This week, the largest cinema chain in the world announced that it would be launching a new streaming service that allows members to rent and/or buy films from the comfort of their homes.
What We Know:
- AMC headquarters, which is located in Leawood, Kansas, is partly owned by China’s Dalian Wanda Group. AMC became the largest multiplex chain in 2016 after it acquired Carmike Cinemas within the US, Odeon in Britain, and Nordic Theater Group in Northern Europe.
- Adam Aron, AMC’s president and chief executive announced the new streaming service on Tuesday. AMC Theaters On Demand, will offer roughly 2,000 films available for purchase or rent after their run in theaters, similar to what other video-on-demand retailers have offered.
- Over the years, the movie theater industry has been met with competition from streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and media-streaming players like Amazon Fire Stick. These platforms have thousands of movies available at consumers’ finger tips with the tap of a few buttons.
- Hollywood’s five biggest movie studios, Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony and Paramount, have made deals with AMC for catalog and new-release movies, the New York Times reports. DVDs still account for billions of dollars in sales for studios, but more profit now comes from digital downloads and rentals.
- AMC’s loyalty program, AMC Stubs, is being utilized in over 20 million households. Aron says the AMC Stubs’ database gave the company a marketing advantage for movie rentals and downloads. Other theater chains in other countries already offer on-demand options, including Cineplex in Canada, but AMC is the first within the United States to make this move.
The films offered will cost roughly between $3 to $5.99 to rent and $9.99 to $19.99 to buy.
