AMC Theatres is conducting a bold experiment this summer by offering moviegoers a 50% discount on all adult evening-priced tickets for all Wednesday screenings. This promotion begins on July 9th and will be available to all AMC Stubs Rewards members, including its free tier of service.
AMC intends to use the promotion to entice more customers to come to the theatre on Wednesdays, which has historically been one of the lower-attended days of the week. The exhibitor hopes to duplicate the success of “Discount Tuesdays,” which have for years been offered by AMC and other major exhibitors.
AMC announced the new promotion on the heels of a weak first quarter earnings report, in which ticket sales and revenue declines sharply. These poor results represented another setback for the world’s largest exhibitor, which has struggled to recover fully after the shutdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a surging box office from the recent releases of A MINECRAFT MOVIE and SINNERS, AMC is still saddled with a mountain of debt that it must either pay off or refinance.
The business rationale for AMC’s Wednesday discount is simple. Any revenue lost by charging less for tickets will be made by an increase in concession sales. In most cases, this has turned out to be the case with the widespread adoption of Discount Tuesdays, turning that unassuming mid-week day into one of the busiest of the week.
AMC’s requirement that customers be members of its AMC Stubs program will also allow the company to market upcoming movies to those customers directly. While AMC Stubs has already developed a dedicated following, this new promotion sweetens the deal significantly.
AMC CEO Adam Aron explained how his company “could not afford to have made this change to our ticket pricing strategy until the box office showed true signs of sustained recovery [and that] the remainder of 2025 appears poised to continue that upward box office trend.”
