With summer blockbusters attracting moviegoers back to the box office, consumer transaction data reveals that U.S. sales for AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) in June 2022 tripled compared to the same month last year. Our analysis further shows that the movie theater chain’s sales and average monthly sales per customer are higher than they were prior to the pandemic.
June sales for AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) reached new heights in 2022
AMC’s U.S. sales in June 2022 were higher than the same month in the last five years. More specifically, AMC sales in June 2022 were 200 percent higher year-over-year.
When looking at sales growth compared to before the pandemic, AMC sales in June 2022 increased 11 percent compared to June 2019, 15 percent compared to June 2018, and 74 percent compared to June 2017. It is worth noting that in June 2020, AMC theaters were still temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AMC began gradually re-opening its U.S. locations in August 2020, with theaters in large metro areas like New York and Los Angeles reopening in March 2021.
While customer counts declined compared to pre-pandemic levels, sales per customer increased during the same period
Consumer transaction data shows that customer counts in June 2022 were 180 percent higher than in June 2021. A closer look at customer trends reveals that customer counts in June 2022 were lower than the same months in 2018 and 2019, declining 9 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Interestingly, the average sales per customer at AMC has generally increased during the COVID-19 era. In June 2022, the average monthly sales per customer was about $49, a 7 percent increase year-over-year and an increase of 21 percent compared to the same month in 2019.
Notably, monthly sales per customer dipped in spring and summer of 2020 as theaters were closed (any transactions from that time may be due to non-ticket sales, such as gift cards or video on demand). When the first wave of reopenings occurred in August and September of 2020, AMC offered promotional discounts of 15 cents per ticket on opening day and $5 for select classic movies, which may have also contributed to a lower average monthly sales per customer compared to the following months.
In July 2022, AMC announced that it would bring back its $5 pricing for movie showings on Tuesdays through October, after halting the popular discount program during the pandemic.
AMC has been experimenting with new business offerings
In recent years, AMC has been introducing new movie-watching options through its video on demand service and private theater rentals. AMC is also reportedly exploring new avenues for selling concessions, such as by opening popcorn kiosks at retail stores and partnering with Uber Eats in some locations to deliver movie theater snacks. Additionally, AMC has launched NFTs for shareholders and for some movie releases. The movie theater chain is also reportedly considering its own cryptocurrency.
Bloomberg Second Measure launched a new and exclusive transaction dataset in July 2022. Our data continues to be broadly representative of U.S. consumers. As a result of this panel change, however, we recommend using only the latest post in assessing metrics, and do not support referring to historical blog posts to infer period-over-period comparisons.