Adam Aron on Oscars, AMC’s goldmine, maintaining relationships with studios, streamers and 4 million shareholders – CinemaCon

Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, said the previous gig, as CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers, encouraged him on social media and tweeted about his native NBA team’s fan base. The experience saw a dramatic transformation of the shareholder base of the theater network, mostly from institutions to around 4 million people.

Prior to the start of last year, 80% of AMC’s shares were owned by institutions. Then it became a meme stock. “In March 2021 we felt there had been a dramatic change. Suddenly he owned 80% of the retail shareholders. [But] “AMC needed to talk to our shareholders, explain what we were doing, why we were doing it, build consensus on our strategies and tactics,” Aaron told Deadline in a lengthy interview with CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday. On the state of the sector and the strategy and prospects of the gigantic exhibition.

CinemaCon 2022: full coverage of the deadline

The usual quarterly earnings betting book, analysts, investor conferences and road shows won’t reach new people. “These were completely uncharted waters. I’ve never heard of any other company finding out what to find out in 2021. So I went to Twitter. And what has happened since then has been a very active, energetic and two-way exchange of information ”. Aaron is followed by 2,500 AMC shareholders.

It also manages relationships with Hollywood studios and streamers, continues to strengthen the company’s finances (which are improving; AMC had $ 5.5 billion in debt and $ 1.8 billion in cash at the end of December), and is diversifying the business. Shares of the Nevada mine fell in troubled times, but said it has 60 million ounces of gold in proven deposits.

Aaron pointed out that AMC is still a movie chain and expects more film acquisitions after recently adding 15 locations across the US.

CinemaCon is a show of mutual support between the owners of the theater and the studios.

“We work with the studios and continue our ongoing dialogue with all the major content creators, trying to encourage them to show films in our theaters and, when they do, we give them great results. Said. He echoed comments from NATO chief John Fitzgerald that the study day and date experiment had failed and was being repeated over and over again.

As for pure streamers, “AMC is happy to show Apple movies, Amazon movies, and Netflix movies in our theaters, and we’ve been talking to each of these companies for some time,” Aron said. “But in all fairness to our existing partners, we need them to stand by the window.”

“I can really predict the day when streamers decide it’s best to show their movies in theaters first. “It will give these films more status,” she said. When? “We will listen when we hear.”

In response to the question, Aaron also shared the Oscars TV show (its controversial ratings, not the mud) criticizing the Oscar voting years for “movies that very few people actually watch.” [while] “Films where viewers actually leave their homes and show large numbers are often ignored by the academy.”

“I think there will be more interest in the Oscars if the films that directors show loyalty and affection to are recognized more often,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that this should come at the expense of all the small feature films the Academy has been making lately. But unsurprisingly, if viewers don’t recognize the movie, haven’t seen it, don’t know who’s in the movie, they won’t be so thrilled to see the holidays.