By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – AMC stock (NYSE:AMC) was up almost 12% in Tuesday’s premarket a day after the multiplex operator posted a smaller than expected loss for the second quarter.
As of June 30, all of AMC's 593 U.S. movies theatres and 95% of its 335 international theatres were open, though most of them did not reopen until early June.
AMC's net losses narrowed to $344 million, or 71 cents per share, from a loss of $561.2 million, or $5.38 per share, a year ago. Analysts had forecast a loss of 91 cents per share.
The movie theater chain reported revenue of $444.7 million, higher than the $382.1 million analysts had expected.
New blockbusters, coming after a year of the pandemic, shored up revenue as audiences returned.
“AMC’s journey through this pandemic is not finished, and we are not yet out of the woods,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement Monday. “However, while there are no guarantees as to what the future will bring in a still infection-impacted world, one can look ahead and envision a happy Hollywood ending to this story.”
Aron also raised the possibility of accepting Bitcoin as a payment method at locations in U.S. in what is seen as an appeal to the interests of many of the company's new investors.
AMC avoided bankruptcy during the pandemic in part because it was able to raise cash on the back of the “meme stock” frenzy.