The revenue increase recently experienced by the movie theater chain AMC is "literally all" due to the concert films released by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, the company's CEO Adam Aron said in the company's latest earnings report.
AMC saw its revenue jump 11% to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2023, which is better than what analysts expected.
The update came from CEO Adam Aron in the company's earnings report for the third quarter of 2023.
"What is particularly noteworthy is how much AMC benefited from our trailblazing industry leading efforts with our highly successful distribution of two concert movies Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé," Aron said.
"Literally, all of that increase in AMC’s Revenue and (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is attributable to our having shown these two movies in our theatres in the U.S. and internationally," he added.
"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."
Aron said that the two films increased box office sales across the industry.
The Eras Tour movie, which follows Swift as she performed six shows at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, became the highest-grossing concert film of all time last year after it brought in more than $260 million. It surpassed Michael Jackson's posthumous concert film This Is It.
The Renaissance film grossed nearly $45 million. It includes a scene where Beyoncé visits her childhood home in Houston. The house caught on fire late last year.
Aron also used the earnings report as an opportunity to air some grievances about the two massive strikes that brought the film industry to a halt last year.
'This is a stunning result given that neither of these films were on anyone’s drawing board until mid-year,' he added.
"It is hardly a secret that the multi-month writers and actors strikes of 2023 crippled Hollywood for months on end, and seriously hurt theatre operators who were forced to wait for delayed movie titles," he said.
"After three years of hard work by one and all, the domestic industry-wide box office finally was in sight of pre-pandemic levels. In the peak of summer, July 2023, it was up 6% to July of 2019. Clearly, moviegoers flocked to theatres when Hollywood released films in quantity and of quality. Just think Barbie, Oppenheimer and Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour among so many others," the CEO added.
"But the strikes clearly interrupted that momentum. The fourth quarter domestic industry-wide box office was down 35% versus pre-pandemic 2019. The January/February 2024 domestic industry-wide box office was down about 45% versus the same months of pre-pandemic 2020.
"We point this out, because importantly we think the strike impacts will only be short-term in nature. AMC believes that the box office will start to strengthen again as soon as this coming month of March, in some of the summer months and especially in the latter third of this year."
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