AMC’s distribution of “The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance” grew AMC revenue by double digits in a bad quarter for box office overall.
AMC CEO Adam Aron can’t thank Taylor Swift and Beyoncé enough.
AMC Entertainment reported its Q4, 2023 earnings on Wednesday, February 28, with the theater chain seeing revenue growth of double digits in the quarter. Aron credited all of that growth — “literally, all of it,” Aron stressed — to AMC itself distributing both “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé.” It did this despite box office being down on the whole across the industry in the fourth quarter of the year.
“These two movies added greatly to movie theatre ticket sales across our entire industry, as just these two films represented fully one ninth of the complete fourth quarter domestic industry-wide box office,” Aron said in a statement. “This is a stunning result given that neither of these films were on anyone’s drawing board until mid-year, and that they were the first movies ever distributed by AMC in our entire 103-year history. To that end, our praise for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles Carter has no limit, and we offer our boundless thanks to these two world class artists for entrusting AMC to collaborate with them as to the theatrical exhibition of their two masterpiece creations.”
“The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance” were together among the biggest box office stories of last year, with a theater chain widely distributing a major concert film release for the first time. The surprise move frustrated other studio distribution heads to no end, as Swift’s film in particular completely dominated the box office upon its October 2023 release. “The Eras Tour” — which played in theaters at a higher, custom price point compared to a standard movie ticket — ended up grossing $261.6 million worldwide, and “Renaissance” made $43.9 million.
As Aron noted, the box office for Q4 was down about 35 percent compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, but it was actually up 6 percent in July 2023 before the strikes forced some movies to delay later in the year and when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were high. So the industry really needed a jolt in the arm from Taylor and Queen Bey, and AMC especially needed it.
AMC hasn’t announced another such release that it will be handling or distributing specifically just yet, and it can’t count on another T-Swift-sized event any time soon. But Aron said that despite some strike delays already impacting the first part of this year’s box office, he’s projecting the box office to bounce back as early as March.
“Over the medium term, we are both bullish and optimistic,” Aron said. “With all the caveats that no one’s crystal ball is perfect, we currently expect that the industry box office in 2025 will grow by $1 to $2 billion, or more, in size over 2024.”
Aron said AMC is cutting costs and tightening operating hours, as well as ramping up things like merchandising in theaters and selling custom popcorn and candy in retail stores.
