By Landon Manning
AMC, a prominent theater chain with more than a little experience in the world of chaotic online investment, has announced that by the end of 2021, it will be prepared to accept customer payments in Bitcoin (BTC).
This news was reported by The Washington Post on August 10, following an earnings call for shareholders and executives of AMC to discuss the financial results of the company over the year’s second quarter. Covering the company’s continued successes into fiscal year 2021, CEO Adam Aron announced that the world’s largest cinema chain would also be the first to venture into Bitcoin, allowing theater customers to purchase movie tickets and concessions with BTC.
This may seem like a surprising move from such a prominent global business, especially because they’ve planned and announced this program without any other major players in the industry making even a whisper of implementing something similar. And yet, there are reasons why AMC in particular would be amenable to a plan like this, and yet more reasons why betting big on Bitcoin may be the right move after all.
2021 has (to put it mildly) been a big year for AMC. At around the same time that Bitcoin’s star really began rising in January 2021, the Reddit community r/WallStreetBets’ short squeeze pushed AMC, along with other companies, up to astronomical heights, at one point reaching a $60 per share price. The current valuation of around $34 per share may seem like small potatoes in comparison, but it must be compared to the fact that its price on January 1 was just $2.
Aron commented that AMC locations worldwide will complete this Bitcoin acceptance rollout by the end of the year, but did not specify further than that. He did add, however, that the rollout would be concurrent with a rollout of Google Pay and Apple Pay, “since we had to do the IT programming to accept bitcoin anyway.”
“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” Aron told shareholders during the earnings call.
“This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing on this call that by year end, we will have the information technology systems in place to accept bitcoin as payment for movie tickets and concessions if purchased online at all of our U.S. theaters,” he added.
There are very few firms that can understand Bitcoin’s new era quite like AMC can. Since similar waves of decentralized internet investment have recently propelled the two at the same time, AMC is seeking to learn what it can from the experience. And indeed, learning from teachers like Bitcoin may be very necessary for the world’s largest theater chain, since the difficulties hitting the old world of the movie business are likely to be permanent.
With the company earning $19 million in revenue during Q2 2020, in the first true throes of the worldwide pandemic, Q2 2021 has brought in revenue exceeding $444 million. Improvements that dramatic are only possible through a dynamic embrace of the cutting edge, and Aron has proven that he’s willing to go the distance on that front through Bitcoin.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
