AMC Theatres, the top movie chain in the U.S., continues to struggle with weak consumer demand – even after several blockbuster releases. To combat these challenges, AMC plans to make its loyalty program more generous by adding a free perk for members to boost moviegoer attendance at its theaters.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, AMC saw attendance at its U.S. locations drop by 7.5% year over year, according to its latest earnings report. Its total revenues also decreased by 1.4%, while it suffered a net loss of $127.4 million.
The drop in attendance in its U.S. markets comes after the average ticket price in the region reached $13.05. This is an increase from $12.44 average in the same quarter in 2024.
Many consumers nationwide have become more cautious about movie theater prices. A recent LendingTree survey found that 78% of Americans believe movie theaters have become expensive to the point where attending them is now a luxury, and 49% don’t think attending is worth the cost.
“Yes, complaints about ticket and popcorn prices are hardly new, but our survey makes it clear that many Americans find today’s costs to be a bridge too far, especially in the age of streaming. ‘Why would I pay this much when I can wait and stream it?’” wrote Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief consumer finance analyst, in the survey analysis.
AMC’s recent attendance decline also follows several highly anticipated films debuting in its theaters during the quarter, with a handful becoming box-office hits.
Top 5 U.S. box office releases between October and December 2025:
- “Zootopia 2” (released Nov. 26): $424,284,471 total gross
- “Wicked: For Good” (released Nov. 17): $342,915,090 total gross
- “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (released Dec. 19): $399,893,005 total gross
- “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (released Dec. 5):$127,730,290 total gross
- “Predator: Badlands” (released Nov. 7): $91,083,631 total gross
Source: Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro
Ringo Chiu/Shutterstock
AMC doubles down on loyalty perks with free new offer
Despite these film releases, AMC CEO Adam Aron said during an earnings call on Feb. 25 that the company faced a “softer industry environment” during the quarter as the U.S. box office declined by 4.4%.
To help win back customers, he said that AMC will continue to focus on evolving its loyalty program, a strategy that has benefited the company’s performance in recent months.
In January last year, AMC added a tier, AMC Premiere GO, to its paid loyalty program AMC Stubs. The new tier allows consumers to earn rewards and upgrade their memberships for free by increasing their theater visits, an offer Aron claims has been successful.
“That’s taken our member enrollments all the way up to some 39 million households in the United States, accounting for an impressive 51% of our total U.S. attendance during the year, playing for points in our frequent moviegoer loyalty program,” he said.
Related: AMC makes a big move to keep frustrated customers from fleeing
During the summer, AMC also introduced perks for AMC Stubs members, such as 50% off movie tickets and a small popcorn-and-drink combo on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. By December, it launched its AMC Popcorn Pass, which allows AMC Stubs members to get 50% off a large AMC Perfectly Popcorn all year for a one-time fee of $29.99.
“In only the first 2 months after launch, more than 120,000 guests have already paid us this $30 fee for a Popcorn Pass,” said Aron.
Now, AMC is planning to soon roll out free “preferred” seating to loyalty members, giving those moviegoers priority access to the best seats in its theaters.
“Later this year, AMC will introduce preferred so-branded premier seating where we will block and reserve the best seats in the house in our theaters to be accessed first only by our A-List and our Stubs premier members,” said Aron. “That’s the 2 VIP tiers within our Stubs program. At no added charge at AMC, we will assure that the best seats in our auditoriums are held out only, at first anyway, for our best customers.”
AMC has been sweetening the deal for loyal customers after it faced backlash in June for announcing a deal with cinema advertising company National CineMedia to run 25 to 30 minutes of pre-show advertisements before movie screenings at its theaters.
In response to the controversy, the theater chain later said that it will reduce some of the “marketing material” it runs before films.
AMC delivers bittersweet news for 2026
As AMC bets big on its loyalty program to fix weak demand, the company also has high hopes that the release of several highly anticipated films this year, such as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Dune: Part Three,” “Avengers: Doomsday,” “Moana” and “The Odyssey,” will boost attendance.
Aron said that the “extraordinary lineup of films” this year is “shaping up to be one of the most compelling in recent memory.”
“Based on the strength of the upcoming release slate, we believe that the North American box office in 2026 could increase by approximately $500 million to as much as more than $1 billion greater than was the case in 2025,” he said.
While AMC expects improved performance this year, it also plans to continue reshaping its theater footprint. In 2025, the company closed 21 locations and opened three. This year, it plans to close more theaters than it opens.
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“Like most organizations or companies with a retail footprint, our theaters are a kind of normal distribution, and there is a tail of underperforming or loss-making theaters,” said AMC Chief Financial Officer Sean Goodman during the company’s earnings call.
“And we see an opportunity to close those theaters or renegotiate leases and then take on new theaters that are significantly, very significantly more profitable,” he continued. “So I think you’re going to see the similar sort of pace going forward. We’ll be closing more theaters than we open, but the new ones that we opened are generating significantly more profit than the ones that we closed.”
Since 2020, AMC has closed 213 locations and opened 65, resulting in a net reduction of 148 theaters, which is roughly 15% of the company’s portfolio.
Goodman said that the ongoing changes to AMC’s footprint allow the theater chain to improve its financial health and productivity, setting it up for “sustainable long-term growth.”
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