As the box office improves, will a steep discount on tickets bring more people to the multiplex this summer?
That’s what AMC Theatres is betting.
The Leawood, Kan.-based chain said this week that members of its AMC Stubs loyalty program, which has a free tier, will get 50% off adult evening-priced movie tickets all day long Wednesdays, starting July 9.
The move comes as the studios and theater owners have struggled to bring audiences back to the movies after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Box-office revenue improved in fits and starts as the pandemic waned, though the number of films released was greatly affected by the dual writers and actors strikes in 2023.
As of this past weekend, domestic ticket sales this year are down about 30% compared with the same time period in 2019, according to Comscore. Even before the pandemic, attendance numbers were declining.
But there is some hope on the horizon.
Total North American box-office grosses this year are expected to reach about 80% of 2019’s totals, with 2026 predicted to reach 86%, said Alicia Reese, senior vice president of equity research for media and entertainment at Wedbush Securities.
“The post-pandemic recovery has been pretty bumpy,” she said. “That said, the strikes really challenged the box-office volume for a while, but that’s now in the rear-view mirror.”
Theatrical attendance and flexible ticket pricing were frequent topics of conversation at the CinemaCon trade conference earlier this year in Las Vegas, where studio executives and exhibitors alike mused about how to bring audiences back to theaters.
A more diverse lineup of films would help, some said. Others, like Paramount domestic distribution president Chris Aronson, argued that an improved experience in the theaters, including fewer ads, limited trailers, extended matinee pricing or daily deals could lure customers back.
He highlighted the “Discount Tuesday” promotion available at many theaters.
“Why not ‘Discount Wednesdays’? Unless, of course, you’re already at full capacity on Wednesday, in which case, don’t do it,” he said during his on-stage presentation, to laughter from the audience of theater owners and industry executives.
That’s now exactly what’s happening at AMC, as theater operators consider ways to improve traffic on less-attended weekdays.
In explaining the decision, AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron touted the improved box-office results in the fiscal second quarter.
Just a few months ago, the industry was collectively wringing its hands over the poor performance in the first quarter, including underwhelming showings from films such as Disney’s troubled live-action “Snow White” and a general lack of blockbusters.
The bleak first quarter at the box office took a toll on AMC’s earnings, which the chain reported last week.
The company reported revenue of $862.5 million, down 9.3% from the $951.4 million it logged during the first quarter of 2024. Net loss for the first quarter was $202.1 million, compared with a loss of $163.5 million during the previous year. AMC also reported lower attendance for the first quarter with 41,903 admissions, a decrease of 10.1% from the same time period a year ago.
Aron cautioned in a statement at the time that the first-quarter domestic box office was “a distorting anomaly” and that anyone trying to draw conclusions about the movie theater business from those results was “likely to be mistaken.”
So far this spring, films like Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” have jolted the box office back to life.
And with several new movies on the horizon, including Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” and the Tom Cruise-led “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” analysts and theaters feel optimistic about the potential box office trajectory. As of last weekend, the year’s box-office grosses are up 16% compared with the same time period last year, according to Comscore.
“Realistically, we could not afford to have made this change to our ticket pricing strategy until the box office showed true signs of sustained recovery,” Aron said in a statement. “But in April and now in May, the box office has been booming, and the remainder of 2025 appears poised to continue that upward box office trend.”
Already, Tuesdays have emerged as the biggest non-weekend moviegoing day, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. Adding another lower-priced day to the mix could help drive attendance, increase concession sales and expose audiences to trailers for new films, he said.
“When consumers feel like they’re getting something more, the loyalty developed there is very important,” Dergarabedian said. “Having one of the bigger chains commit to this is a big deal.”
The initiative will likely be a test to whether it cannibalizes higher-priced attendance on other days, Reese said.
“Overall, I think it’s a strong strategy with a lot of really good content available over the summer to get people who wouldn’t otherwise go to the movies to come back to the movie theater,” she said. “Either way, it gets attention, it gets far more people onto their loyalty programs that they can communicate with directly, it opens their eyes to AMC’s paid subscription program.”
Dynamic ticket pricing, similar to hotels and concerts, has long been discussed as a potential attendance booster but hasn’t been fully embraced for movies.
Nonetheless, AMC has experimented with different kinds of discounts. The company a couple years ago introduced modestly lower-priced tickets for less in-demand front row seats, but later backed away from the idea.
