Weekend attendance at AMC cinemas outpaces 2019 for first time

Weekend attendance at AMC cinemas outpaced attendance from the same weekend in 2019 for the first time since AMC theaters opened their doors during the pandemic.

“Labor Day weekend marks the first time since the beginning of COVID that attendance during a weekend in 2021 exceeded the same weekend in 2019,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Not only did attendance over the weekend outpace that of 2019, AMC broke its admissions revenue record over Labor Day weekend. 

It is “a new Labor Day admissions-revenue record eclipsing the previous admissions-revenue record set during Labor Day weekend in 2013,” the company said.

The company credits the new Marvel movie “Shang-Chi” for the big box office receipts. The latest Marvel moved opened over the weekend and earned $90 million from Thursday to Monday. Unlike the previous Marvel film Black Widow, the movie was not available on the Disney+ streaming service at the same time.

From Thursday to Sunday, AMC says they had more than 2 million people across the country enter their theaters.

“For two overarching reasons, this Labor Day weekend in the United States has been an important milestone for AMC as we steadily work to generate a recovery for our business,” Chairman and CEO of AMC Theaters Adam Aron said.

“This encouraging surge in attendance at AMC signals that as Hollywood releases movies, Americans eagerly want to return to movie theaters again,” Aron added.