Forget Trojan Horses. The Odyssey is bringing out the apes.
Retail investors in cinema chain AMC [NYSE:AMC], who call themselves apes, are piling back into the stock after the strong opening of Christopher Nolan’s latest film. Options on the stock surged Monday, with over 300,000 contracts traded, CNBC reports. Share volume trading was nearly 4.5 times what it was on Friday.
The renewed fervor in AMC comes after roughly a month of stagnation for AMC shares. The stock price has jumped more than 12% in the past five days. Year to date, AMC shares are up nearly 50%.
Not only has The Odyssey broken records, bringing 4.3 million people to AMC theaters over the weekend, but AMC also reported strong earnings on Monday. The company posted $1.6 billion in revenue, a 14.2% increase over a year ago. Analysts had expected just $1.47 billion.
Potential blockbusters for the remainder of the year, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Dune: Part Two and Avengers: Doomsday, are stoking optimism in the theater chain.
A meme stock favorite
AMC began a preferred stock of retail investors in the COVID days, soon after those traders, riding the wave of a social-media frenzy, had driven up the price of Gamestop shares. By mid-2021, the company had collected more than 3.2 million individual investors and was leaning hard into luring them into the actual theaters, with offers of free popcorn and invitations to special screenings.
That interest didn’t last, though. After reaching as high as $221 in 2021, shares have steadily fallen. By August of 2023, they were down to $6. Today, they’re trading near $2.30. That puts them in the same range they were in before the apes took interest in the stock.
On the earnings call Monday, CEO Adam Aron chastised “the prognosticators of doom who have continued to vastly underestimate the will and the skill of AMC.”
With so many tentpole releases still to come this year, Aron said AMC believes “Movie theaters will enjoy in the full 12 months of 2026, their strongest yet post-pandemic year at both the domestic box office and at the global box office.”
AMC has been a particular beneficiary of The Odyssey, which was filmed entirely with IMAX cameras. AMC theaters have more IMAX screens than any other chain, Aron said, with 226.
While those screens represent just 8% of the chain’s total screen count, Aron said they generated more than 50% of the total ticket gross for Nolan’s film.
Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
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