AMC Theaters To Fully Reopen In July After Reporting $2 Billion Loss
Months after it caused movie theater closures all across North America and the world, the economic effects of the global coronavirus pandemic are now being felt by the film and entertainment industry. One such company hit hard by the pandemic is AMC Theaters, which has revealed a loss in the billions.
Variety reports that movie theater chain AMC Entertainment, which had to close their theaters around March to stem the spread of the coronavirus, has suffered a $2.2 billion loss. The huge number was enough to raise bankruptcy concerns.
According to Adam Aron, the AMC Entertainment CEO, the situation was unprecedented but also expressed his confidence that the company would be able to emerge from the situation stronger and more resilient.
Variety also broke down the loss suffered by AMC, with a big part of it coming from impairment charges that amounted to $1.85 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter came out at $941.5 million, a substantial drop from the $1.2 billion the company earned in the same quarter last year.
Perhaps to further stem these losses, CNN says AMC Theaters will be "fully" reopening its locations in July, so long as guidelines provided by the federal government, the states, and local government are followed. Likely to be featured in the reopening of the theaters will be Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Disney’s Mulan.
AMC’s upcoming opening follows a declaration by the state of California that it would be reopening its theaters on June 12. The reopening comes with a lot of restrictions and safety measures required by the state, with one of those restrictions limiting the capacity of theaters to 25 percent.
Along with smaller audiences, the guidelines provided by California require movie theaters to close or label inoperable water drinking fountains in their building. Face coverings will be required from moviegoers and theater seats must have covers that are either washable or disposable.
AMC will also be dealing with an audience that may not be comfortable coming back to movie theaters will the global coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing. Streaming services have also emerged as an even strong competitor during the pandemic, with Netflix growing its paid subscriber base to 187 million.
The number of coronavirus cases around the world doesn’t seem to be slowing down either. According to the World Health Organization’s situation report for June 9, there are now 7,039,918 confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world. There are now 404,396 people that have died from COVID-19.
As of their June 9 update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States is at 1,956,421. There are now 110,925 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States.