To keep the debt-saddled chain alive, Mr. As the coronavirus surged and retreated and resurged, AMC reopened most of its theaters, re-closed many of them and, lately, started to reopen some of them again. Aron to furlough 35,000 workers, including himself, and close every AMC theater: 10,700 screens in 15 countries. “We see dramatic growth in the size of the domestic box office not so far away,” he said with flourish in late February.īy mid-March, the coronavirus had forced Mr. Even with streaming services proliferating - and attendance in North America declining - cinemas worldwide collected $42.5 billion in 2019, a record high. Aron, who runs AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest multiplex chain, was feeling unusually invigorated about his antiquated industry.

The armrest cup holder, for instance, was patented in 1981.īut these are not normal times at movie houses. Every now and then, change-phobic cinema operators get excited about an innovation. Images get projected onto screens, sometimes in 3-D. Most of the time, the 116-year-old movie theater business is rather humdrum.

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