Trade · US

AMC Says It Has Recovered

AMC sold 75 million tickets in three months and turned a profit, and it is betting the holiday slate delivers the best box office year since 2019.

By Jeff Cameron November 7, 2026 3 min read

Photo: Netflix

AMC has spent most of this decade explaining how it would survive. This week it changed the message. “Today, we can finally say that AMC has recovered,” chief executive Adam Aron said on 4 November, as the largest theatre chain in the US reported a third quarter in which attendance jumped 28% and the company turned a profit.

The verdict is the company’s own. But the numbers behind it describe something audiences can feel: fuller rooms, higher prices and a holiday calendar the chain is counting on.

The numbers

AMC Entertainment reported results for the three months to 30 September.

A man and a woman talk over beer mugs at a bar table in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth — In pictures 3

Two men outside at night, seen through glass doors, in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth — In pictures 3

Attendance: 74.9 million, up from 58.4 million a year earlier. US theatres drew 52.1 million.
Revenue: US$1.71 billion, up 31.6% from US$1.30 billion.
Net earnings: US$109.3 million, against a loss of US$298.2 million a year earlier.
Adjusted EBITDA: US$347.5 million, up from US$122.5 million.
Average ticket price: US$12.73, up from US$12.25. In the US it was US$13.55.
Food and drink per patron: US$7.87, up from US$7.74; US$8.85 in the US.
Free cash flow: US$109.3 million for the quarter.
Footprint: 840 theatres and 9,472 screens at quarter end.

On 5 October, AMC also completed a refinancing of about 97% of its debt, pushing maturities out to 2031 and 2033.

Where the money came from

Aron credited “a resurgent box office,” market share gains and “the vast and growing number of AMC’s premium large format and extra large format auditoriums.” The release gives no count of those screens and no split of their revenue, but the price data points the same way: the average ticket rose 48 cents year on year while food and drink per head rose 13 cents, and US audiences paid about 80 cents more per ticket than the chain average.

AMC says October domestic box office ran about 35% above the same month last year, and it expects the rest of the slate to lift domestic and global box office to their highest full-year levels in seven years. That would be the best year since 2019. Those are forecasts, not results.

The slate it is betting on

AMC named the films it is counting on for November and December, including The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (20 November), The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday (18 December), alongside Jumanji: Open World, Ebenezer, I Play Rocky, Wild Horse Nine and Mr. Irrelevant.

The Cliff Booth entry is the telling one. David Fincher’s film is a Netflix title that opens with a two-week IMAX run from 25 November before reaching Netflix on 23 December. A theatre chain listing a streamer’s film among its holiday drivers is a sign of how much the old line between the two businesses has moved. AMC’s own risk factors still list “shrinking exclusive theatrical release windows” as a threat.

What it means for you

Book premium screens early. AMC is leaning on its large-format auditoriums, and its named titles crowd the weekends from 20 November to Christmas.
Prices are drifting up. The average US ticket at AMC was US$13.55 this quarter; booking early and using loyalty offers matters more in December.
A short window for Cliff Booth. If you want it on a big screen, the theatrical run is about four weeks before Netflix; our guide to how theatrical windows work explains why.
Watch the windows. How Cliff Booth performs in theatres will be a test case for streamer films that open on the big screen first.