AMC Loses $905 Million Due To Global Coronavirus Pandemic

Bankruptcy woes continue to hound AMC Entertainment as it continues to be pounded by the global coronavirus pandemic. The company's latest news reveals that the pandemic has only made the company’s financials even worse.

Deadline reports that the company has revealed that its revenue for the latest quarter is at $119 million, which is a 91 percent drop from the previous quarter. Even more alarming is the company’s ballooning losses, which now stand at $905 million. This is a stark difference from the $54 million in losses the company experienced earlier this year.

AMC CEO Adam Aron cited the global coronavirus pandemic as the cause for the huge losses, pointing out that the theater chain’s operations have been suspended for almost the entire year due to the lockdowns brought about by the pandemic.

The latest disheartening news comes after AMC announced that they had already suffered $2 billion in losses in June. As broken down by variety, much of the loss came from the $1.85 billion in impairment charges that AMC was dealing with. That report resulted in bankruptcy concerns among the industry.

Back then, the company had planned to reopen its theaters in July, with the hope that Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Disney’s Mulan would draw crowds back to theaters. However, Mulan ended up streaming on Disney+ instead, while Tenet did not succeed in drawing audiences back to cinemas.

CNBC reports that to prevent a bankruptcy filing, 20 million class A shares of AMC will be sold, enough to raise $50 million for the company. The sale comes after the company successfully renegotiated its debt, which currently stands at $4.75 billion.

As pointed out by CNBC, the company needs to survive until new blockbusters begin showing up in theaters again. However, multiple blockbuster releases have been moved to 2021, such as the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die. AMC may have to pin its hopes on Wonder Woman 1984, which is slated to premiere on Christmas Day.

Whether Wonder Woman 1984 retains its December release date will depend heavily on the state of the global coronavirus pandemic. As of the Nov. 2 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 9,182,628 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States. There are now 230,383 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s Nov. 3 update says there are now 46,403,652 confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world. There are now 1,198,569 people that have died from COVID-19.