AMC Entertainment Draws Bigger Crowds as Investor Confidence Fades
AMC Entertainment (AMC) just posted its best Memorial Day weekend ever, setting new records for both ticket sales and concession revenue. But despite packed theaters and positive box office momentum, the stock has dropped more than 16% over the past week. The disconnect highlights a deeper issue: while strong movie turnout is encouraging, it's not enough to offset the company's underlying financial challenges. With lingering structural issues, ongoing meme-driven volatility, and more attractive opportunities elsewhere in the sector, I remain bearish on AMC for now.
Confident Investing Starts Here:
The Bright Spots
There's no denying that AMC is enjoying some genuine momentum. The Memorial Day weekend was a clear highlight, as more than 7 million people went to an AMC to catch a movie (or two) over the holiday. This helped the company set new records for admissions, food and beverage sales, and overall revenue.
Furthermore, the industry is experiencing upward trends. After a brutal start to 2025, the spring months brought a welcome turnaround. April's box office results were double what they were the previous year, suggesting that audiences are returning to theaters (finally).
AMC is looking to ride the wave of returning moviegoers by doubling down on offering 'premium experiences', including upgraded seating, enhanced sound systems, and larger screens. These premium formats command higher ticket prices, which should help boost revenue per customer.
Finally, the company has recently announced it is experimenting with new advertising strategies, potentially creating another revenue stream.
Where Does the Red Carpet Lead?
Despite riding a rising tide and operational improvements, AMC's financial health remains problematic. The first quarter of 2025 was particularly challenging, with several key metrics heading in the wrong direction.
Furthermore, AMC reported a loss of $202.1 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $163.5 million during the same period in 2024. The impact this has had on AMC's cash reserves is alarming. Cash levels have dropped dramatically from $632.3 million to just $378.7 million. This rapid cash burn is worrying.
Ultimately, AMC's debt is a significant burden. The company carries a staggering $8.28 billion in total debt, with $43 million in debt payments due this year, $173 million next year, and a whopping $526 million in 2027. With less than $400 million in cash, its interest coverage ratio is now an anemic -0.18.
Is AMC a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
AMC's leadership team remains bullish about the company's prospects. Management is projecting annual revenue growth of about 7% over the next three years. While this sounds encouraging, it's actually slightly below the average for the broader entertainment industry, suggesting AMC may continue to face headwinds even in a recovery scenario.
Analysts following the company hold a mixed outlook for its prospects, rating it a Hold overall, with a 12-month price target of $2.92. Most recently, T exas Capital's Eric Wold rated AMC a Hold, with a price target of $3. Noting AMC's significant debt and upcoming maturities, he suggests cash flow challenges from rising interest expenses could impact the company's equity valuation.
Meanwhile, B. Riley's Drew Crum has lowered the price target on AMC to $3, while maintaining a Neutral stance. He maintains a generally positive outlook for the industry, given a robust upcoming slate of Hollywood films that are expected to drive box office recovery.
Citi analyst Jason Bazinet holds a more pessimistic view, recently reiterating a Sell rating. However, he slightly increased the price target to $2.60, citing changes in advertising forecasts amid reduced tariff concerns.
The Meme Stock Wild Card
Any discussion of AMC stock would be incomplete without addressing its 'meme stock' dynamics. Take May as an example—the share price nearly doubled within a matter of days, fueled by a wave of coordinated buying from retail investors on platforms like Reddit.
These kinds of explosive moves have become a defining feature of AMC's trading behavior. But the rallies are usually fleeting. Once the hype dies down, the stock often gives back its gains as the company's underlying financial challenges come back into focus—something we've likely seen play out over the past week.
While AMC's meme stock status can create bursts of excitement for short-term traders, it also brings extreme volatility. That volatility distorts traditional valuation metrics and skews technical indicators, such as moving averages, making it difficult to assess the stock through a conventional investment lens.
Final Analysis on AMC
The question for AMC ultimately revolves around whether resurgent demand and operational improvements can overcome its financial constraints. Until AMC can demonstrate consistent profitability and make meaningful progress in reducing its debt burden, positive box office trends will not be enough to sustain the stock (though ongoing meme-related volatility spikes are likely).
I am inclined to avoid AMC until the company can demonstrate that it can turn its box office momentum into the kind of sustained financial performance that will help it climb out of its debt crater.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Musk-Trump Feud: 5 Things To Watch For
President Donald Trump, left, and Elon Musk. Credit - Alex Wroblewski and Allison Robbert—AFP via Getty Images This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Like so many pieces of President Donald Trump's self-created reality, the key he handed to fellow billionaire and government hater Elon Musk was oversized and appeared to be coated with gold coloration. That Potemkin moment was merely one week ago today. Indeed, last Friday, Trump held the unusual send-off party for an adviser tasked with helping him destroy the spine of the federal workforce and a patron to his rise to power. Fast forward a week, and Trump has all but declared war on his one-time ally, lobbing threats to cancel federal contracts for everything from clean-energy cars, shuttles into the heavens, and access to satellite orbits. In turn, Musk kept pushing Republicans on the Hill to reject Trump's ambitious domestic policy agenda while throwing open the doors to conspiracy theories. The back-and-forth brinksmanship captivated Washington as the week headed toward its end. Both parties seemed to understand their ownership of the news cycle, and it's entirely possible that most of this spat was as scripted as a professional-wrestling beef. 'One thing's for sure,' Musk posted on X, 'it ain't boring!' That doesn't make it any less reckless. Here are five things to watch as this story unfolds. As catty as this feud has been, it is ultimately a huge distraction from Trump's agenda. The more time spent on a personality clash between this pair of mercurial iconoclasts, the less time is being dedicated to getting Trump's pending domestic agenda across the finish line. This is, to be clear, a fight that could leave both men empty handed. Trump is heading to his country club in New Jersey for the weekend, away from the White House and the churn of that campus. That may give Trump time to cool to a simmer—or to boil over if he's left alone with his DVR, social media feeds, and cell phone that gives him a constant hum of agitation. Establishment Republicans fear the window for a once-an-administration legislative reach is closing fast. The White House set a Memorial Day deadline for House passage and just barely got there. Administration officials are now looking at a July 4 target for the Senate following suit. The sooner Trump can quiet his frustrations, the better the odds of snagging the brass ring. Once Musk suggested—without evidence—that Trump is somehow implicated in the sex-trafficking criminality tied to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, there really was no telling where this goes next. The mega-rich like Musk don't exactly have a huge degree of self-awareness or self-control. Musk knows he is already under Trump's skin, and any plays to exploit Trump's insecurities don't exactly take terrible imagination. That's why this stands to go further sideways in a big way. Musk is not exactly known for keeping the savviest of political minds at his table. Unlike other deep-pocketed patrons, Musk does not have an army of consultants and so-called donor-advisers at the ready. But he does have the ear of some in Trump's inner circle, especially Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance. If the White House is looking for an off-ramp, it might avail itself of those two lesser-appreciated insiders. At its core, this spat began over Musk's criticism of the deficit spending that would accompany the Trump-branded 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that preserves and expands Trump's first-term tax cuts, slices into clean-energy initiatives carried in Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and boosts spending on border and immigration policing. It's poised to add trillions to the national debt. Musk, a newly converted deficit hawk, has said he sees the red ink as an existential threat. House Republicans powered their first leg of this marathon across the line with the barest of majorities and zero margin for error. Democrats were unified in their opposition, and remain even more so now that they've had time to unpack everything in a 1,000-plus-page bill that also would limit how much courts could rein in Trump and neuter the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence. In the Senate, things were already iffy. The White House plans to use a procedural trick that allows Senate Republicans to sidestep the typical filibuster rules and pass the legislation with a simple majority. But that's going to require keeping the parameters narrow and keeping the crayons inside the line, especially when it comes to long-term spending obligations. But Senate Republicans also plan to edit the bill text. Add in there Musk's threats of consequences for rubber stamping the House version and it's even murkier where this one goes. As soon as Musk and Trump began bashing one another in earnest on Thursday, the GOP base immediately started agitating in three big directions. In one corner were those bucking up Trump's flank. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon went so far as to suggest the feds look at Musk's immigration status, hinting that the South African-born Musk could find himself on the losing side of a deportation skirmish. In another stood Musk's defenders, who said maybe the world's richest man was onto something when it came to the criticism that sparked the fallout: that the tax cuts in the bill would balloon the nation's already terrifying pile of IOUs. Musk's following remains huge, but he does not have a natural constituency the way other political leaders enjoy. That is why he is such a potent force in electoral efforts, especially among voters who feel no one in elected office has their interests at heart. Add in there the libertarian-minded Silicon Valley set, and it's an unusual coalition that few others could muster. Finally—and this is where so many Republican lawmakers are falling in line—is the corner where there's a last-ditch hope that Trump and Musk can move on, forgetting the pettiness of the last week. The Kiss-and-Make-Up Caucus, as it's been jokingly called among Hill aides, is one with long odds, to be sure. But it's a detente that might allow both billionaires to save face while sparing lawmakers from picking sides, a fraught choice given the passions running high with low-information voters. Johnson, speaking with reporters on Friday, tried to navigate a way out of this mess without any new tinder. 'It's not personal,' Johnson told CNBC on Friday. 'I don't tell my friend Elon how … to build rockets. I wish he wouldn't argue with me on how to craft legislation and pass it.' Since Musk started busting-up the federal government in January, Hill Democrats have been in a listless tilt in search of a strategy. A few fiery speeches have not stopped Musk's march through the federal workforce. Some of the actions have been reversed, either through quiet climbdown or court-ordered pivots. But by and large, Democrats have been left on the sidelines and powerless to query Musk and his deputies, let alone stop them. That may shift now. Musk is clearly no longer a loyalist to Trump, who could still avail himself of claims of executive privilege and block Musk's cooperation with the Hill Democrats. But with Musk openly encouraging Trump's impeachment—which would be a record third time!—there are chances that this escalates in truly history-making ways. Hill Republicans have so far stuck together to protect Trump and, by extension, Musk from any real scrutiny. While much of Trump's Cabinet has bristled over Musk's over-reach into their fiefdoms, they have still dutifully shielded Musk and Co from any real oversight. Through some clever administrative trickery, the White House ensured that Musk was never technically a real federal employee, and even claimed he was never in charge of the office he was actually running. Efforts to haul him in for oversight hit a brick wall. Hill Republicans kept their frustrations buttoned-up and limited to closed-door venting. Now that Musk is untethered, the game may have changed. If the White House wanted to, it could go so far as to encourage Congress to make use of its subpoena power. While that's an unlikely outcome, Musk can no longer be assured of the safe bunker in Washington he had when this second Trump term began. Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter. Write to Philip Elliott at
Motor 1
2 hours ago
- Motor 1
'Missed My Bonus By One': Dodge Salesman Says May Was Terrible For Sales. Here's Why
So much for Memorial Day sales. Memorial Day weekend is usually one of the best times of the year to buy a car, as dealerships are eager to move older inventory to make room for fall's new models. But despite big banners and flashy promos, this year was a flop, according to a car salesperson who had an unexpectedly bad sales month. Are tariffs to blame, or is something else scaring off potential buyers? Dodge Salesman Vents About Bad Month In a trending video, Dodge salesman Dalton Stacey (@daltonstaceycars97), who's based in Oklahoma, shared what it's really like to sell cars in this market. Surprise, surprise, it's not pretty. Stacey explained that despite his employer giving the team an extra day to wrap up deals (instead of the cutoff being on Sunday, when customers might still be wavering on a decision), he made way fewer sales than he expected. 'I had so many people back out on me,' Stacey explained. 'It ain't even funny.' Because of all of the reneges, Stacey missed his bonus. What really hurts is that he was just one car shy of making the cutoff. 'Today sucked. May sucked. June better come correct,' Stacey said in the caption, clearly frustrated by the situation. Some people might hear this and think Stacey is making too big a deal about missing a bonus. But most people in the United States live paycheck to paycheck, and if you're relying on that extra income to cover your expenses, not getting it (especially by such a small margin) stings. Why Did People Back Out? Stacey doesn't explicitly state why his customers backed out, but we've got some context that'll help put things in perspective. Cars are getting more expensive—are tariffs to blame? Short answer: yes and no. In April, the average price of a new car jumped by a rare 2.5% to just under $49,000—a sharp rise for just a month's turnaround, Kelley Blue Book (KBB) reported . Even used car pricing increased. KBB described it as 'likely the first, softest wave of a storm.' Why? Tariff-related sticker shock is only a few months or just a few weeks away, depending on the brand. Right now, dealers are trying to get rid of their pre-tariff inventory. But when tariffs hit, vehicles could have up to a 25-percent markup baked in. (That 2.5 percent doesn't look so bad now.) The other factor affecting affordability is loans. Most people don't have the cash on hand to buy a car outright, so they rely on loans. But a good loan (meaning one with a low interest rate) is getting harder to qualify for. So even if you cop a deal, the loan may be what screws you over. No wonder so many people were sending Stacey the 'Actually, I need to think about it' texts. What to Do If You're Thinking About Buying a Car It depends on your situation, but here's a good place to start: If you're ready to buy soon: Shop around now while there's still pre-tariff inventory available, and take advantage of the slow market to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. If you're using a car loan: Shop around for loan rates and consider getting pre-approved through a credit union or your bank. If you're on the fence: If your vehicle is running fine, then waiting things out could help you avoid peak tariff prices. But have a backup plan, like a budget, in case your car ends up needing a major repair. If you're selling or trading in: You're in a good position here since used inventory is tight. Get multiple quotes and don't forget online retailers like Carvana and CarMax, which may offer you a better price. Motor1 reached out to Stacey for comment via email and TikTok direct message and to Dodge's parent company, Stellanis, via email. We'll be sure to update this article when we hear back. Now Trending Woman Starts Driving. Then Water Starts Pouring Onto Her Mercedes G-Wagon's Dashboard and Touchscreen Woman Gets Into Her Kia. Then Out of Nowhere, Her Screen Starts Smoking Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Time Magazine
2 hours ago
- Time Magazine
5 Things To Watch As the Trump-Musk Meltdown Proceeds
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Like so many pieces of President Donald Trump's self-created reality, the key he handed to fellow billionaire and government hater Elon Musk was oversized and appeared to be coated with gold coloration. That Potemkin moment was merely one week ago today. Indeed, last Friday, Trump held the unusual send-off party for an adviser tasked with helping him destroy the spine of the federal workforce and a patron to his rise to power. Fast forward a week, and Trump has all but declared war on his one-time ally, lobbing threats to cancel federal contracts for everything from clean-energy cars, shuttles into the heavens, and access to satellite orbits. In turn, Musk kept pushing Republicans on the Hill to reject Trump's ambitious domestic policy agenda while throwing open the doors to conspiracy theories. The back-and-forth brinksmanship captivated Washington as the week headed toward its end. Both parties seemed to understand their ownership of the news cycle, and it's entirely possible that most of this spat was as scripted as a professional-wrestling beef. 'One thing's for sure,' Musk posted on X, 'it ain't boring!' That doesn't make it any less reckless. Here are five things to watch as this story unfolds. Does Trump Turn the Page? As catty as this feud has been, it is ultimately a huge distraction from Trump's agenda. The more time spent on a personality clash between this pair of mercurial iconoclasts, the less time is being dedicated to getting Trump's pending domestic agenda across the finish line. This is, to be clear, a fight that could leave both men empty handed. Trump is heading to his country club in New Jersey for the weekend, away from the White House and the churn of that campus. That may give Trump time to cool to a simmer—or to boil over if he's left alone with his DVR, social media feeds, and cell phone that gives him a constant hum of agitation. Establishment Republicans fear the window for a once-an-administration legislative reach is closing fast. The White House set a Memorial Day deadline for House passage and just barely got there. Administration officials are now looking at a July 4 target for the Senate following suit. The sooner Trump can quiet his frustrations, the better the odds of snagging the brass ring. Does Musk Escalate? Once Musk suggested—without evidence—that Trump is somehow implicated in the sex-trafficking criminality tied to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, there really was no telling where this goes next. The mega-rich like Musk don't exactly have a huge degree of self-awareness or self-control. Musk knows he is already under Trump's skin, and any plays to exploit Trump's insecurities don't exactly take terrible imagination. That's why this stands to go further sideways in a big way. Musk is not exactly known for keeping the savviest of political minds at his table. Unlike other deep-pocketed patrons, Musk does not have an army of consultants and so-called donor-advisers at the ready. But he does have the ear of some in Trump's inner circle, especially Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance. If the White House is looking for an off-ramp, it might avail itself of those two lesser-appreciated insiders. Is the 'Big Beautiful Bill' In Limbo? At its core, this spat began over Musk's criticism of the deficit spending that would accompany the Trump-branded 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that preserves and expands Trump's first-term tax cuts, slices into clean-energy initiatives carried in Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and boosts spending on border and immigration policing. It's poised to add trillions to the national debt. Musk, a newly converted deficit hawk, has said he sees the red ink as an existential threat. House Republicans powered their first leg of this marathon across the line with the barest of majorities and zero margin for error. Democrats were unified in their opposition, and remain even more so now that they've had time to unpack everything in a 1,000-plus-page bill that also would limit how much courts could rein in Trump and neuter the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence. In the Senate, things were already iffy. The White House plans to use a procedural trick that allows Senate Republicans to sidestep the typical filibuster rules and pass the legislation with a simple majority. But that's going to require keeping the parameters narrow and keeping the crayons inside the line, especially when it comes to long-term spending obligations. But Senate Republicans also plan to edit the bill text. Add in there Musk's threats of consequences for rubber stamping the House version and it's even murkier where this one goes. Does MAGA World Have To Pick Sides? As soon as Musk and Trump began bashing one another in earnest on Thursday, the GOP base immediately started agitating in three big directions. In one corner were those bucking up Trump's flank. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon went so far as to suggest the feds look at Musk's immigration status, hinting that the South African-born Musk could find himself on the losing side of a deportation skirmish. In another stood Musk's defenders, who said maybe the world's richest man was onto something when it came to the criticism that sparked the fallout: that the tax cuts in the bill would balloon the nation's already terrifying pile of IOUs. Musk's following remains huge, but he does not have a natural constituency the way other political leaders enjoy. That is why he is such a potent force in electoral efforts, especially among voters who feel no one in elected office has their interests at heart. Add in there the libertarian-minded Silicon Valley set, and it's an unusual coalition that few others could muster. Finally—and this is where so many Republican lawmakers are falling in line—is the corner where there's a last-ditch hope that Trump and Musk can move on, forgetting the pettiness of the last week. The Kiss-and-Make-Up Caucus, as it's been jokingly called among Hill aides, is one with long odds, to be sure. But it's a detente that might allow both billionaires to save face while sparing lawmakers from picking sides, a fraught choice given the passions running high with low-information voters. Johnson, speaking with reporters on Friday, tried to navigate a way out of this mess without any new tinder. 'It's not personal,' Johnson told CNBC on Friday. 'I don't tell my friend Elon how … to build rockets. I wish he wouldn't argue with me on how to craft legislation and pass it.' Do Hill Democrats Finally Have an Opening? Since Musk started busting-up the federal government in January, Hill Democrats have been in a listless tilt in search of a strategy. A few fiery speeches have not stopped Musk's march through the federal workforce. Some of the actions have been reversed, either through quiet climbdown or court-ordered pivots. But by and large, Democrats have been left on the sidelines and powerless to query Musk and his deputies, let alone stop them. That may shift now. Musk is clearly no longer a loyalist to Trump, who could still avail himself of claims of executive privilege and block Musk's cooperation with the Hill Democrats. But with Musk openly encouraging Trump's impeachment—which would be a record third time!—there are chances that this escalates in truly history-making ways. Hill Republicans have so far stuck together to protect Trump and, by extension, Musk from any real scrutiny. While much of Trump's Cabinet has bristled over Musk's over-reach into their fiefdoms, they have still dutifully shielded Musk and Co from any real oversight. Through some clever administrative trickery, the White House ensured that Musk was never technically a real federal employee, and even claimed he was never in charge of the office he was actually running. Efforts to haul him in for oversight hit a brick wall. Hill Republicans kept their frustrations buttoned-up and limited to closed-door venting. Now that Musk is untethered, the game may have changed. If the White House wanted to, it could go so far as to encourage Congress to make use of its subpoena power. While that's an unlikely outcome, Musk can no longer be assured of the safe bunker in Washington he had when this second Trump term began.
