It seems Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment, and Showcase Cinemas are shut down and trying to figure out how to stay afloat without earning any money until they can reopen. AMC, for example, has furloughed thousands of employees across the country, in addition to their CEO Adam Aron.
Thanks to a bipartisan up and running again by mid-June, saying "I think if we learned anything in the last two weeks is people just so want to get out of their houses." Unfortunately, their new credits ratings report casts doubt on the idea.
On Thursday, April 2, S&P Global Ratings downgraded AMC Entertainment's credit ratings based on concerns about the exhibitor's ability to maintain its theaters while they stay closed on through to the summer. Per Variety, the agency expects AMC's movie theaters to remain on lockdown beyond June and has doubts about their future altogether, saying in a statement "We do not believe AMC has sufficient sources of liquidity to cover its expected negative cash flows past mid-summer."
As most people are well aware, the majority of films originally scheduled for the next three months In a recent study, 49% of all participants said it would take "a few months", if not longer, before they felt comfortable going to public events like screenings again. Presumably, many movie theaters will limit their audience capacity for a while after they reopen anyway, as a safety precaution. That will only further reduce attendance numbers in the beginning, once life starts to return to something resembling normal.
Whichever way you cut it, it's going to take some time for AMC and other exhibitors to get back fully on their feet, even in the best-case scenario when they're able to safely reopen in June. like Wonder Woman 1984 and A Quiet Place 2 similarly being rescheduled for the last two months of summer (as further incentive to get people heading out to the theater once more). In the meantime, everyone will just have to sit tight and wait to see whether the outlook improves over the next couple months.
Source: THR
