Entertainment
AMC Will Give Retail Investors Free Popcorn and Other Perks
Published
1 year agoon

The promotion comes as AMC finds itself a favorite among meme stock traders.
AMC Launches Investor Connect Platform
Movie theater giant AMC announced Wednesday that it is launching a service called “AMC Investor Connect,” which provides perks to its retail investors.
The first perk is a free large popcorn when investors attend their first AMC movie this summer. Other benefits could potentially include exclusive promotions and discounts, invitations to special screenings, communications from CEO Adam Aron, and other information about the company and industry.
The company released a statement saying the service would “put AMC in direct communication with its extraordinary base of enthusiastic and passionate individual shareholders to keep them up to date about important company information and to provide them with special offers.”
It added that over the last several months, the company has seen its “retail shareholder base grow beyond 3 million owners.” AMC claims that its retail investor shareholder base owned more than 80% of the company at the last count.
“Many of our investors have demonstrated support and confidence in AMC,” Aron said in a statement.
“During my five-plus year tenure as CEO at AMC, I’ve taken great pride in the relationships I have forged with AMC’s owners,” he continued. “With AMC Investor Connect, that effort in relationship building will continue apace even if our shareholders now number in the millions. After all, these people are the owners of AMC, and I work for them.”
AMC Stock Plunges Thursday Morning
The announcement shows that AMC is leaning into its newfound place as a favorite among meme stock traders.
News of the investor perks came the same day AMC’s stock soared to an all-time high. By Thursday morning, however, the company opted to sell 11.5 million shares, resulting in stocks taking an over 30% dive.
AMC even warned people not to invest in its Class A stock because of market volatility, though it noted that volatility was not a reflection on the state of the movie industry.
“Our current market prices reflect market and trading dynamics unrelated to our underlying business,” the company said in its filing.
The State of the Box Office
AMC’s stock frenzy aside, for the first time in over a year, the movie theater industry as a whole is in promising shape. Over Memorial Day weekend, the box office brought in nearly $100 million.
The biggest winner was “A Quiet Place Part II,” which crushed pandemic records by making $57 million over the weekend, even out-earning the opening weekend of the original “A Quiet Place.” “Cruella” took home $27 million, which is a decent haul amid the pandemic, especially considering audiences had the choice of watching it at home on Disney+ for $30.
Box office analysts believe this could be the start of a strong trend as summer blockbuster season arrives. This weekend, “A Quiet Place Part II” has the strong potential to become the first movie to cross the $100 million thresholds since the pandemic began. When “F9” comes out at the end of the month, experts think there is a chance it could become the first film to open to $100 million since shutdowns.
See what others are saying: (CNBC) (Wall Street Journal) (The Verge)
Entertainment
Dave Chappelle Decides Against Having Former High School’s Theater Named After Him
Published
6 days agoon
June 21, 2022
“The idea that my name will be turned into an instrument of someone else’s perceived oppression is untenable to me,” the comedian reportedly said.
Theater Named Announced
Comedian Dave Chappelle opted on Monday to not have the theater at his alma mater high school named after him, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. previously planned to name its theater in honor of Chappelle, as he is a distinct alum and donor. While Chappelle formerly said such a gesture would be “the most significant honor of [his] life,” he announced during Monday’s naming ceremony that it would bear a different title.
The school’s theater will instead be called the Theater for Artistic Freedom and Expression.
A naming ceremony was initially set to take place in November, but was postponed after the comedian began facing backlash for transphobic jokes in his Netflix special “The Closer.”
Among other things, he said he was “Team TERF,” which stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. He also made a joke about Caitlyn Jenner and remarks comparing the genitalia of transgender women to Beyond and Impossible meat.
The jokes embroiled Chappelle in controversy, and reports claimed that some students at Duke Ellington took issue with the comments. When Chappelle ended up visiting the school amid the scandal, Politico reported that one student told the comedian, “I’m 16 and I think you’re childish, you handled it like a child.”
Chappelle Defends Controversial Special
According to The Post, Chappelle said the criticism against him “sincerely” hurt, but added that “the Ellington Family is my family.” He claimed he did not want the theater being named after him to distract students.
“The idea that my name will be turned into an instrument of someone else’s perceived oppression is untenable to me,” he said according to Josh Rogin, a columnist for the outlet.
In the end, Chappelle said he didn't want any students to see his name on the theater and feel bad, so he decided to name it something else:
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) June 21, 2022
“The idea that my name will be turned into an instrument of someone else’s perceived oppression is untenable to me.”
END THREAD
Rogin also tweeted that Chappelle took time out of the ceremony to slam the criticisms levied against him, accusing upset students of promoting someone else’s agenda.
“These kids didn’t understand that they were instruments of oppression,” he reportedly said.
Chappelle said his special The Closer was unfairly portrayed in the press:
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) June 21, 2022
“You cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance.”
He said it would be like reporting a large rabbit shot a man in the face without telling people it was a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
“You cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance,” Chappelle continued while denouncing the press coverage of his Netflix special.
According to David Frum, a staff writer for The Atlantic who attended the ceremony, Chappelle suggested he was open to potentially adding his name to the theater at a later date when the community is ready.
See what others are saying: (The Washington Post) (Variety) (The Atlantic)
Entertainment
Chris Evans Says People Upset With Same-Gender “Lightyear” Kiss Are “Idiots”
Published
2 weeks agoon
June 16, 2022
The kiss was previously removed from the film until a surge of backlash from Pixar employees prompted Disney to reinstate it.
Chris Evans Supports “Lightyear” Scene
“Lightyear” star Chris Evans is standing against people who have criticized the same-gender kiss scene in the upcoming Pixar film.
“The real truth is those people are idiots,” the actor told Reuters this week when discussing negative reactions to the scene’s inclusion.
“The American story, the human story is one of constant social awakening and growth and that’s what makes us good,” he continued.
Countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and more have banned the release of “Lightyear” over the kiss, which is between two women. Right-wing pundits in the U.S. have also slammed it, and user reviews for the picture on websites like IMDB have claimed that movie-going has “become an avenue for political propaganda.”
Evans argued those opinions are outdated.
“There’s always going to be people who are afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before. But those people die off like dinosaurs,” he said. “I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward and embrace the growth that makes us human.”
“Lightyear” hits theaters on Friday starring Evans as the titular Buzz Lightyear. Evans, however, is not playing the action figure made famous in the “Toy Story” movies and is instead playing an animated human astronaut who inspired the toy.
Kiss Scene Almost Never Made it to Big Screen
According to outlets that have reviewed the film, the same-gender kiss is between Alisha Hawthorne, a character voiced by Uzo Aduba, and her wife.
Multiple reports have stated that Disney was always supportive of depicting a gay couple in the picture, but was more hesitant about showing an on-screen kiss between the two. The studio previously had the scene removed from the film until a swell of backlash prompted it to reinstate the kiss.
The decision came in March amid criticisms over Disney’s slow response to Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill. At the time, a group of Pixar employees wrote an open letter claiming that they have pushed for more inclusion in their films, but “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest.”
Now that the scene made the final cut of “Lightyear,” it has been a large topic of conversation leading up to the film’s release. On Monday, Evans told Variety that the inclusion of the scene makes him “happy,” but he hopes one day, scenes like this will be considered standard.
“It’s tough to not be a little frustrated that it even has to be a topic of discussion,” he said. “That it is this kind of ‘news.’ The goal is that we can get to a point where it is the norm, and that this doesn’t have to be some uncharted waters, that eventually this is just the way it is.”
See what others are saying (Reuters) (Variety) (IndieWire)
Entertainment
YouTube Shorts Hits 1.5 Billion Monthly Logged-In Users
Published
2 weeks agoon
June 15, 2022
The company says the success of Shorts is bringing more viewers to its long-form content.
YouTube Shorts Reaches Milestone
Less than two years after its launch, YouTube Shorts is reaching 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, according to reports from TechCrunch and Variety on Wednesday.
YouTube launched its Shorts feature to compete with TikTok, the social media app that has taken over the internet with its bite-sized content. Its effort appears to be successful, as these new numbers put YouTube Shorts on track with the Gen Z-beloved app.
In September 2021, TikTok announced it had reached one billion monthly users. It has not released updated data since, but analysts projected it could reach 1.5 billion sometime in 2022.
While Shorts were created to rival the trending content on TikTok, YouTube has remained committed to the long-form content that has served as the platform’s bread and butter. In its announcement, the company touted that Shorts served as an entryway for viewers to watch more of this long-form content and discover new creators along the way.
In a release, YouTube said the synergy built by this expansion has allowed for “the rise of the multiformat creator.”
“Long-form content remains the best way for creators to deeply engage and develop long-term relationships with their audiences,” Tara Walpert Levy, YouTube’s Vice President of the Americas, said in a statement. “But Shorts offer an exciting, new way to be a part of a viewer’s journey and to introduce themselves and their whole portfolio to new audiences. This approach is yielding real results; channels uploading both short and long-form content are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth than those uploading only one format.”
The Competition Posed by TikTok
For its part, YouTube put a lot of effort into making Shorts thrive on its platform. Among other measures, the company created a $100 million fund incentivizing creators to make the quick videos.
The Google-owned video giant is far from the only social media company to try to wrestle with TikTok’s success. Facebook and Instagram began rolling out Reels two years ago while TikTok was experiencing a surge of pandemic users.
In turn, TikTok has also made changes to its app to keep up with other social platforms. Recently, it extended its maximum video length to ten minutes, meaning its short-form content may not always be so short.
By using short videos to drive more power behind longer content, YouTube is hoping to cover both bases. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, said that even though the company is only at “the beginning” of its journey with Shorts, he knows “the product will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience moving forward.”
See what others are saying: (TechCrunch) (Variety) (The Verge)

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