AMC Theaters Biggest Box Office Last Year Wasn’t Movies
Many would now argue that the rise of streaming services has lead to the downfall of a traditional movie theater, and AMC Theaters’s profitability reflects that. Yet, despite negative financial performance, AMC’s annual earnings were boosted last year by the company’s biggest box office sale for a release that wasn’t a movie. In fact, nearly all of the revenue of AMC Theaters made in 2023 is attributed to two movie releases: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce.
Beyonce And Taylor Swift Saved AMC
AMC reported its quarterly earnings—the fourth quarter of 2023—to Wall Street, citing Beyonce and Taylor Swift’s respective concert movies as a major boost for its recent positive financial performance. The company made $1.1 billion in fourth-quarter revenue from the concert movies alone, which is a significant increase from 2022’s $990 million in revenue AMC made in its fourth quarter for that year. This performance boost comes one year after AMC Theaters signed contracts with Beyonce and Taylor Swift to distribute their concert films exclusively.
AMC Exclusive Events
As it turns out, the exclusivity contracts were a brilliant business move for everyone involved, as they earned AMC Theaters its billion. Following the massive success of these concert films and the massive revenue they generated, AMC is now considering adding more concert movies to its offerings for 2024 and 2025.
When A Billion Isn’t Enough
The $1.1 billion, unfortunately, still wasn’t enough to push the company into positive net profits, and the company is still at a $182 million loss in the final quarter, but those figures actually look promising compared to last year’s $287 million. With the continued reduction in financial loss, paired with the growing visitor count and the company’s financial strategies, we’d say that AMC Theaters is recovering nicely from the pandemic.
AMC’s Money Problems
If we remove the growing number of streamers and their increasing accessibility, the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a massive blow to all theaters, not just AMC, due to imposed lockdowns and social distancing. The streaming business, on the other hand, grew immensely as people got bored behind their four walls, and things are returning to normal, but at a very, very slow pace. Many companies shut down forever due to difficulties in maintaining profitability, and AMC Theaters nearly became one such company.
AMC’s Reddit-Based Financials
Some of its financial hurdles were also alleviated by the AMC short squeeze of 2021, which skyrocketed AMC Theaters’ stock price by a whopping 3512.94 percent (yes, you read it right; no, it’s not a typo), but the pandemic, the increasing accessibility of streamers, and the fact that large studios are distancing themselves from theaters are still making an impact on the company’s finances. But, showing movies that aren’t feature films might be a golden goose for AMC Theaters, as proven by the company’s earnings report.
However, it’s worth considering that both Taylor Swift and Beyonce’s AMC Theater performances have set the standard for future artists to topple, and given their prominence in the industry, that might not be the easiest of tasks.
