After a bumpy year, AMC was able to beat Wall Street expectations in the last three months of 2023 and its all thanks to pop stars Taylor Swift and Beyoncé .
The movie theater chain saw its stock fall 85% in 2023 as the company struggled to generate revenue at pre-pandemic levels, which peaked at $1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2019. The Hollywood writers and actors strikes in the summer, which prohibited stars from promoting their latest films, didn’t help things. And the company’s meme stock status which it earned in 2021 wasn’t able to move the needle in 2023.
Still, there were some bright spots like the Barbenheimer phenomenon.
And most recently, at the end of the year, AMC distributed the the film versions of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s huge world tours, which offscreen already generated billions of dollars for the economy.
AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a press release on Wednesday that the company’s revenue growth in the fourth quarter was “literally all” due to these two films (pdf).
AMC narrowed its quarterly loss to $182 million, from $287.7 million in the same period in 2022. The company’s total revenue in the fourth quarter grew 11.5% to $1.1 billion, up from $990.9 million. Its earnings per share came to a loss of $0.54, outperforming Wall Street expectations of a loss of $0.70, according to a consensus estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet.
AMC’s bumpy 2023: A timeline
May 2: The Writers Guild of America, the union which represents film and television screenwriters, goes on strike.
July 14: The actor’s union, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) officially declares that it’s going on strike.
July 21: Barbie and Oppenheimer release on the same weekend, resulting in AMC’s “highest single-week admissions revenue” in its 103-year history.
Aug. 14: AMC shares plummet 35%.
Aug. 26: The company’s stock falls another 25% after announcing a 1-for-10 stock split.
Sept. 6: AMC stock falls 30% after the company announces its plans to sell up to 40 million additional shares to raise cash.
Sept. 27: The Hollywood writers strike ends.
Oct. 6: Advanced ticket sales to Taylor Swift’s concert film boosts AMC stock 11%.
Nov. 9: Hollywood actors strike ends.
Nov. 27: AMC stock falls nearly 2% after Disney’s Wish disappoints at the box office.
Dec. 4: A strong opening weekend for Beyoncé concert film shot AMC stock up 7%.