Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC — the world’s largest movie theater chain, has already announced that the company will expand into the sale of popcorn outside of theaters and will accept payment in cryptocurrencies. This week, the chain’s management has received numerous suggestions from its 4.1 million retail investors. The suggestions range from issuing a branded credit card and resuming movie production to launching its own cryptocurrency.
Surviving the pandemic
Last year, AMC Entertainment held off bankruptcy several times, and the company needed to generate ideas of how to engage with its audience online. AMC was able to raise cash after an increase in the share price that became possible with the help of amateur investors in Reddit chats and social networks.
Interestingly, 80% of AMC shareholders are represented by individual investors who keep buying and holding shares.
Plans for next year
Apart from content generation and participation in movie production, the company is working on a concept of AMC-branded credit cards. “We have already started discussions with several of the major credit card-issuing banks to see if we can start something in 2022,” says the company’s CEO. According to Adam Aron, there are clients in the AMC Stubbs, AMC A-List, and retail investors who are “very much invested in our company financially and emotionally.”
Aron also believes in the great potential of cryptocurrencies and says that AMC has already been discussing with third-party experts how it can process cryptocurrency payments and has even considered launching its own tokens.
Moreover, the company is working on a concept of joint commemorative NFTs, and various merchandise related to the movies shown in AMC theaters. The management has also thought about developing the company in such areas as e-sports and gaming considering it to be a smart idea.
A reply to criticism
Skeptics have claimed that AMC is seeking something that is beyond its reach, especially now when the pandemic is not over, and the network is still financially unstable. “You don’t drive a car looking into the small rear view mirror and pondering where you’ve been. You look through the big front window at where you are heading,” Aron responded.
“When some people have looked at AMC, they have made the mistake of looking at where we were during the pandemic. They don’t factor into that our enthusiastic new shareholders who have armed us with a war chest of over $1.8 billion,” Aron said, alluding to AMC’s new equity capital.
“We intend to use it carefully to get to the other side of this pandemic. At the same time, this money should let us think boldly about how we can transform to a new company that does more than just show movies in cinemas”.
