AMC Theatres

The Dubinsky brothers, Maurice, William, Irvin, Edward, and Barney, started out traveling the Midwest with tent shows and melodramas alongside actress Jeanne Eagels. On December 20, 1920, they bought the Regent Theatre on 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, planting the seed for what would become the world's largest movie exhibition company. After Maurice died in 1929 and Barney left in 1936 following an auto accident, Edward changed his last name to Durwood and steered the company through a series of name changes: Dubinsky Bros., Publix-Dubinsky Bros., Durwood Theatres, American Royal Cinemas, American Multi Cinema, and finally AMC Entertainment Inc. in 1980.

AMC introduced the first multiplex in the 1960s, cup holder armrests in the 1980s, and the first megaplex in the 1990s, each innovation reshaping how Americans watched movies. In 2016, the company acquired Odeon Cinemas, UCI Cinemas, and Carmike Cinemas, instantly becoming the top exhibitor in both the U.S. and Europe. Today AMC operates roughly 860 theaters and 9,600 screens globally, with about 593 theaters and 7,755 screens in the United States and 353 theaters and 2,807 screens across Europe. Through its Odeon subsidiary, it holds the number one position in Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden, and the UK and Ireland.

Headquartered at One AMC Way in Leawood, Kansas, the company is publicly traded on the NYSE under ticker AMC. Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group held a majority stake from 2012 to 2018, and Silver Lake Partners invested $600 million in September 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed AMC to the brink, leading to Wanda's dilution and eventual exit in 2021 after a series of financing moves. That same year, a massive short squeeze turned AMC into a meme stock phenomenon, drawing a wave of retail investors. Adam Aron has served as CEO and President since 2016, overseeing the Carmike and Odeon acquisitions and the rebuilding of the company's loyalty ecosystem to all-time high membership levels. [edit]