AMC Debuts $25M National Advertising Campaign Claiming 'We Make Movies Better'

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC has premiered a $25 million national advertising with Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman celebrating the moviegoing experience.

What Happened: Under the branding message “AMC Theatres. We Make Movies Better.”, the campaign debuted on Sept. 8 online and in social media and will expand on Sept. 12 to U.S. network television and other media platforms.

The campaign consists of multiple 15-, 30- and 60-second commercials with Kidman at the new AMC Porter Ranch 9 in the Los Angeles market. During the commercials, Kidman comments on the emotional aspects generated by watching films on the big screen.

“We come to AMC Theatres to love, to cry, to care – because we need that, all of us,” Kidman said in the commercial, which includes brief clips from films including “Jurassic World,” “La La Land” and “Creed.”

elated Link: Stock Wars: AMC Vs. IMAX

Why It Happened: This is the first multimedia advertising campaign for AMC and the first focused on a national film exhibitor chain. The campaign will also be adapted for presentation in the nine European countries where AMC-owned Odeon Cinema Group operates theaters.

For AMC, the campaign is a major pushback against financial experts who have denigrated the company’s viability. Last week, Macquarie Capital’s Managing Director and Senior Analyst Chad Beynon downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform while maintaining a $6 price target that was 87% below its then-current trading level.

The campaign also reinforces the message that the rise of streaming services will not cripple the theatrical exhibitor space. On Monday, AMC announced its Labor Day weekend performance surpassed the attendance level of the pre-pandemic 2019 Labor Day weekend and marked its highest attendance since its venues reopened after the start of the public health crisis.

“As we have said repeatedly of late, thanks to the billions of dollars we have raised this year, AMC is strong, and it is time for AMC to play on offense again,” said AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron.

Photo: Valerie Reneé / Flickr Creative Commons