AMC Posts Its Best Quarter in 106 Years
AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) reported second-quarter 2026 results on July 20, and by the company’s own account, it was the best quarter in its 106-year history. Total revenue and Adjusted EBITDA both hit all-time highs, and CEO Adam Aron used the moment to argue the print shows just how much operating leverage is baked into AMC’s business model once box office revenue is rising. Here’s what’s in the numbers.
The Headline Numbers
Total revenue came in at $1.597 billion for the quarter, up 14.2% year-over-year, split between admissions ($863.1 million), food and beverage ($576.1 million), and other theatre revenue ($157.5 million). Adjusted EBITDA jumped 69.6% to $321.4 million — the first time in company history AMC has topped $300 million in Adjusted EBITDA in a single quarter — while the Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 20.1% from 13.6% a year ago. Adjusted net earnings swung to a positive $104.3 million from a $0.5 million loss in the prior-year quarter, and free cash flow was $190.1 million.
The one number that didn’t improve: AMC still posted a GAAP net loss of $11.4 million, wider than the $4.7 million loss a year ago, driven largely by one-time charges tied to the quarter’s debt refinancing activity — including a $33.0 million loss on extinguishment of new exchangeable notes and a $30.1 million loss on extinguishing Odeon’s 2027 notes. Diluted loss per share was $0.02, while adjusted diluted EPS came in at a positive $0.14.
Attendance and Pricing
Consolidated attendance rose 13.5% year-over-year to 71.3 million patrons, with U.S. attendance up 12.0% to 52.5 million and international attendance up a stronger 17.9% to 18.8 million. Average ticket price held roughly flat at $12.11 consolidated, while food and beverage revenue per patron rose to $8.08 from $7.95. Notably, this growth came even as AMC’s average screen count declined slightly to 9,249 from 9,402 — a sign the improvement is coming from more people per screen and better spending per visit, not more square footage.
A Genuinely Strong Box Office Backdrop
Management credited a broader industry recovery: domestic box office reached roughly $2.99 billion in the quarter, up 10.7% year-over-year and the biggest domestic box office quarter in seven years. AMC said its own domestic revenue grew even faster than the industry, up 13.0%. Aron pointed to six different films with domestic opening weekends above $75 million during the quarter, and highlighted this past weekend’s opening of Universal and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (a reported $124 million domestic debut) as a sign momentum is carrying into Q3. He also flagged Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, along with Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday later this year, as reasons management expects 2026 to be the strongest post-pandemic year yet for movie theatres.
Balance Sheet: Meaningfully Delevered
AMC ended the quarter with $778.4 million in cash, up 83.7% year-over-year, after a busy quarter of capital-markets activity. The company refinanced $400 million of senior secured notes, extending maturities by four years; converted approximately $155.8 million of exchangeable notes into common stock; raised about $85.3 million through its at-the-market equity program; and completed a $200 million registered direct stock offering, using part of the proceeds to redeem its remaining 2027 subordinated notes. Combined, AMC says these moves mean it has no material debt maturities before 2029, and that cumulative debt reduction since the end of 2020 now totals roughly $1.7 billion. Management also said the improved leverage ratio should trigger a lower interest rate on about 75% of its debt, cutting annual cash interest expense by a further $51 million on top of $16 million in savings already realized this quarter.
First-Half Picture
For the first six months of 2026, AMC’s revenue is up 16.9% to $2.642 billion and Adjusted EBITDA is up nearly 173% to $359.7 million — more than two-and-a-half times the $131.8 million reported in the first half of 2025. Free cash flow for the half turned positive at $15.4 million, a $343.5 million swing from a negative $328.1 million a year earlier, though AMC still posted a $128.5 million GAAP net loss for the six-month period, an improvement from a $206.8 million loss last year.
Bottom Line
AMC’s Q2 print is a clean example of operating leverage working in a company’s favor: a modest 14% revenue increase translated into a 70% jump in Adjusted EBITDA, because a large share of AMC’s cost base (rent, depreciation, fixed operating expense) doesn’t move in lockstep with revenue. The GAAP net loss and the debt-extinguishment charges are a reminder that AMC is still working through the aftermath of a heavily leveraged balance sheet, but the combination of a genuinely strong box office, expanding margins, and a real reduction in near-term refinancing risk gives management’s turnaround narrative more substance than it’s had in some time — with a loaded release calendar through year-end as the next test.
For more on the theatrical and streaming landscape, see our Disney (DIS) fact sheet and our recent coverage of Netflix’s Q2 2026 earnings. AMC’s full earnings release and webcast details are available on its investor relations site.
For informational purposes only. This article does not constitute investment advice.
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