- AMC Entertainment sold a record $28 million worth of soda, popcorn, and other snacks in two days thanks to "Avengers: Endgame."
- The cinema chain showed the superhero movie 63,000 times during a four-day stretch, and saw a surge in applications to the 'A-List' tier of its Stubs loyalty program.
- It has used dynamic pricing to maximize profits from " Avengers: Endgame," charging between $15 and $52 for different seats in one London cinema.
- AMC reported lower sales and profits in the first quarter, but expects "Avengers: Endgame" and other Disney movies to increase its adjusted profits this year.
- Watch AMC trade live.
"Avengers: Endgame" fans were craving more than epic fight scenes during its first weekend in cinemas. AMC Entertainment sold a record $13 million worth of soda, popcorn, and other snacks on the superhero movie's opening day, then promptly broke that record with $15 million of sales the following day, according to its first-quarter earnings call.
"This year started slowly," Adam Aron, the cinema chain's CEO, said on the call. "But that all changed with the record-shattering opening of Avengers: Endgame."
AMC showed the three-hour Marvel movie 63,000 times in the US over a four-day stretch - over 20,000 times more than its previous biggest opening. The film also sparked a surge in applications to become A-List members - the top membership tier of AMC's Stubs loyalty program. The group now has more than 787,000 A-List members, an increase of about 180,000 from the start of the year. Nearly 75% of A-List members watched "Avengers: Endgame."
The company has used dynamic and tiered pricing to maximize its gains from the movie. On the call, Aron gave the example of the Odeon Leicester Square cinema in London, where it charged "anywhere from $15 to $51.63 per ticket for the opening weekend of 'Avengers: Endgame,' based on where you sat in the theater," and priced more than half of the tickets close to $40.
A lack of blockbuster movies was at least partially behind AMC's attendance slumping 12% to below 80 million in the first quarter, according to its earnings report. Constant-currency revenues fell by 11% to $1.2 billion, pushing adjusted EBITDA down 57% to $108 million.
However, Aron expects "Avengers: Endgame" and upcoming Disney movies such as "Aladdin," "Lion King," and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" to help offset AMC's underperformance in the first three months of the year, fueling "another record-breaking year" and an increase in full-year adjusted profits.
"We should all keep in mind with some glee that AMC Odeon generates more box office dollars for Disney than does any other single cinema operator in the world," he said. "So when Disney wins, AMC wins."