As The Box Office Battles Back, Is No. 1 Circuit AMC About To Buckle? Don’t Bet Against Adam Aron…At Least Not Yet – CinemaCon Curtain Raiser
07.04.2024 - 21:15
/ deadline.com
Thank God — with hits like Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kung Fu Panda 4, the domestic box office may finally be shaking off the ashes from the double strikes, now counting close to $1.8 billion, with moviegoing gaining momentum.
We told you quite early – at last year’s CinemaCon — that the strike clouds were bound to send a monsoon on the business, and indeed they did.
But despite the theatrical business’ increasingly robust expectations for late summer and beyond — many peg Marvel Studios/Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine as the breaking of the dam — things have felt a bit touch and go and there’s been much chatter that exhibition is set for a reckoning; that mid-level exhibitors are bound to fold into each other. Even that the No. 1 circuit AMC Entertainment, which is saddled with about $4.8 billion in debt, is bound for bankruptcy. Not so — or not anytime soon
To riff off Mark Twain, the reports of AMC’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Alamo Drafthouse is shopping itself, has been for some months and for a high price, Deadline hears. But no major exhibitors are expected to fold — at least just yet. Studios Bosses were expected shoes to drop by this point in time as circuits do not have the Covid bailout money to account for any losses from the strikes. However, from what we hear, there aren’t any exhibitors behind in rental payments to major studios.
Save unforeseen events, and assuming the release schedule truly revives and the box office cooperates, the industry could emerge on the other side. This not Covid, which pushed Regal parent Cineworld into bankruptcy in the fall of 2022. It emerged last year, a private company, having shed most of its debt and a number of theaters.
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