AMC Theatres (AMC) has recently suffered from a slump in moviegoers, despite recent highly anticipated movie releases.
In AMC’s first-quarter earnings report for 2025, it revealed that its total revenues declined by roughly 9% year-over-year during the quarter. Specifically, in the U.S., movie theater attendance dropped by 11%.
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AMC also reported a net loss of $202.1 million during the quarter, which is steeper than the $163.5 million net loss it suffered during the same quarter last year.
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The loss comes after long-awaited movies such as “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Wolf Man,” “Dog Man,” and “Snow White” were released in theaters earlier this year.
AMC ticket sales have slumped recently.
Image source: Shutterstock
AMC CEO addresses major problem
In the report, AMC Adam Aron acknowledged that the box office faced declines earlier this year, but emphasized that it is now bouncing back amid more recent movie releases.
“Setting aside those first quarters directly impacted by Covid and its aftermath, the January to March industry box office in 2025 was the lowest it has been since 1996,” said Aron. “If that level of activity were to continue, of course it would be highly problematic for movie theatres. But to the contrary, since April 1, movie theatre demand has been booming. The April 2025 industry-wide domestic box office was double that of April 2024, and so far in May the box office again has been running at double the rate of a year ago.”
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In April, movies such as “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” and “The Accountant 2” have been drawing large crowds into theaters and breaking box-office milestones.
Aron also touted upcoming movie releases such as “Lilo & Stitch,” “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” “M3GAN 2.0,” “Superman,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which are all expected to be huge box-office successes.
“It is going to be one potentially huge movie after another, all the way through the year with ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ opening in mid-December,” said Aron.
AMC plans a generous deal amid a startling trend
Following this recent heightened momentum, AMC is switching gears in order to keep moviegoers interested and attract even more to its theaters.
The cinema chain is reportedly contemplating cutting the price of its movie tickets by 50% on Wednesdays, according to a new report from Bloomberg. AMC has allegedly discussed this change with major Hollywood studios and will start debuting the deal on July 9.
The move from AMC comes after its average ticket price for movie tickets in its U.S. theaters reached $12.31 during the first quarter of this year, which is higher than the $12.19 average it reported for the same quarter in 2024.
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Ticket prices have been on the rise over the past few years amid inflation. According to recent data from The Numbers, the average movie ticket price in the U.S. was $11.31, which is 3% higher than the $10.94 average in 2023.
As prices increase, some consumers have been avoiding movie theaters. According to a recent survey from the Wall Street Journal, 65% of consumers said they prefer to watch movies at home, while 35% said they prefer to watch movies in theaters.
Amid this startling consumer trend, Aron said during an earnings call on May 8 that AMC recently updated its flagship subscription service, AMC’s Stubs A-List, to have “increased benefits designed to ease the pain of a healthy price increase.”
Some of these benefits include expanding A-List weekly movie access from three titles a week to four, and lowering the age eligibility from 16 to 13 to attract more teens and families into theaters.
AMC also introduced a new A List Classic tier to the subscription, which is a lower price plan for guests who prefer to watch a maximum of one movie per week at AMC Classic locations.
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