AMC CEO Says a Lack of New Movies, Not COVID or Streaming, Is the Real Threat to Theaters
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron has constantly expressed optimism over the future of his movie theater chain and continued to do so in an earnings call on Tuesday in which he swung back against what he called “conventional wisdom” in the media over perceived threats to his industry.
Aron downplayed the effects that COVID-19, the popularity of streaming, and the shortening of the theatrical window have had on movie theaters as they have navigated through a feast-or-famine year at the box office. Conversely, Aron said that not enough attention has been paid to the lower number of films in 2022, which he believes has been the actual threat to movie theaters as they try to dig out of the financial hole left by the 2020 pandemic closures.
“People will still come down with COVID-19, but it is no longer the commerce-destroying thing that it was back in 2020 and 2021,” Aron asserted, pointing to the increased availability and usage of the COVID-19 vaccine and subsequent drop in hospitalizations as evidence of the return to normalcy, at least when it comes to customer confidence in the safety of moviegoing.
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As for streaming, Aron reiterated arguments made by other theater CEOs like Cinemark chief Sean Gamble stating that movie theaters and streaming services can coexist, touting AMC’s recent, first-time-ever deal with Netflix to screen “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” for a one-week limited engagement later this month. AMC also held special screenings of the Paramount+ series “Yellowstone” starring Kevin Costner in its theaters in October.
Aron also echoed Gamble’s argument that a 45-day theatrical release window — half of what exhibitors defended tooth-and-nail prior to the pandemic — is still beneficial to both theaters and streaming services by giving theaters ample time to sell tickets for the film while getting those titles to streaming faster, all while those films enjoy the increased public profile that comes with a theatrical release.
“Hopefully, that will turn out to be acceptable for both theaters and studios to both do well,” he said. “At this point, there is only one topic that should be on the top of all minds…movie theater operators need more movies.”
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For months, major figures in the exhibition industry like NATO chief John Fithian warned that production backlogs caused by the pandemic have significantly reduced the number of films released by studios in theaters in 2022. While films like “Top Gun: Maverick” have performed as well as any pre-pandemic blockbuster, the theatrical slate has seen months-long periods where theaters have gone without the sort of widely popular tentpoles that support moviegoing.
This has led to significant slumps in January and February and later in August and September, where the combined domestic grosses over those two months fell from $1.51 billion in 2019 to just $790 million in 2022. That slump extended to October, which saw a monthly gross total of $468 million that is the lowest since 2001, when the Sept. 11 attacks significantly reduced moviegoing interest.
“Every few months, I have the opportunity to meet in person with the heads of the major studios in Hollywood,” Aron told investors. “Over and over again, I’m hearing from them that they are doing all in their power to pick up the pace of the number of movies they will release going forward.”
Signs are pointing to 2023 having substantially more films on the slate than 2022, including four DC films, three Marvel Studios films, new installments in the “Fast & Furious,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Transformers,” “Hunger Games” and”John Wick” franchises, as well as Harrison Ford’s fifth and final turn as Indiana Jones just to name a few.
