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The story
AMC Theatres was founded in 1920 by Maurice, William, Irvin, Edward, and Barney Dubinsky, sons of Polish-Jewish immigrants Simon and Sarah Dubinsky from the village Białogródka (now in Ukraine). The Dubinsky brothers had been traveling the Midwest performing melodramas and tent shows with actress Jeanne Eagels. They purchased the Regent Theatre on 12th Street between Walnut and Grand in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Maurice, the oldest brother, died in 1929, and Barney left the company in 1936 after being injured in an auto accident. Edward, the youngest brother, eventually changed his last name to Durwood, and the company they formed eventually became known as Durwood Theatres, after a legal fight with his brothers. The chain also had theaters in St. Joseph and Jefferson City, Missouri, and Leavenworth and Topeka, Kansas.
When Edward's son Stanley left the U.S. Air Force after World War II, he joined the company in 1945. He persuaded his father to build drive-in theaters in St. Joseph, Jefferson City, and Leavenworth. In 1947 they expanded further with the acquisition of the Liberty Theater in downtown Kansas City which they remodeled and renamed the Roxy. They won an antitrust suit to enable them to show first-run product at the Roxy and went on to acquire all of the downtown cinemas in Kansas City including The Empire Theater, the Capri Theatre, the Midland Theatre and the Paramount Theatre.
In 1961, after Ed died, Stanley took control of Durwood Theatres, a small ten-theater chain. With an interstate planned around Kansas City, Durwood looked to sites outside downtown and acquired two sites at a shopping center on Kansas City's Ward Parkway to build a 700-seat theater. As the sites could not be combined, they opened two theaters side-by-side as the Parkway Twin Theatre in 1963. This was the company's first foray into using the multiplex model. According to Variety, Stanley Durwood later claimed in 1962 that he "was standing in the lobby of his 600-seat Roxy in Kansas City mulling over its poor grosses, when he realized he could double his box office by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff".
Following the success of the Parkway Twin, AMC followed up with the Embassy 3 triplex at the Country Club Plaza; the Metro Plaza, a four-screen theater in Kansas City in 1966; and a six-screen theater in Omaha in 1969.
The industry quickly embraced the multiplex concept, where additional screens meant very little difference in staff and operating costs but resulted in a significant profit increase. The concept also provided more film choices at one location, drawing bigger crowds. It also gave owners the flexibility to show big hits on more screens and less reliance on any individual film that could turn out to be a bust.
Stanley renamed Durwood Theatres as American Royal Cinema on October 1, 1968, after the American Royal livestock and horse show, but the latter's producers sought an injunction, and the name was changed to American Multi-Cinema, Inc.
Stanley began to apply military management and the insights of management science to revolutionize the movie theater industry. As he later explained to Variety magazine, "We needed to define what our company was doing in the (exhibition) business. My dad wasn't that organized." It was structured under the belief that every customer was a "guest".
In the second quarter of 2026, AMC reported its highest quarterly revenue to date, at US$1.60 billion. Attendance increased by 12 percent in its United States theaters and approximately 18 percent in its international markets compared with the same quarter of the previous year.
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Growth
By the 1980s, the company was experiencing strong growth; in 1983, it had its initial public offering. AMC Theatres built its first multiplex overseas in 1985, the 10-screen multiplex at The Point, Milton Keynes, in the United Kingdom, and later opened additional sites in the UK such as in Dudley and Tamworth, Staffordshire. In October 1988, they announced a joint venture with United Artists Theaters and Cinema International Corporation (a partnership of Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios) to run their combined cinemas in the UK, Ireland under the AMC name, however, AMC pulled out of the joint venture in December, and sold their U.K. assets, including their 12 cinemas, to the new entity (later called United Cinemas International) for $98 million and withdrew from the UK market.
In 1988, Kinepolis Brussels, the first megaplex in the world, with 25 screens and 7,600 seats, was opened by Kinepolis, the European chain.
In 1995, AMC Theatres opened the first North American megaplex, the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas, a theater complex that could accommodate thousands. AMC continued to open other megaplex theaters, such as the AMC Hampton Towne Center 24 in Hampton, Virginia, and the chain's busiest theater in the US, the AMC Empire 25 in New York City near Times Square.
On December 13, 1996, AMC opened the Ontario Mills 30, a 30-screen theater in Ontario, California, which at the time was the largest multiplex in the world. AMC Theatres' megaplex theaters were a success overseas as well. In April 1996, they opened Canal City 13 in Fukuoka, Japan, which was followed on December 20, 1996, by the AMC Arrábida 20 in Porto, Portugal. In January 2002, the 16-screen Great Northern theater was opened in Manchester in the UK, marking the chain's return to the UK market after 14 years. This was later supplemented by the opening of a 12-screen cinema on the Broadway Plaza site in Birmingham in October 2003. AMC Theatres sometimes serve a dual function; in addition to the regular cinema functions, they also cater to companies' business conferences that can make use of their projectors for displaying presentations.
In 2004, AMC Theatres was acquired by Marquee Holdings Inc., an investment vehicle controlled by affiliates of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase, and Apollo Global Management, a private investment firm. At the time, AMC was publicly traded on AMEX under the code AEN.
In 2006, the company announced a new initial public offering (IPO) expected to be worth approximately $789 million; however, adverse market conditions convinced the company's management to withdraw from such an offering on May 3, 2007. The company filed for a $450 million IPO in its third such filing since 2006 on July 14, 2010.
Stanley Durwood died in 1999, and his successor was Peter Brown, the first non-Dubinsky/Durwood family member to head the company. Brown, who became just the third chairman in AMC's history, served as CEO for over a decade. During his tenure, the company's revenues grew from $400 million to $2.3 billion. Gerardo I. Lopez succeeded Brown as president and CEO of AMC Theatres on March 2, 2009. Previously, Lopez was the Executive Vice President of President Consumer Products Group, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Foodservice at Starbucks. Under new leadership, one of the first major announcements came in March of the same year; the company announced that it would equip 1,500 of its screens with RealD 3D projectors. In the same month, AMC Theatres collaborated with Sony to replace all of its reel projectors with digital cinema projectors, starting in the second quarter of 2009 and completing in 2012.
The company was formerly headquartered in downtown Kansas City. In September 2011, AMC Theatres announced plans to move its headquarters to a new $30 million four-story building designed by 360 Architecture in the Park Place development at 117th Street and Nall Avenue in Leawood, Kansas, in suburban Kansas City. Kansas had offered $47 million in incentives to get the 400 jobs to move across the Kansas/Missouri border.
After reaching a settlement with the state of Illinois regarding complaints from a disability rights organization in April 2012, AMC pledged to equip all of its theaters in the state with captioning and description services by 2014. The disability rights group had accused the company of only providing closed captioning or audio description systems at some of its locations in the state.
Acquisition by Wanda Group (2012–2021)
In May 2012, AMC Theatres was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group, headquartered in Dalian, who paid $2.6 billion to acquire AMC's 5,048 screens in 347 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The deal was finalized on September 4, 2012. The acquisition made Wanda the world's largest cinema chain. Wang Jianlin, CEO of Dalian Wanda Group, announced that the company would plan to spend $500 million renovating AMC locations.
AMC Theatres had eight movie theaters in Canada. In July 2012, four locations were sold to Cineplex Entertainment, and two more locations were sold to Empire Theatres and later acquired by Landmark Cinemas. The two remaining locations have since closed.
Gerardo I. Lopez announced his resignation as CEO of AMC in August 2015. Craig Ramsey was appointed as the interim CEO by the company board. In December 2015, AMC announced that Adam Aron would be the company's president and chief executive officer, as well as a member of the company's board of directors, beginning on January 4, 2016.
In March 2016, AMC Theatres announced it would acquire competitor Carmike Cinemas. In July 2016, Carmike's management accepted a revised offer, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal was closed on December 25, 2016, making AMC the largest cinema chain in the United States.
On March 1, 2017, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron stated that the company would rebrand Carmike Cinemas locations under the AMC name; smaller locations were rebranded under the new banner AMC Classic (which repurposes trademarks associated with Carmike). Aron also announced a plan to rebrand its kitchen-equipped theaters as AMC Dine-In.
In July 2017, AMC Theatres announced they would cut $30 million in expenses by the end of the year. This cost reduction would be accomplished by reducing operating hours, cutting staffing levels, and other measures.
In September 2018, Silver Lake Partners made a $600 million investment in AMC Theatres, whose proceeds were used to repurchase approximately 32% of Wanda Group's class B common stock. However, the voting power of AMC's shares is structured in such a way (granting three votes per share for each Class B share if its stake in the company is above 30%) that, even after reducing its ownership of AMC common stock to just under 50% by the end of 2019, Wanda Group continued to retain majority control over AMC's board of directors.
In October 2019, AMC began to offer on-demand rentals and purchases of digital film releases under the banner AMC Theatres On Demand. The service is tied to the company's Stubs loyalty program.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
On March 18, 2020, AMC announced the closure of all of its theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in compliance with CDC guidance against any gathering of over ten people. AMC said this shutdown would last for at least six to twelve weeks. On March 25, 2020, AMC furloughed all of its 600 corporate employees, including CEO Adam Aron. All furloughed corporate AMC employees and associates retained active employment status, including all health benefits.
On April 28, 2020, following the release of Trolls World Tour on video on demand, AMC announced they would no longer carry films from Universal Pictures after NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell commented in The Wall Street Journal that the studio wanted to release films via premium video on demand simultaneously with theatrical releases. The company threatened that this would also be done with any other studio "who unilaterally abandons current windowing practices absent good faith negotiations between us, so that they as distributor and we as exhibitor both benefit and neither are hurt from such changes".
On June 3, 2020, AMC stated that it had "substantial doubt" that it would remain in business. On July 28, 2020, AMC and Universal were able to resolve their dispute, with AMC agreeing to a shorter theatrical window of 17 days before Universal could release their films via premium VOD, as well as revenue sharing on the premium VOD window.
On August 20, 2020, AMC began the process of reopening selected locations in the United States where allowed under local health orders. In honor of the company's centennial year, AMC also offered a special 15-cent ticket promotion that day, promoted as "Movies in 2020 at 1920 Prices." The company aimed for at least two-thirds of its locations to be open in time for the September 3 release of Tenet. The company upgraded its air filtration systems to four times the rates before the pandemic and installed electrostatic sprayers in the auditoriums. In October 2020, the company reported that its existing cash resources "would be largely depleted by the end of 2020 or early 2021".
Stock surge, end of Wanda Group control
On January 26, 2021, AMC stated that it had raised $917 million in new funding, including $506 million in equity and new common shares, and commitments for $411 million in debt financing. The company stated that this new funding "should allow the company to make it through this dark coronavirus-impacted winter". The next day, as part of a wider series of short squeezes coordinated by the Reddit community r/wallstreetbets (which primarily targeted video game retailer GameStop), AMC experienced a major, 300% surge in its share price to a peak of $20.36. The surge triggered Silver Lake Partners' convertible bonds; on January 28, it reached an agreement to convert $600 million of its debt holdings in AMC to equity at $13.51 per-share. Mudrick Capital Management made nearly $200 million in profit off its holdings of AMC debt.
On February 5, 2021, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Wanda Group issued a filing with the SEC, stating that it had converted its Class B common stock to Class A shares to permit their sale. While Wanda remained AMC's largest single shareholder, the conversion, as well as AMC's financing efforts taking its stake below 37%, effectively surrendered its majority control since Class A stock only provides one vote per-share.
During its fourth-quarter earnings call in March 2021, the company reported that its revenue had fallen by 88% year-over-year. CEO Adam Aron stated that AMC was facing the "most challenging market conditions in the 100-year history of the company", but cited progress on COVID-19 vaccinations, decisions to allow cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles to re-open, and a "significant" number of upcoming blockbuster films as signs of optimism. Aron also confirmed that Wanda no longer had majority control, and the company would now "be governed like most other publicly traded companies with a wide array of shareholders". On May 21, 2021, Wanda filed a 0.002% stake with the SEC, largely confirming the end of their involvement in AMC.
In June 2021, retail investors once again poured into AMC stock, propelling shares to an all-time high of $77.26 in another alleged short squeeze. Short sellers betting against AMC incurred losses of over $2.8B as a result. AMC issued more shares during the surge, but warned potential investors against buying the shares "unless you are prepared to incur the risk of losing all or a substantial portion of your investment". The cinema chain operator said it believed current prices reflected "market and trading dynamics unrelated to our underlying business". In the year to date, AMC shares soared 2,421 percent despite the closure of theaters during the pandemic.
In August 2021, the company revealed plans to begin accepting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for purchases in the future, which it did in November 2021 for online purchases via PayPal. In April 2022, AMC added integration with BitPay as a payment provider to its mobile app, allowing customers to use crypto payments such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
On August 4, 2022, AMC took Wall Street by surprise with the announcement of its "AMC Preferred Equity Units" after market close, a new preferred share class. The units were to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "APE," a nod to the individual investors who turned the company into a meme stock, who often refer to themselves as "apes". Over 516 million APE units were subsequently issued to AMC shareholders in a 1:1 special dividend, with the units wielding similar economic properties as common shares. AMC stock gained 19 percent to $22.18 at the close on Friday after initially falling following the announcement of the new units on Thursday. The preferred shares began trading under the "APE" ticker on the New York Stock Exchange, starting August 22.
In February 2023, AMC announced plans to test a dynamic pricing model for tickets for showings that occur after 4pm based on seat location. Seats located near the front of the theater and select ADA seats would be priced less than other seats and were only be made available to members of the Stubs rewards program and seats in the middle of the theater would be priced more than the other non-front row seats. In addition, AMC Stubs A-List members would be able to reserve the expensive middle seats at no additional charge. In July 2023, AMC chose to abandon dynamic pricing after testing showed that customers were still not likely to choose front-row seats despite their lower prices, with most customers still sitting in the middle of the theater or other non-front seats despite the upcharge. This made AMC believe their prices were less competitive as competitors did not also adapt dynamic pricing. The company also stated that it would test seats that recline further back in the front rows that would potentially allow better views.
On July 31, the company reported their highest single-week admissions revenue in company history due to the Barbenheimer craze. On September 6, AMC announced that it had planned to sell $40 million in shares.
AMC announced on August 31, 2026, that they would be forming a new distribution label called Leawood Films. This venture was specifically aimed at helping financed and completed movies get a theatrical release. Leawood Films will be advised by former Warner Bros. Pictures chairman Toby Emmerich and Apple TV executive Ricky Strauss, with Kyle Davies leaving his executive position at Bleecker Street to join full-time as an employee.
From Wikipedia’s article on AMC Theatres, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7