Last year, AMC Theaters lost $163.5 million during this same quarter. This year, that number climbed to a $202.1 million loss.
Thanks for nothing, Snow White!
Gross revenues for the quarter ending this March fell nine percent, from $951.4 million last year to just $862.5 million this year.
“[T]he box office results from January to March were the lowest they have been since 1996,” admitted AMC Chairman Adam Aron.
But.
According to Aron, things are looking up for the rest of the fiscal year.
“Anyone trying to draw any conclusions about the success or appeal of movie theaters from the results of the first quarter of 2025 is likely to be mistaken,” he said, “because the industrywide domestic box office in Q1 was in our view a distorting anomaly that has already corrected itself.”
His conclusion: “We continue to believe that moviegoing demand for the balance of 2025 and all of 2026 will show great strength.”
Per Variety, the second quarter of 2025 is already looking up, “thanks to hits such as Sinners, Minecraft, and last weekend’s Thunderbolts*.
Variety adds that “the comparisons to the first quarter of 2024 were always going to be challenging, considering that sequels to popular franchises like Dune and Kung Fu Panda were released during that period.”
I do find it fascinating that Variety will admit in a report like this one what it never will when doing box office analysis.
Whenever Variety — or any trade publication that depends on the studios for advertising dollars, access, and scoops — analyzes the box office, it’s all about lame-ass excuses. Streaming is killing movie theatrers. We’re still dealing with the pandemic. Americans audiences are too racist, sexist, and homophobic to make this $400 million movie about an Eskimo, lesbian superhero a box office hit.
What Variety and Company do not have the moral courage to do is admit to and address the one simple fact that is killing movie theaters: most movies suck the big one today. The movies are unappealing. The actors are unappealing. The whole industry is unappealing.
But look at how this Variety report on AMC’s quarterly figures says exactly that without saying it.
Why was AMC’s 2024 quarter superior to this quarter? Variety admits: “sequels to popular franchises like Dune and Kung Fu Panda were released during that period.”
Why is this next quarter already an improvement over the previous quarter? Well, per Variety, that’s “thanks to hits such as Sinners, Minecraft and last weekend’s Thunderbolts*.”
Wait?
Whuh?
How is it possible that a racist country is making a hit from the black-led Sinners and a sexist country is making a hit of the female-led Thunderbolts*?
And if streaming and pandemic are the problem, what changed about streaming and the pandemic to increase or decrease those quarterly revenues?
I’m so confused.
Not really.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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