelved, buried or delayed dozens of movies.
AMC didn’t reply to CNN’s request for remark.
However Aron hinted on the corporate’s November earnings name that the theater chain would look to signal offers with extra musicians after AMC mentioned Taylor Swift and Beyoncé live performance movie showings have been an incredible success.
“This isn’t only a one-time factor in 2023. We imagine that we are going to have a number of extra live performance movie merchandise in 2024 and 2025. We intend to be working with a number of the most identified and most liked bodily artists the world has ever identified,” Aron mentioned. “For these of you who don’t suppose that it will show to be transformational for AMC, watch this house.”
Updates to AMC’s technique come amid the backdrop of a disappointing field workplace up to now this 12 months.
Home field workplace income (AMC’s largest revenue stream) between January 1 and February 25 of this 12 months is monitoring 18% decrease than it was throughout the identical interval final 12 months, in keeping with Comscore.
“The primary two months of the 12 months have been fairly tough,” mentioned Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore.
Whereas field workplace revenues haven’t but recovered to pre-pandemic ranges, till this 12 months, they’d been on an upward trajectory. Nonetheless, Eric Wold, an AMC analyst at B. Riley, warned in a January observe to purchasers that 2024 might see a backslide. Wold lowered his projection for the home field workplace to $8.6 billion, down from $8.9 billion earned in 2023.
One motive for the slowdown could be altering viewers tastes. Superhero films, which have historically been surefire attracts, have had spotty performances currently. A latest instance, Sony’s “Madame Net,” which value a reported $80 million to make, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has solely made $35 million up to now on the home field workplace.
Dergarabedian mentioned studios could also be gradual to catch on to what moviegoers wish to see.
“There’s all the time a delay between the altering public style and for studios to meet up with that and take in that,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, Dergarabedian mentioned he’s optimistic that the extremely anticipated films like “Dune: Half Two,” which is about to be launched within the US cinemas on March 1st, and “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” films slated for later this 12 months, will assist the field workplace decide up. (“Dune” and “Barbie” have been distributed by Warner Bros, which shares the identical mother or father firm of CNN)
“When you have got audiences enthusiastic about movies which are upcoming on the calendar on a constant foundation, that’s what drives the field workplace,” he mentioned.
Regardless of the field workplace slowdown this 12 months, AMC discovered itself on the heart of yet one more viral second earlier this month.
The corporate’s “Dune: Half Two”-themed popcorn bucket, topped with the gaping mouth of a sandworm, caught the eye (and derision) of the web — and “Saturday Evening Stay” — for its uncommon form.
Earlier than “Dune’s” providing, AMC was providing a pink “Barbie” Corvette-shaped popcorn receptacle and a “Quick X” bucket shaped like a 1970 Dodge Charger.
The technique could also be paying off. AMC reported that home theater attendance within the third quarter was down 16% in comparison with third quarter of 2019 — but income are up.
“Moviegoers are simply more and more going to see films in premium massive format screens, they’re more and more shopping for a bigger basket of concessions and the next ticket worth,” mentioned Alicia Reese, an AMC analyst at Wedbush.
AMC has the most important footprint of premium format screens within the trade, like IMAX and Dolby Cinema, which boast larger sound and movie high quality than the common film display screen. Tickets for these experiences are extra pricey.
“A part of the explanation persons are having fun with going again to theaters is the expertise theater operators are creating for them,” mentioned Michael O’Leary the president and CEO of the Nationwide Affiliation of Theatre Homeowners commerce group. “The folks I symbolize are continually being requested to up their sport and their showmanship.”