AMC is hoping cheaper popcorn will lure people back into theaters
One of the biggest challenges that has been vexing Hollywood over the last several years is how to get moviegoers back into theaters.
The industry's struggles are mostly traced back to Covid, which shut down movie theaters and kept people at home.
And as people spent more time at home, their viewing habits became more geared toward watching movies through the streaming platforms, which Hollywood had to accommodate during the disruption to its normal business during the pandemic.
The problem is that even after the pandemic passed, there was no big rush to get back out to movie theaters. The shift that began during the lockdowns became a normalized way for how many people now consume movies.
And the box office numbers bear this out.
In 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the total domestic box office gross in the United States was about $11.4 billion, according to data from Box Office Mojo. Last year, that number fell to approximately $8.6 billion, a 3.8% decline from 2023.
In the final month of 2025, the total domestic box office gross currently stands at about $7.7 billion, all but assuring that it will decline for the second year in a row.
In October, the total box office revenue in the US was roughly $425 million, the worst showing in 27 years, as The Hollywood Reporter noted.
AMC takes aim at the 'heart of the moviegoing experience'
This is bad news for movie studios and it is bad news for theater chains like AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), whose stock is down 42.5% for the year.
And perhaps in response to the dismal industry wide box office numbers, AMC this week rolled out a new strategy to get people back into its movies theaters: cheaper popcorn.
The company on Monday launched its AMC Popcorn Pass, a benefit for its AMC Stubs members that will give them 50% off a large bucket of popcorn every day for $29.99 plus tax per year. The offer will be running through December 31, 2026.
“Popcorn is at the heart of the moviegoing experience, and the AMC Popcorn Pass makes it easier than ever for guests to enjoy the treat they love each time they visit,” Carrie Trotter, senior vice president of marketing at AMC Theatres, said in a statement.
“From families making memories to movie fans who never miss a blockbuster, this new offering delivers incredible value and adds even more enjoyment to every trip to the movies.”
This latest approach to boost ticket sales might be the simplest strategy that AMC has attempted in recent memory. As The Motley Fool's Rick Munarizz notes, the theater chain has tried many different tricks to drive up its business over the last several years.
This includes letting moviegoers pay for tickets using crypto back in 2021. It also took a small stake in a gold mining company in 2022 and launched a co-branded credit card in 2023.
AMC's stock plunged after all of these schemes were attempted.
However Munarizz actually likes this latest strategy, noting that a large bucket of popcorn is made for sharing, which means a moviegoer "with the pass will invite others, potentially converting them into AMC Stubs A-List members with AMC Popcorn Pass subscriptions."
And AMC is ending the year with some momentum, as it announced on Monday that it recorded its highest Monday through Sunday weekly attendance for 2025, driven by the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the US last week.
About 5.5 million people bought tickets at AMC theaters in the United States between November 24-30.