![]() ![]() Disney ( DIS) threw their hat in the ring with Disney+ in late 2019 and already owned Hulu and ESPN+. Nearly every studio turned to streaming as the only way to distribute content in 2020. The Covid pandemic caused a nosedive in revenue in 2020 as theatres around the world were told to close their doors. So, not all of the net income blame can be laid at the feet of AMC's CEOs. But the damage has been done and the studios reacted accordingly starting in late 2019. Once we see AMC's quarterly results for Q3 next month, we should see some improvement in this ratio. That ratio has continued through the first half of 2021. Despite 455 new releases in 2020, attendance fell off a cliff to just 46 million with a ratio in 2020 to just 1 million AMC tickets sold per 10 new releases. But then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the balance was broken. Note that for years new releases and attendance were mostly in balance. The following chart points out the relationship releases play with AMC attendance. Movie theatrical revenue is a function of the quality and the number of new releases issued each year to draw patrons into those recliner seats. Will new release numbers start getting better? Of all the major exhibitors in the U.S., AMC is now in the weakest financial position today. What has occurred is AMC's debt has ballooned. So from 2014 through 2016 large amounts of capital were expended on renovations and acquisitions that have done absolutely nothing for AMC's bottom line. ![]() The chart below shows the revenue breakdown. The biggest result of these acquisitions was that AMC expanded internationally into Europe. exhibitor, as the chart above shows, it actually did nothing for the bottom line every year thereafter. While this helped make headlines that AMC was now the largest U.S. The next big change that occurred was at the end of 2016 when AMC made a series of acquisitions under their newest CEO Adam Aron. The reductions in capacity just could not be made up by ticket and concession price increases. 2013, net income actually decreased by more than $250 million each year. Did the investment improve results? Not even a little. Other theatre chains made similar theatre seating redesigns. After a grace period ticket prices were raised by just $1-2. The total cost of the renovations was $600 million. In doing so he reduced theatre capacities by 50-70%. Despite flat revenues for years before, then CEO Gerry Lopez made the questionable decision in 2014 to change out the seats in many theatres in their network with new Lay-Z-Boy recliner style seating. (all graphs by the author) Where we have been and where we are nowĪs I discussed in my last article, "AMC Apes: More Hurt Than Help", domestic box office revenues peaked way back in 2016. Even as we move through what we hope will be the final months of Covid impacts, AMC has little hope of returning to the attendance numbers of 2017 to 2019. But the failure as I see it, for the entire industry, is blinding themselves to the new reality since 2019: And it is all about the pandemic with streaming being the studios' vaccine. In all honesty, you have to hand it to AMC CEO Adam Aron for doing the best that could be done with his hands tied behind his back while swimming upstream in 20. That said, there’s only one way to watch Venom 2 right now.The movie theatre industry has been in peril for years due to declining revenues and attendance. It’s up to Eddie and Venom to stop Carnage before he, well, brings carnage. Now Venom: Let There Be Carnage is out, introducing yet another symbiote, this one bonded with Kasady. In a final scene, Eddie visits a prison where Woody Harrelson plays serial killer Cletus Kasady, a serial killer who promises to bring “carnage.” See where we’re going with this? But, in predictable superhero movie fashion, there’s a clear lead-in to the movie’s sequel. Venom, a symbiote, bonds with Eddie and by the end of the film, they decide to team up and stop crimes (kinda). It’s destructive, chaotic, and yearns to eat people. When looking into a research facility and its shady experiments, he discovers an alien creature who attaches itself to him. ![]() In the 2018 film, we meet Eddie Brock (Hardy), an investigative journalist hellbent on bringing injustice to light. Despite release delays due to Covid-19, the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now out, so we can all enjoy even more of these Marvel characters’ increasingly strange-and close-relationship. Venom hit theaters back in 2018 and gave us Tom Hardy’s strange and wonderful performance as both Eddie Brock and his powerful alien symbiote, Venom. ![]()
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