Taylor Swift and Beyonce became AMC's jumpsuit-wearing saviors last year, helping the international theater chain continue to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and driving “literally all” increases in quarterly revenue did.
One is from country music and the other is crossing over into country, but these industry-disrupting superstars are taking Hollywood by storm by recently turning their business-savvy eyes to the movie industry.
Why? Their concert films “Taylor Swift: The Else Tour” and “Renaissance: A Beyoncé Movie” have also rewritten distribution protocols by bypassing studios and releasing directly in theaters, making them available for AMC's 2023 release. This boosted fourth-quarter earnings.
“Despite overall box office revenue declines, AMC's revenue increased 11.5% and AMC's adjusted EBITDA increased 11.5% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year. [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] We've almost tripled,” Adam Aaron, the company's chief executive, said Wednesday during AMC Entertainment's quarterly earnings call. “Literally all of AMC's revenue and EBITDA growth came from playing these two movies in theaters in the U.S. and abroad.”
AMC, one of the nation's largest movie chains, said these films generated “significant increases” in industry-wide theatrical ticket sales and accounted for “one-ninth of domestic industry-wide box office revenue in the fourth quarter.” It's completely occupied,” he said.
For the record:
February 29, 2024 2:30pmThe two concert films had a combined box office gross of approximately $115 million during their opening weekend. The previous $130 million figure was incorrect.
In fact, “Eras” and “Renaissance” set box office records during their opening weekends, grossing more than $115 million combined domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.
“This is a surprising result considering neither of these movies were on anyone's plans until mid-year and they were the first films distributed by AMC in its 103-year history. '' Aaron thanked the Grammy Award-winning hitmakers.
Aaron also said the gains “continued another year of meaningful recovery from the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic,” which closed many theaters and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.
However, AMC Entertainment Holdings shares fell 12.3% on Thursday despite the chain's fourth-quarter results released late Wednesday, MarketWatch reported.
But the bottom line was still a win for theater giants and industry-disrupting artists. AMC's “new venture” would share 43% of the profits with Swift, who would receive the remaining 57%. Both she and Beyoncé produced and distributed their concert films by working directly with AMC, cutting out the expensive middlemen of traditional Hollywood studios. (Similar business decisions also resulted in sweet photo shoots and heartwarming displays of support for her two artists at their respective movie premieres.)
Swift, 34, filmed “Eras” at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood during her world tour stop in August. She released the film in October, and the domestic box office grossed $96 million in its first four days, beating out its competitors on a slow weekend. The blockbuster opening became the highest-grossing concert film ever, more than triple the $31 million earned by Miley Cyrus' 2008 Best of the World debut. The movie “Eras,” which starts streaming on Disney+ on March 15, ended up being a box office hit. The film grossed $180 million at the domestic box office and $80.9 million overseas during its theatrical run.
“Renaissance,” which also includes some of Bey's performances from last year, including a three-night performance at SoFi Stadium, took home the box office crown with $21 million in domestic box office revenue in early December. As a domestic concert film, it ranked 5th in its debut weekend. The film's 12-week box office gross was $33.8 million domestically and approximately $44 million worldwide.
According to Variety, Beyoncé took home about 50% of the box office revenue, with exhibitors keeping the rest and AMC receiving a small distribution fee.
Last week, Live Nation Entertainment revealed a 20% increase in concert attendance in 2023. This was the year that both artists embarked on blockbuster tours on which the concert film was based, and the economic buzzword “fan fration” was popularized. The jump helped the Beverly Hills-based ticket sales company and concert promoter increase its 2023 revenue by 36% to $22.7 billion and its operating profit by 46% to $1.07 billion.
Live Nation also noted that ticket sales increased by 30%, with more than 620 million tickets sold by Ticketmaster and nearly $36 billion in revenue. The company reports that in 2023 alone, more than 145 million people attended his more than 50,000 live events.
But in the context of the company's success, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced in 2023 that massive demand for Swift's Elas Tour caused Ticketmaster to go bankrupt, spurring a class action lawsuit filed by Ticketmaster. , held hearings on Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and the U.S. ticket market. Dissatisfied Swifties take action against major ticket sales giant.
The hearing examined allegations of anticompetitive conduct by Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which control an estimated 80% of the ticket market. The Department of Justice has also launched an investigation into the ticket seller's practices.
Times staff writers Christy Karas, Carlos DeLoera and Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.