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On this page, you will find information on the corporate profile of AMC, which will provide you with details such as the company’s description, history, and background information.

The Views of the Company

AMC Entertainment Inc. has been devoted to providing the most exciting movie-going experience in the world since its inception in 1920. AMC Theatres has altered the way consumers watch movies along the road by turning the experience into an adventure.

With stadium-style seating, cutting-edge sound systems, and what is now known as the megaplex. AMC Theatres stays focused on being a source of fun and leadership while upholding our values as a good presence in your community and our objective of providing the finest quality movie-going experience.

A Brief History of AMC.

AMC Entertainment Inc., through its subsidiary American Multi-Cinema, Inc., is the world’s largest theatre exhibition corporation by revenue and one of the major motion picture exhibitors in the United States by the number of theater screens operated. AMC operated 200 theaters with 2,800 screens in 23 states in 1999. AMC, a founder in the construction and operation of multi-screen theatres, produced approximately $1 billion in annual ticket sales in 2000.

Stanley H. Durwood (previously Dubinsky) founded AMC in 1968, however, the company was founded by Durwood’s father in 1920. Formerly, the older Durwood had been a struggling performer for a touring tent play. In 1920, he gave up performing and leased a cinema theater in downtown Kansas City. Durwood’s wife also gave birth to Stanley in 1920, who would build the fledgling company into a tiny theater empire by the end of the century. Durwood was successful enough in the 1920s and 1930s to open a few more theaters in the Kansas City region. He also performed well enough to assist in sending Stanley to Harvard in the early 1940s.

Stanley Durwood earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard in 1943. After college, he joined the United States Air Force and served during WWII, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. Stanley returned to Kansas City after the war and joined the family business, Durwood Theaters. Throughout the 1950s, Stanley and his father, as well as his younger brother and sister, gradually developed the business into a network of 10 local movie houses and drive-in cinemas. During this time, Stanley devised an intriguing concept for a new type of cinema: a single facility with several theater screens. Although he was unable to actualize his vision while his father was in command, he kept the notion alive in his head.

Stanley’s father died in 1960, and the firm was maintained by Stanley and his siblings, with Stanley in control of operations. By the time Stanley took over the company, the theatrical industry had grown into a regional, if not national, force. The Durwoods were under pressure from larger operators with more and larger complexes since they had just 10 cinemas. Because such enterprises had a far larger market reach, they were frequently able to snare the best movies, allowing the Durwoods to choose among the less classic movies.

As Durwood recounted in the March 25, 1994, Kansas City Business Journal, “I had to beg and plead for an Abbott and Costello image.” Durwood despised the comedy when he finally got it from the distributors, but it was a classic movie, and his theaters were crowded. “What a lousy image,” Durwood said. Now, if I could get two bad images in here, I could quadruple my earnings while keeping the rent the same.’ Durwood believes that his multi-screen design may help increase attendance without increasing running costs.

Growth

By the 1980s, the company was experiencing rapid expansion, and it went public in 1983.  AMC Theatres erected its first multiplex outside the United States in 1985, the 10-screen multiplex at The Point in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, and later established more locations in the United Kingdom, including Dudley and Tamworth, Staffordshire.

In October 1988, they announced a joint venture with United Artists and Cinema International Corporation (a partnership of Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios) to run their combined cinemas in the UK and Ireland under the AMC name. However, in December 1988, AMC withdrew from the joint venture and sold their U.K. assets, including their 12 cinemas, to the new entity (later called United Cinemas International) for $98 million and exited the UK market.

When AMC Theatres erected the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas, Texas, in 1995, it pioneered the first North American megaplex, a theater that could seat thousands; the first megaplex in the world had been built by European company Kinepolis in 1988. AMC proceeded to open more megaplex cinemas, such as the AMC Hampton Towne Center 24 in Hampton, Virginia, and the AMC Empire 25 in New York City near Times Square, the chain’s busiest theater in the United States.

AMC inaugurated the Ontario Mills 30, a 30-screen theater in Ontario, California, on December 13, 1996, making it the world’s largest multiplex at the time. AMC Theatres’ megaplex theaters were also a hit internationally. Canal City 13 in Fukuoka, Japan opened in April 1996, followed by the AMC Arrábida 20 in Porto, Portugal on December 20, 1996.

The 16-screen Great Northern theatre debuted in Manchester, England, in January 2002, and was subsequently complemented by the launch of a 12-screen cinema on the Broadway Plaza site in Birmingham in October 2003. AMC Theatres occasionally serve a dual-duty; in addition to regular cinema functions, they also cater to corporate conferences, which can utilize their projectors to display presentations.

AMC Theatres was purchased in 2004 by Marquee Holdings Inc., an investment entity controlled by affiliates of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC, JPMorgan Chase’s private equity arm, and Apollo Global Management, a private investment firm. AMC was publicly listed on the AMEX at the time under the symbol AEN. 

In 2006, the firm announced a fresh initial public offering (IPO) of $789 million; however, deteriorating market circumstances prompted the company’s management to withdraw from such an offering on May 3, 2007. On July 14, 2010, the firm filed for a $450 million IPO, its third since 2006.

Stanley Durwood died in 1999, and his successor was Peter Brown, the company’s first non-Dubinsky/Durwood family member. On March 2, 2009, Gerardo I. Lopez took over as president and CEO of AMC Theatres, succeeding Brown.  Lopez formerly served as Starbucks’ Executive Vice President of Consumer Products Group, Seattle’s Best Coffee, and Foodservice.  

One of the company’s first significant announcements under new leadership occurred in March of the same year when it revealed that it would equip 1,500 of its screens with Real D projectors. In the same month, AMC Theatres announced a $315 million agreement with Sony to replace all of its reel projectors with digital cinema projectors beginning in the second quarter of 2009 and ending in 2012.

Previously, the corporation was based in downtown Kansas City. AMC Theatres announced in September 2011 that it would relocate its offices to a new $30 million four-story facility built by 360 Architecture in the Park Place development at 117th Street and Nall Avenue in Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. Kansas had offered $47 million in incentives to get the 400 jobs to relocate.

An agreement with the state of Illinois and a disability rights organization in April 2012 led AMC to commit to providing captioning and description services in all of its Illinois theaters. According to a disability rights group, the company only provides closed-captioned audio descriptions at a few of its locations throughout the state.

Executive Leadership Board Members

FAQs

How can I watch AMC for free?

• DIRECTV STREAM – offers a 5-day free trial.
• fuboTV – offers a 1-week free trial.
• Philo – offers a 7-day free trial
• YouTube TV – offers a 1-week free trial

Is AMC free on Amazon Prime?

Yes! AMC is available for a seven-day free trial on Amazon Prime Video, as well as Sling, AppleTV, the Roku Channel, and YouTube TV.

Is AMC in financial trouble?

AMC is allegedly in advanced refinancing negotiations with a number of interested partners in order to reduce its interest burden and extend its maturities by several years. AMC’s total debt exceeds $5 billion, although CEO Adam Aron has consistently assured investors that no maturities are due until 2023.

What does AMC stand for?

AMC, originally an acronym for American Multi-Cinema; frequently referred to simply as AMC and known in certain countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is the world’s biggest movie theater chain, based in Leawood, Kansas.

Is AMC available on Hulu for free?

Online Hulu (Free Trial) Watch AMC with any Hulu subscription beginning at $6.99/month. Only new subscribers are eligible. There are no hidden costs, no equipment leases, and no installation appointments.

Is there a significant difference between “AMC” and “AMC+?”

The programming provided is one of the major distinctions between the two premium AMC providers. While AMC Premiere focuses on AMC material, AMC+ members also get access to content from three additional AMC brands: Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited.

Is AMC available for free on Roku?

Roku has been added to the list of compatible devices and platforms for AMC Networks’ subscription streaming package. The service, which features original shows from AMC and sibling networks including SundanceTV and IFC, is ad-free and offers early premieres on demand. It was originally available on Comcast Xfinity in June for $4.99 per month.

Is AMC available on Netflix?

Netflix said Friday that it has reached a multi-year license agreement with AMC Networks that would see Netflix exclusively offer AMC’s renowned original series “The Walking Dead” in Canada and the United States.