Oscar Nominations Show What Is Wrong With AMC Stock These Days
You wouldn't expect the annual movie industry awards to be a red flag for AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) shareholders, but that's how things played out when the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday. Half of the year's 10 candidates for the coveted Best Picture award were available on a leading streaming service when they premiered last year. All five of the nominees for Best Actor were in films that were on streaming services at the same time as their multiplex runs.
It gets worse. All but one of the Best Picture nominations failed to crack $37 million in domestic ticket sales. The outlier -- Dune -- was freely available on HBO Max the day it premiered on the big screen. This isn't problematic at first glance. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its nearly 10,000 voting members tend to favor artsy fare that doesn't necessarily click with mainstream audiences. All seven of last year's highest-grossing films in the U.S. were the superhero or action films that rarely garner Oscar nods outside of the visual effects category. However, it does matter based on how exhibitors are struggling to fill their theaters outside of the sparse high-profile blockbusters they're getting.
There's a problem here. Multiplex operators and their investors better hope someone writes up a Hollywood ending soon.
Source Fool.com
