AMC is poised to ride the box-office rebound, as long as its debt doesn't get in the way

In this article AMC Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Cars drive near an AMC Theater in New York City on March 29, 2023. Leonardo Munoz | View Press | Corbis News | Getty Images The domestic box office is on the rebound, having posted its highest third-quarter ticket sales since the pandemic. The world's largest movie theater chain, however, isn't on such solid footing.

AMC operates around 900 theaters and 10,000 screens globally, a larger footprint than its chief rivals Cinemark and Regal. Yet it's struggled with a hefty debt load, even before the pandemic, that may be preventing the company from fully capitalizing on the theater industry's revival. CEO Adam Aron, who took the company's helm in 2015, spent much of his early days in the job acquiring other chains and outfitting existing theaters with luxury seating.

By the time the Covid pandemic shuttered theaters and shut down Hollywood, AMC was already $5 billion in the red. Four years later, the company still has more than $4 billion in long-term debt on the books. While it has managed to refinance and extend its maturities to 2029 and beyond, interest payments continue to weigh on its bottom line.

"They've taken moves to reduce their debt, but they still have a lot of debt and they're still paying pretty high interest rates on it," said Eric Wold, analyst at B. Riley. In the third quarter, AMC's revenue outpaced its spending, but around $100 million in interest payments pushed the company to a nearly $21 mi.