Adam Aron, CEO of the world’s largest movie chain, AMC Theaters, has seen his salary rise nearly 30 percent year over year as he navigates the box office rollercoaster.
The theater boss will receive $14.97 million in total compensation for 2025, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. This is up from $11.3 million in 2024 but below the levels paid to CEOs in the company’s post-years of 2022 and 2023 ($23.7 million and $25.4 million, respectively).
The 71-year-old executive is in his 10th year running AMC, which has 860 theatrical locations globally. Of his 2025 salary, $1.55 million was base salary, $7.38 million was from stock awards while $6 million came from the company’s non-stock incentive plan.
Last year, the domestic box office – led by Disney Lilo and Stitch The legendary/Warner Bros. Minecraft movie – It saw only a slight increase to about $8.87 billion. Meanwhile, AMC stock is down about 58 percent through 2025.
Aaron often uses defiant, colorful words — he referred to “doom forecasters who continue to vastly underestimate AMC’s will and skill” in an earnings call on July 20 — to skeptics of his strategy to prop up the debt-laden exhibitor.
Domestic box office revenues this year are more than 10 percent ahead of 2025 so far. AMC has sidelined a plan to show live concerts at its locations due to an unexpected box office boom (like A24’s). Back rooms And focus” mania) that helped fuel the recovery.
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie Odyssey It’s only added momentum (even if Imax arguably benefits more than AMC). Year-to-date, AMC stock is up 40 percent even as it trades at just $2.28 per share.
“More than 71 million guests visited our theaters worldwide in the second quarter, up 13.5 percent from a year ago, attracted by one of the strongest and most diverse movie slates we’ve seen in years,” Aaron told Wall Street analysts on the chain’s latest earnings call. He later added: “We also increased AMC’s market share as our domestic ticket revenues increased by a further 11.4 percent.”
Elsewhere in the AMC Theaters C-Suite, CFO Sean Goodman saw his salary rise to $4.9 million while COO David Ellis saw compensation rise to $2.47 million.
