AMC has announced that all of its US theaters will accept Bitcoin as payment for tickets and snacks by the end of 2021. According to CNN, company chief Adam Aron shared these plans on a recent earnings call.
“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” said Aron on the call. He also added that the company was also “exploring how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe, and we’re quite intrigued by potentially lucrative business [opportunities].”
The theater chain is also working on simultaneously rolling out the ability to accept Apple Pay and Google Pay for online purchases at its US locations. Aron was not exclusively influenced by the Reddit meme stock frenzy that went underway earlier this year–the executive had a brief stint on the board of Centricus Acquisition Corp, a contractor for the blockchain company Arquit.
What’s less clear is how sustainable this move might be–crypto transaction fees can be steep, while concessions at movie theaters are already expensive. Also, there’s the fact that the crypto you spend on some Milk Duds could potentially also, someday, be worth enough to buy your own theater. It’s also similarly hazy what demand is like for this sort of capability–but, according to CNN, AMC shares jumped 5.3% after the earnings call, and Bitcoin was up 5.5% compared to the day before.
