Movie theater operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc
The move comes with several of the top film franchises of all time having movies set for release.
What Happened: The 2025 theatrical movie lineup includes three Marvel films from Walt Disney Co
While 2025 could have a strong post-COVID-19 box office total, AMC has its sights set on 2025, 2026 and 2027.
The company recently announced it was adding 40 Dolby Cinema theaters through the end of 2027. The new additions will bring AMC's total number of Dolby premium screens to more than 200, as reported by CNBC.
"Premium moviegoing is defining the modern box office," Dolby Laboratories CEO Kevin Yeaman said.
Dolby Laboratories Inc
AMC also recently announced a partnership with CJ 4DPLEX for 40 4DX theaters and 25 SCREENX theaters to be opened across the U.S. and Europe beginning in the summer of 2025. This marks the first partnership between the two companies.
The premium format movie screens being added come ahead of a strong movie lineup that AMC CEO Adam Aron has been highlighting for more than a year. From 2025 to 2027, new films will be released from the Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Marvel, DC Comics and Mission Impossible franchises.
Premium large format screens come with a higher ticket price for consumers and a way for AMC to add to its overall revenue. PLFs made up around 9.1% of the 2024 domestic box office, representing a total of $600 million split between multiple theater companies.
AMC has over 900 movie theaters and 10,000 screens worldwide as the world's largest movie theater company. The newest bets on premium format screens could add to the company's excitement for the coming box office lineup.
In the fourth quarter, AMC reported attendance of 62.42 million, which was up 20.2% year-over-year. The company also reported its highest fourth-quarter food and beverage per person revenue in company history.
With higher attendance and more revenue from premium screens, along with increasing food and beverage revenue, the next three years could be key to the AMC turnaround story.
AMC Post-COVID-19: For several years, Aron has discussed the post-COVID-19 recovery efforts from AMC, which have included focusing on food and beverage and non-movie opportunities such as Taylor Swift concert films to offset less blockbuster movie releases.
A recent tweet from Aron mentioning the post-COVID-19 time period caught a reply of "the only CEO in the world still talking about covid!" from a social media user.
Aron felt the need to reply with "the facts" that people want to ignore.
"The industry-wide domestic box office in movie theatres was over $11 billion five years in a row pre-Covid. It was over $10 billion eleven years in a row pre-Covid," Aron said.
The CEO said the industry posted domestic box office of $8.8 billion in 2024, down over 20% from 2019 levels.
"When a high fixed cost industry like the movie theatre industry loses 20% of its revenue, its profits and cash balances plummet by far more."
Aron said the movie theater industry "has not fully recovered yet" and the recovery is taking longer than many expected or hoped.
"We are optimistic that a rising box office over the next year or two will be a great boon for AMC."
Aron also brushed off concerns about his salary in another tweet.
"I understand why you would be distraught if my salary was $23 million per year. Except that it isn't."
Aron said his salary is $1.5 million annually, as he has requested no raises. He is also paid cash bonuses related to company performance. The CEO said these amounts are less than one-third of his publicly reported total compensation, due to reporting of AMC share compensation.
"The bulk of my total compensation is in AMC stock."
Aron said he has not sold one share of AMC stock in more than three years.
AMC Price Action: AMC stock is down 2.95% to $2.80 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $2.38 to $11.88. AMC stock is down 30.9% year-to-date in 2025.
