AMC signs agreement to lease the Grove and the Americana

AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, is adding two more Los Angeles venues to its list.

On Monday, the chain of theaters announced that it was taking over the leases of the 14-screen cinema at the Grove shopping complex in the Fairfax district and the 18-screen location of Americana at Brand in Glendale. Both sites were previously operated by Pacific Theaters and are owned by real estate company Caruso.

In April, Decurion, owner of the Pacific Theater and ArcLight Cinema chains, said it would not reopen its 17 locations. AMC, which raised more than $ 1.6 billion in cash from the sale of shares, previously revealed it was reviewing several of Decurion’s old leases, looking for locations that had strong ticket sales. before the pandemic.

In 2018, The Grove Theater was the second highest grossing movie theater and the Americana was the fifth highest grossing movie theater in the Los Angeles area. AMC is expected to reopen these theaters in August.

“These two theaters are each located in world-class lifestyle hubs offering the best retail, dining and entertainment options,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement Monday. “Each was designed and is managed by Caruso, one of America’s largest and most admired private real estate companies.”

Expanding AMC’s presence has always been at the heart of Aron’s strategy. Aron acquired Carmike, Odeon and Nordic shortly after taking over as CEO in 2015.

Shares of the company were unchanged after the closing bell on Monday, but were down more than 40% from last month. The company’s stock price has been cut in half from its peak of $ 72.62 reached in early June of this year. The wild swings came as the stock was drawn into the Reddit investing craze along with other “meme” stocks like Game Stop and Bed Bath and Beyond.