Streaming Apocalypse: How Netflix Could Kill AMC and Movie Theaters Forever

2 days ago 8

Rich Duprey

Tue, December 9, 2025 astatine 9:18 AM CST 5 min read

Netflix (NFLX) bid $72B to get Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) studios and streaming assets astatine $27.75 per share. Paramount Skydance countered with a $108B hostile takeover bid.
U.S. theatre summons income fell 38% from 2019 to 2024. Average summons prices doubled since 2002 to $11.31.
AMC Entertainment (AMC) carries $4.5B successful indebtedness and posted a $298M nett nonaccomplishment successful Q3. A Netflix triumph could accelerate theatre attendance diminution by prioritizing streaming releases.
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Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX) $72 cardinal bid to get Warner Bros. Discovery's (NASDAQ:WBD) movie studios and streaming assets promises to reshape Hollywood. Valued astatine $27.75 per stock successful currency and stock, the woody targets Warner's movie production, HBO, and Max platform, with Warner Bros. cablegram networks similar CNN spinning disconnected into Discovery Global by mid-2026.

But conscionable yesterday, Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) launched a hostile $108 cardinal all-cash takeover for each of Warner astatine $30 per share. This assertive move, filed straight with shareholders, accuses the movie studio's committee of favoring Netflix and ignoring superior offers. Regulators and antitrust issues are besides a concern, with critics informing of reduced streaming competition.

Though it is inactive early, a Netflix triumph could doom AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), stripping its theaters of blockbuster pipelines and accelerating streaming's dominance.

Theater attendance has plummeted, turning once-vibrant cinemas into echoes of their erstwhile selves. Data from TheNumbers.com reveals a stark trend: successful 2002, U.S. audiences bought 1.57 cardinal tickets, the modern peak. By 2019, that fell to 1.23 cardinal -- a 22% driblet implicit 17 years. The pandemic situation amplified the decline, with conscionable 232 cardinal tickets successful 2020. Recovery has been feeble arsenic lone 761 cardinal tickets were sold successful 2024, 52% beneath 2002 levels and 38% nether 2019.

While theatre attendance is moving somewhat higher this twelvemonth compared to past year, it remains 55% beneath pre-pandemic highs.

High summons prices are compounding the problem. Families are getting priced retired arsenic the mean summons climbed from $5.81 successful 2002 to $11.31 successful 2024, much than doubling the cost. A household of 4 present faces $45 conscionable to get successful and not including the concession basal -- AMC's existent nett center, wherever popcorn and drinks output 85% margins but adhd $50 to $60 much to the outgo of a nighttime out.