AMC Theatres Posts Higher Revenue on Attendance Rebound in Latest Quarter

Better Hollywood box office led AMC Entertainment Holdings to higher theater attendance and revenue in the first quarter of 2026.

U.S. markets attendance was up 14 percent to 30.7 million filmgoers, against a year-earlier 27 million, while international attendance rose 12.6 percent at 16.8 million ticket buyers, against a year-ago 15 million patrons, as AMC sees a continuing roller coaster ride for Hollywood box office into 2026.

During the latest quarter, AMC Theatres played on its screens tentpoles like Project Hail Mary, compared to the year-earlier period when it relied on Disney’sSnow Whiteand Christmas holdovers likeMoana 2andWickedto drive box office.

That allowed the debt-laden parent ofAMC Theatresin the first quarter to report overall revenues at $1.04 billion, up from a year-earlier $862.5 million. The mega-exhibitor also shrunk its net loss to $117 million, against a year-earlier $202.1 million, and its adjusted EBITDA improved by $96 million year-over-year.

As AMC rides a premium screen gold rush at the local multiplexby offering varied immersive auditoriums like Imax, Dolby Cinema, iSense, XL and laser projection-equipped screens, the question for investors is if better box office trends will impact the exhibitor’s ambition to shrink losses and boost revenues to pay down debt.

“We have repeatedly demonstrated in prior quarters that where there has been significant industry growth, with industry revenues rising, then AMC’s adjusted EBITIDA can correspondingly soar,” AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron told analysts during an after-market call with his prepared remarks.

Aron added his company’s long-term debt currently stands at around $3.9 billion, well down from the $5 billion debt load AMC Theatres already had going into the COVID pandemic, before then reaching $6 billion in overall long-term debt at the end of 2020.

The global cinema giant in its latest financial quarter saw admissions revenue rise sharply to $578.4 million, compared to a year-earlier $473.5 million. Food and beverage revenue also rose to $347.3 million, compared to $283.4 million in the same period last year.

Aron predicted box office revenue would continue to rise during the rest of full year 2026 as the current second quarter has already been lifted by Illumination’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael from Lionsgate and Universal, and Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2.

“The momentum in the industry is palpable with renewed commitments by our studio partners to both increase the number of theatrical movie releases and extend theatrical windows to at least 45 days,” Aron earlier added in a statement that accompanied his latest financial results.

On the analyst call, Aron discussed current negotiations between studios and exhibitors around the evolving theatrical window now at around 45 days before films are available in homes.“This is such good news for the movie theater industry, and we are pleased that AMC has played a central role in pushing this entire initiative of respecting longer theatrical windows going forward.”

“We believe him. We have great respect for the leadership at Paramount,” Aron added about David Ellison committing to 30 movie releases a year with Warner Bros. and Paramount, against some industry skepticism his merged studio will ultimately meet its goals.

The AMC Theatres boss also singled out Netflix for praise as it plans a wide theatrical release window for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia in Feb. 2027. “This is the biggest opportunity our industry has ever had to embrace Netflix as a theatrical content provider,” Aron said.

He added Netflix was looking to see how its upcoming Narnia release performed at the box office after other collaborations that included Stranger Things: The Finaledebuting simultaneously on the streamer and in roughly 600 cinemas. “I believe that the three things that we’ve done already with Netflix has been successful, that Narnia will be successful, that we will find other successful opportunities to work with Netflix,” Aron argued.

The AMC Theatres head also talked up his partnership with Arena One to bring real-time concert events to theatrical audiences. “We’re quite optimistic. We believe its going to be a very profitable activity for us, and one that we have on an exclusive basis, and one that we think has great potential opportunity to deliver real dollars to the bottom line,” Aron told analysts.