The AMC Burbank 16 and the bronze statue of Batman in downtown Burbank.
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More than a hundred years after its founding, AMC Entertainment is doing something that had never been done before: advertising itself on television.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest theater chain announced it would spend more than $ 25 million on a multimedia campaign with Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.
The ads will run online and on social media on Wednesday. Network TV versions will begin airing on Sunday.
The move comes after the company endured disruptions to last year’s coronavirus pandemic, averted bankruptcy and raised nearly $ 1.8 billion in cash. Armed with these funds, AMC has sought new movie leases, invested in new payment options such as Bitcoin, and is looking to increase the variety of its content offerings to include prefabricated sports and concerts.
“As we’ve said repeatedly lately, thanks to the billions of dollars we’ve raised this year, AMC is strong and it’s time for AMC to play offensively again,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
Traditionally, movie theater owners have relied on studios to promote movies and drive moviegoers to their local movie theaters. Aron said the company will no longer depend on “what has always been worked on before,” noting that the pandemic has pushed the industry into “unexplored waters.”
Movie theaters reopened in August last year, but audiences only recently began to return en masse. As vaccination rates have risen and audiences have become more comfortable away from home, Hollywood blockbusters have generated increasingly better box office deals.
Over the weekend, Disney’s “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” grossed $ 75.5 million in ticket sales, the second highest national debut since the pandemic began, behind “Black Widow “, which captured $ 80 million during its opening in July.
The new Marvel movie also had the highest opening of any movie released during Labor Day weekend and helped AMC shatter its holiday ticket record. The weekend also marked the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that attendance over a 2021 weekend exceeded attendance over the same 2019 weekend.
However, the national box office has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Family films, once basic at the box office, have had particularly weak screenings, as children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccination. “Paw Patrol: The Movie” garnered just $ 13 million in national box office sales during the opening weekend in late August and is arguably one of the most popular children’s TV franchises.
In 2018 and 2019, between May and the first weekend in September, national box offices totaled $ 4.4 billion and $ 4.3 billion in sales, respectively. Over the same period in 2021, the U.S. and Canadian box office grossed $ 1.7 billion in ticket sales, according to Comscore data.
“With all the change that is taking place in these unknown waters in which we now sail, we believe it is time for an industry leader like AMC to come out on television to remind today’s audience of the magic that can only be found in a movie theater. and AMC, with our big seats, our great sound and our big screens, ”Aron said.
Other forms of entertainment are also engaged in advertising to get the audience back. Last month, Broadway producers and theater owners teamed up to spend $ 1.5 million on digital and targeted outdoor advertising. Like movie theater owners, Broadway typically relied on individual shows to market their performances. However, with tourism almost halted, the Broadway League wants to encourage local residents to support the industry.