The Internet Does It Again: AMC Just Had Its Best Week In The Company's 103 Year History Thanks To "Barbenheimer" Crushing At The Box Office
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CNN- AMC Theaters (AMC) hit a revenue record last week, driven by the overwhelming success of the “Barbenheimer” pop culture craze. In a news release on Sunday, the world’s largest theater chain announced that from July 21-27, it earned its largest single-week admissions revenue since the company’s founding in 1920. AMC attributed this 103-year high to the incredible opening weekend of both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” as well as the strong momentum that continued to carry them along.
“Barbenheimer” had tremendous staying power in its second weekend in theaters, with “Barbie” grossing $93 million and “Oppenheimer” almost $47 million, according to official studio numbers.
Last weekend was AMC’s busiest since the pandemic forced theaters to close in 2020, the company said, and this weekend marked the chain’s third-busiest worldwide since reopening. It reported that 65 AMC locations across 19 states and Washington, DC, set their own box office records this week as well. AMC shares were up about 7% in late-afternoon trading, to about $4.99.
Has any company been more blessed by random memes more than AMC? First their stock goes through the roof or to the moon or whatever all the people I muted on Twitter back in 2020 because people decided to have some fun with $AMC during the dog days of the pandemic and now they are raking in dough hand over fist because people thought it would be funny to watch a 6+ hour double feature about the atomic bomb and a girl's doll. I've said it before and I'll say it again. God bless the internet (even if the internet and streaming is part of the reason movie theaters are being buttfucked into oblivion).
I know that people spent a bunch of extra money for IMAX because they know Christopher Nolan movies always hit different on the super big fancy screen and nothing beats participating in a ridiculous internet phenomenon with an absurd name like Barbenheimer. But I'm shocked that there wasn't just one week that topped last week considering AMC is over a century old and we've had plenty of weekends with multiple blockbusters back when the movie industry was thriving instead of its current state of "struggling mightily", "on its last breath", or "deader than the 2023 Mets playoff hopes". Are you trying to tell me some combo of like a Will Smith, the MCU, Spielberg, and/or some animated kids movie that made a kabillion dollars didn't team up to load the pockets of AMC in a week's time more than "Barbenheimer"? That's bonkers to me.
To be clear, I'm not complaining since I'm one of the people that still loves going to the movie theater since its one of the few places I can escape my kids for a couple of hours all while shoveling popcorn down my throat. I am also cackling at the thought of Tom Cruise screaming at his people like Les Grossman after seeing this article giving credit to two other movies for putting the movie industry on its back like Greg Jennings instead of Cruise, all while a Mission Impossible was playing in the theater at the same time.
Anyway, shout out to everyone that watched "Barbenheimer" on the big screen the last couple of weeks to help keep theaters alive since supporting movies fueled by the military and capitalistic might of the United States is pretty much the most American thing you can do. Robbie, Eddie, and myself all partook in the Barbenheimer experience like the patriots we are and broke down our thoughts on both movies as well as the experience of seeing them back-to-back for anybody that made George Washington proud by seeing them together.