The meteoric rise of AMC Entertainment’s stock continued on Wednesday morning, with the nation’s largest cinema chain seeing its share price jump another 60% during the first two hours of trading.
The jump pushed AMC’s stock to $51.35 per share. For reference, AMC opened the year at $2.01 per share and needed to raise $917 million just to survive the pandemic “winter,” as the company put it. Needless to say, if a friend picked up some shares in early January, the next lunch should probably be on them.
AMC’s Wall Street surge has only accelerated in the last week, too, with the company’s share price more than doubling since last Wednesday. The run, like GameStop’s earlier this year, has been amplified by the support of Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, where many traders have thrown their support behind the theater chain as they bet on a big comeback from the movie industry.
Many of those WSB investors were celebrating on Wednesday, with a number of users posting AMC was headed “to the moon!” — a popular rallying cry on WSB for stocks making big gains. Meanwhile, other users were celebrating AMC’s decision to give investors free popcorn and exclusive screenings.
“Makes us rich and free popcorn. It doesn’t get any better,” one user posted.
“This is huge! Apes love popcorn. Let’s buy more,” another posted said. (WSB users often refer to other users who are bullish on the same stock as “apes.”)
Following Wednesday’s run, AMC’s shares are now up 2,454% on the year.