Labor Day Weekend Helps AMC Outpace 2019 for First Time Amid Pandemic This year set a record, surpassing the previous admissions-revenue record from Labor Day weekend in 2013.
By Emily Rella
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AMC announced Tuesday that Labor Day weekend gave the theater chain a much-needed bump: More people went to movies at AMC over the weekend this year than the same weekend in 2019.
Labor Day weekend marked the first time AMC outpaced 2019 since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Notably, this year set a record, surpassing the previous admissions-revenue record from Labor Day weekend in 2013.
"This is the very first weekend that our attendance numbers were ahead of those of the same weekend pre-pandemic, since we closed our theaters in March of 2020," Adam Aron, chairman and CEO of AMC Theatres, said in a Tuesday statement.
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He went on, "This encouraging surge in attendance at AMC signals that as Hollywood releases movies, Americans eagerly want to return to movie theaters again."
From Thursday, Sept. 2 to Sunday, Sept. 5, over 2 million people went to AMC theaters in the United States, the company said. Internationally, over 800,000 people went to AMC locations in Europe and the Middle East.
The statement gave some of the credit to Shant-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings, which opened to a reported $90 million during its domestic opening weekend. AMC noted that's about triple what the previous Labor Day weekend premiere record-holder, 2007's Halloween, made in its opening weekend.
Aron noted that AMC is steadily working "to generate a recovery for [its] business," and directed readers of the statement to AMC's website and mobile app, where they can find tickets to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings.
