AMC Theatres Sold Its Stake In a Silver Mining Company — Before Silver Went on a Record Run

The parent of AMC Theatres appears to have left a big chunk of money on the table when it announced in early December it had sold around 80 percent of its equity stake in Hycroft Mining Holding Corp. to fellow investor Sprott Mining for $24.1 million.

That sale alone allowed the cinema operator to essentially break even on its original 2022 investment, while retaining warrants and a small stake in the gold and silver mining company. But that’s before stock in Hycroft Mining closed on Monday down 2 percent to $49.59 on the NASDAQ Exchange as the spot price for silver jumped by another $4.05, or around 4 percent. At one point during the trading day, shares of Hycroft Mining reached $58.73 as equity investors continue stocking up on safe haven precious metals amid rising economic and political instability worldwide.

In the last month, silver, having reached new highs, has risen by 48.3 percent in per-ounce value, and by another 255 percent in the last year.

AMC in March 2022 surprised shareholders by acquiring a 22 percent stake in Hycroft Mining, a then idle Nevada gold and silver mine, for $27.9 million in cash in what was described at the time as an opportunistic investment to diversify the company away from a volatile Hollywood box office.

Nearly two months ago, AMC sold most of its Hycroft Mining stake to the gold and silver mine’s largest investor, Canadian billionaire Eric Sprott, who convinced AMC to join him in making their original investment in 2022. In a press release on Dec. 5, 2025, when shares of Hycroft Mining stood at $11.45, AMC said the transaction would generate an accounting profit of $7.9 million in the fourth quarter to end Dec. 31, 2025.

Under the terms of a private sales transaction with Sprott, AMC shed around 2.34 million shares of Hycroft Mining common stock in late November, along with warrants for approximately 1.34 million Hycroft shares and rights to approximately 12,000 future-vesting shares issuable under previously granted equity awards. AMC still retains around 1 million warrants to purchase Hycroft Mining shares at $10.68 per common share and around 64,000 Hycroft common shares.

But with silver reaching new all-time highs having sent Hycroft Mining shares on a tear so far in 2026, the big winner looks to be Sprott, whose profits have come in part at the expense of AMC. The cinema operator declined to comment on its Hycroft Mining stake transactions.

AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron on Monday took to X to tout his Hycroft Mining investment with his trademark populist appeal to retail investors. “We took so much derision in 2022 when we invested $28 million in Hycroft Mining. Investing in a gold and silver mine, they scoffed! Today our total Hycroft holdings (including the cash from our November sale), are worth about $72 million. He who laughs last, laughs best,” Aron wrote.