A sustained and sustained box office rebound in Hollywood fueled strong revenue growth at AMC Theaters during the second quarter.
Total revenue rose 14 percent to a quarterly record high of $1.59 billion, compared with $1.39 billion in the same period in 2025, even as AMC increased its net loss to $11.4 million, versus $4.7 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $320.6 million, compared to $189.2 million, representing another quarterly record.
Investors greeted the latest financial results from the exhibition giant, which rose on a Hollywood box office rebound by lifting shares of AMC Theaters stock 34 cents, or 17 percent, to $2.28 in pre-market trading Monday.
AMC’s second-quarter results track an exhibition industry that is seeing gains from consistent and diverse exposure for Hollywood releases such as Toy Story 5 and Super Mario Galaxy movieand sudden horror images such as Back rooms and maniato return movie lovers to the habit of going to cinemas in pre-pandemic numbers.
This weekend only, Christopher Nolan’s epic drama Odyssey The film revitalized the summer box office with the biggest live-action debut of the year and the Oscar-winning director’s highest-grossing global release of $124 million. This allowed exhibitors to look forward to the full-year 2026 box office potentially exceeding last year’s comparable performance, perhaps setting a new annual record.
“Our U.S. and European businesses showed significant progress in the second quarter. The momentum in industry-wide domestic box office totals is undeniable, reaching nearly $2.99 billion, up 10.7 percent from last year’s second quarter, making it the biggest box office quarter in seven years and the fifth-biggest quarter ever,” AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron said in a statement Monday morning.
Attendance in American markets rose 12 percent to 52.2 million visitors, compared to 46.8 million in 2025, while attendance in global markets also rose 18 percent to 18.7 million cinema visitors, compared to 16 million sponsors. Last weekend, AMC saw 4.3 million customers pass through its theaters Odyssey Launch More than half of ticket receipts for Nolan’s epic were for giant screen formats like Imax and Dolby auditoriums, which command ticket price premiums, Aaron said during a morning analyst call.
In the press release on the company’s second-quarter financial results, Aaron also spoke of his debt-laden company’s fortunes as it looks to recover from the impact of pandemic-era box office disruptions, including by reducing borrowing costs: “This demonstrates the operating leverage inherent in our business model at a time of rising revenues, along with the strength of AMC’s market-leading position, the appeal of our theaters, the growing numbers of our premium shows, the versatility of our marketing programs and our ability to keep a tight lid on our costs.”
The theater chain’s president added: “Finally, after some admittedly difficult years in which our industry has only slowly recovered from the ravages of COVID-19 and its fallout, AMC’s continued focus on delighting our guests while going all-out is reflected in our record-setting second-quarter financial results.”
During the analyst call, Aaron said maintaining discipline on cost containment and moving forward with capital expenditures will keep incremental revenues to a minimum. “We will do everything we can to maximize and drive revenue growth and keep costs under control,” he said.
Arun also told analysts that the exhibitor will continue to add giant screen formats to its circuit, especially XL viewing, and better seating, to attract moviegoers to multiplexes and willing to pay premium ticket prices.
This is without having to raise ticket prices. “So we can increase our revenue per patron without having to increase prices. “It creates new opportunities for audiences to move to premium formats, provide new movie-themed content, and movie-themed merchandise,” Sean Goodman, AMC Theaters CFO, added during the analyst call.
Aaron also championed continued new cash raising to keep AMC Theaters on track for post-pandemic recovery by paying down the company’s massive debt load. “While the decisions we made were not always popular with our shareholder base, we knew they were absolutely essential to our survival and gave us the runway we needed to reach the Promised Land,” he told analysts.
