AMC theatres are going to remain open amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, President and CEO Adam Aron said on Tuesday. Cineworld’s Regal Cinemas are being temporarily closed.
Currently, more than 80% of AMC’s theatres in the U.S. are open. An even higher percentage of its theatres are open in other parts of the world. When allowed, AMC plans to open theatres in New York and California.
We’ll let Aron share his reasoning — and the movies he’s most excited for — below. Aron also touted his company’s cleaning protocols and partnerships.
“Some of our best partners like Disney, with its much anticipated ‘Soul,’ and Universal with ‘The Croods: A New Age,’ have new movies scheduled for theatrical release over the next month and a half,” Aron said in a statement on Tuesday. “Warner Bros.’ ‘Tenet’ has been stimulating moviegoers and is still leading the box office. And this weekend, ‘The War With Grandpa,’ a new movie title starring the legendary Robert De Niro will be prominent all across the U.S. on the big screens of AMC.”
“Fortunately for AMC, our groundbreaking agreement with Universal Studios announced earlier this summer puts AMC in a position where we can open our theatres when others may feel the need to close,” he continued. “We are fully comfortable showing Universal films in our theaters, even as they implement premium video on demand as we have mutually agreed. This is because AMC will share in premium revenues coming from their early availability in the home.”
Aron concluded: “We take great comfort in knowing that literally millions of moviegoers have already visited our theatres. They have done so in part because of our AMC Safe & Clean protocols, developed in consultation with Clorox and faculty of the Harvard University School of Public Health. Our guests are telling us that our theatres have never been cleaner, and that they recognize the great effort AMC is making to keep them healthy and safe.”
AMC Entertainment is the largest theatrical exhibitor in the United States. Cineworld is No. 2.
Earlier this week, Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas, announced it would temporarily close of more than 600 theatres in the U.S. and the U.K. combined. That news sunk its stock.
The Cineworld announcement also dropped AMC’s share price by 11%. Aron’s announcement should help reverse at least some of that company-specific pessimism on Wall Street.