AMC Entertainment announced plans to accept Bitcoin payments for movie tickets by the end of the year. The American movie theater chain said customers can soon use the cryptocurrency to buy passes for any of its U.S. theaters.
The announcement was made by the company's chief executive officer, Adam Aron, during its earnings call Monday. Aron said the company is currently setting up its IT systems to accept Bitcoin payments and it should be ready before the current year ends.
Aron did not provide any further details on how it plans to accept Bitcoin. But, he did say that the decision was made to integrate the new payment method after the company received strong demand from customers.
Apart from accepting Bitcoin payments, the company also announced plans to open more cinemas this year. AMC said it will open more than a dozen new locations across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East by the end of the year.
Similar to Bitcoin, AMC's stock price has remained volatile following its involvement in the recent meme stock craze fueled by traders on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum. AMC, along with companies such as GameStop, became popular targets for retail traders who coordinated their moves on social media in an attempt to burn large-scale short sellers.
While Bitcoin prices have continued to fluctuate wildly -- from a high of $46,00 to below $30,000 last month, AMC's stock has somewhat stabilized. At the height of the meme stock frenzy, AMC's shares rallied nearly 1,500%. Since the start of the year, the company's stock has increased by 1,200% from $2.60 per share to $33.80 per share as of Monday's close.
Following the release of its better-than-expected earnings results, AMC's stock price climbed more than 4% in extended trading Monday. For its second quarter, the company reported revenue of $444 million, which is a big improvement from the $18.9 million it reported over the same period last year.
The company also posted a narrower-than-expected loss for the quarter of about $349 million compared with $561 million over the same three months last year.
The release of its better-than-expected results comes just a year after the company had reportedly planned to seek bankruptcy protection. During the height of the pandemic, AMC was forced to close down its theaters worldwide.
