Everybody in the journalism game loves a good yarn…
By the opposite token, everyone in the journalism racket hates swallowing embarrassing corrections. So it is that you have to search really hard to find that a widely reported story that Amazon was interested in buying KC-based movie exhibitor AMC Theaters was bogus.
“Say Amazon actually buys AMC Theatres,” reads then headline non Fortune. “What would that be like?”
“A curious thing happened Monday morning: Shares of struggling AMC Theatres leapt by as much as 56%, to $6.41, after a report circulated that Amazon held talks with the movie chain over a potential takeover,” the story begins. “The report’s controversial publisher, the U.K.’s Daily Mail, said it was unclear if the discussions were still active or if they would lead to a deal, citing unnamed sources. Neither AMC nor Amazon responded to Fortune’s request for comment, though Amazon told others that it does not comment on speculation. Whatever the report’s veracity, the impact the speculation had on AMC’s stock was very much real, and a fascinating development for the world’s largest movie theater chain given its recent fortunes.”
Fortunes that include a reported $2.2 billion loss and widespread speculation that the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a fatal bankruptcy filing.
Just one problem…a largely unreported one…
“That was a bad rumor,” says KCC movie scribe Jack Poessiger. “They got the wrong AMC. It was the AMC cable network – American Movie Classics .”
As for the missing corrections, “They did them in the trade publications,” Poessiger says.
“Here’s what’s weird about it,” he continues. “When the rumor first hit, AMC’s stock almost doubled. But when they clarified it, the stock didn’t really go back down.”
As of today, AMC has announced they will spring back into action next month.
More on how that may work later.
As for Fortune, I can’t find a correction anywhere but they sure did have a hey day speculating on what would happen is Amazon did buy KC’s AMC.
Ticket prices would drop owing to Amazon’s billions of dollars “war chest” and its “growth at the expense of profits approach.”
AMC’s Stubs A-List program which allows members to see up to three movies a week for a monthly fee would further blossom and could possibly receive help from Amazon Prime.
With AMC being the largest movie exhibitor, “With so many venues added to its portfolio, Amazon could conceivably kick off a new mission to recruit Hollywood’s top directors, writers, and actors.”
Amazon’s original movies could get a “brick and mortar upgrade.”
It all made such perfect sense…that is, until it didn’t.
I think Disney would be a much more likely suitor for AMC. I think whatever law that prevents studios from owning theaters was either recently changed or has been talked about being changed.