Is the worst behind AMC Theatres and its beleaguered stock price? One Wall Street analyst thinks so.
With Hollywood at last giving the mega-exhibitor the certainty in its supply of tentpole releases needed to get film lovers back in the habit of going to the multiplex, Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese on Friday upgraded stock in AMC from neutral to outperform and set a $4.00 price target, from $3.00.
Reese argued in a July 11 investor note AMC “is poised to benefit from a more consistent release slate over the next several quarters,” and gain market share through to 2026 in North America and Europe. That good news for a company attempting to get out of a financial hole brought on by the pandemic lifted parent AMC Entertainment Holdings shares by 30 cents, or 10 percent, to $3.30 on Friday morning.
The Wedbush analysis is also more sanguine about AMC’s debt woes after the company repaid or postponed all borrowing obligations that were due in 2026. “With box office expected to be more consistent in the coming quarters, we expect AMC’s EBITDA to cover interest expense, relieving its need to issue more shares,” Reese wrote.
AMC as a meme stock in the past has been decidedly volatile as the exhibition giant burned through cash to maintain operations and raised fresh financing from new stock sales. On July 1, AMC announced an agreement with key creditors, debt holders and other lenders that offered more financial flexibility, resolved key litigation and allow the company to focus on box office upside.
The Wedbush analyst made clear she doesn’t see clear sailing for AMC. “To be clear, we do not see substantial growth in 2025, 2026, or beyond. This is a low-growth industry in a period of recovery. Over the next few years, we anticipate mid-to-high single-digit growth rates in box office revenue, followed by low-to-mid single-digit growth rates thereafter,” the note stated.
The Wall Street analyst sees small mercies for exhibitors in the major studios committing to theatrical releases after uncertainty brought on by pandemic-era theater closures and a shift of Hollywood titles to emerging streaming platforms.
The industry’s year of strikes in 2023 also disrupted the flow of Hollywood movie releases to the local multiplex. “We think that post-SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023/2024, studios collectively created a compelling, genre-balanced 2025 – 2026, which we believe will drive audiences to theaters regardless of economic turmoil,” Reese wrote in her note.
Now all Hollywood has to do is deliver box office winners — whether comic book reboots or arthouse standouts from Paul Thomas Anderson and Yorgos Lanthimos — that more consistently draw consumers to theaters, however much recession worries overhang the wider economy.
“The theater business has historically been resilient in recessions, with attendance driven by content quality and viewed as a relatively inexpensive escape from reality. As such, at this juncture, we are more concerned about content quality than with overarching economic pressure on attendance,” the Wedbush note stated.
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