People walk past the AMC Theater in Manhattan on February 25, 2025 in New York City, USA.
Gina Moon | Reuters
AMC Theater Live concerts will be projected on the big screen.
The world’s largest theater company has partnered with Arena One, a live entertainment technology company, to bring real-time concert events to theater audiences.
AMC has been at the forefront of theatrical music content in recent years, most notably with concert footage from Taylor Swift’s “Ellas Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” This new partnership acts as a bridge between scheduled screenings and simulcast events, giving customers new reasons to go to the movies.
In-theater concerts use technology to connect music artists and moviegoers, beaming sound from audiences across the country back to the performers. The stage is designed using cameras and spatial audio capture to bring performance from the arena to the theater in real time.
“We’ve built a cinematic stage that’s optimized to seamlessly translate into movie theaters, but it’s the artists who define what it becomes,” Arena One CEO Peter Hamilton said in a statement. “They’re not arranging a tour, they’re building something new. That’s when the medium causes reinvention.”
The partnership, announced Tuesday during AMC’s quarterly earnings call, is scheduled to launch in June with artists including Bebe Rexha, Paris Hilton and Maren Morris.
These concerts will be programmed at more than 300 AMC locations in 89 markets across the United States. Tickets will range from $40 to $75 depending on artist and market, the company said.
“AMC’s Arena One has the potential to open a whole new chapter in live entertainment,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “Music fans from all over the country will be able to come together for the same live concert, while receiving the accessible premium experience of giant screens, powerful sound and comfortable seating that AMC guests know and expect.”
This is AMC’s latest effort to diversify its theatrical offerings and create a premium experience for moviegoers as the movie industry continues to recover from the pandemic lull and the threat of at-home streaming.
AMC is already ramping up its number of premium large screens, including IMAX and Dolby-branded auditoriums and experiential theaters like 4DX and ScreenX.
These innovations in programming come as the domestic box office is still recovering from pandemic-era production cancellations and a drop in theatrical releases caused by Hollywood’s double labor strike.
The 2026 schedule is one of the strongest since the pandemic, but exhibitors are still looking for new ways to increase attendance in auditoriums and increase revenue.
AMC’s first-quarter sales were $1.05 billion, up 21% from the same period last year, but operating costs continued to weigh on profits. The company reported a net loss of $117 million for the three-month period.
However, attendance in the U.S. and international markets increased by nearly 14% and 13%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. And in the U.S., average ticket prices rose nearly 60 cents to $12.90 each.
