AMC Entertainment boss Adam Aron earned $9.7 million in total compensation in 2019, up from the $9.5 million the CEO took home the year before, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Aron saw his base salary increase to $1.25 million, from $1.1 million in 2018, and his stock awards jump to $6.5 million, from $5.5 million. Compensation from Aron’s non-equity incentive plan, however, declined to $1.9 million, from $2.9 million, and he brought in $16,348 in all other compensation.
AMC has been hit hard by the pandemic in recent months, as industry experts question the chain’s financial viability amid the shutdown that has forced it to shutter all its movie theaters.
The nation’s largest cinema chain tallied roughly $5 billion in debt at the end of 2019 and losses of $149 million — that was after recording a $110 million profit in 2018. And during the company’s most recent fourth-quarter conference call, AMC CEO Adam Aron said that he and other top executives had agreed to cut their salaries and bonuses for three years. That was all before the pandemic shutdown choked its revenue stream altogether.
In March AMC was forced to furlough all 600 corporate employees who work out of its Leawood, Kansas headquarters, including Aron.
Experts have said they expect AMC to file for bankruptcy, sell debt or equity, or even sell off assets. Earlier this month the DailyMail reported that Amazon has had conversations with AMC about buying the beleaguered cinema chain, which includes Odeon theaters in the U.K. Amazon declined to comment at the time, and representatives for AMC never responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Last month AMC raised $500 million in a private debt offering exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. And as of the end of March, AMC said it had a cash balance of $299.8 million, including borrowings in March 2020 of $215.0 million (the full availability net of letters of credit) under its $225.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility due April 22, 2024.