When Will AMC Shareholders Get to Smile?
Let's start with the good news for AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) and its shareholders. Smile rang up $17.6 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend. After a respectable debut with $22.6 million a week earlier -- a notable achievement for a brand new horror franchise with limited star power -- it was just a 22% decline between its premiere and the subsequent weekend. This is the strongest audience retention between a film's first two weekends that theater owners have seen in 2022.
It's October. Scary movies thrive this time of year. A sleeper hit early in the Halloween season bodes well for the balance of the month.
Now let's turn to the bad news. Smile was the top draw at the box office. The two big debutantes this weekend -- the star-studded Amsterdam and the family-friendly animated Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile -- failed to overtake the older Smile in ticket sales at your local multiplex. The end result is another lackluster weekend for the industry. Sometimes a warm Smile isn't enough.
Source Fool.com
