AMC Is the Latest Meme Stock to Skyrocket—and AMC Loves It

AMC could cash in on the meme scene. Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

After the Gamestop stock craze earlier this year, the internet is having fun making waves in the stock market yet again—but this time, it’s with AMC.

After the movie theater chain announced it had sold over 8 million shares to investment firm Mudrick Capital Management, shares skyrocketed amid a stock-buying frenzy, fueling a surge of over 100%. AMC’s price peaked at $72.62, over double its 2015 closing record of $35.86, according to CNBC.

But while Gamestop stuck its head in the sand during its time in the stonk spotlight, AMC is taking a different approach: The company announced yesterday that it’s creating AMC Investor Connect, which will “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 providing them with special officers.” 

In other words, AMC loves all the meme stock traders, and the company will give them free popcorn if they sign up. No, seriously: They literally say in their statement that they’ll give a free large popcorn to its investors that sign up for the communication initiative. 

“Many of our investors have demonstrated support and confidence in AMC,” the chain’s CEO and president Adam Aron said. “We intend to communicate often with these investors, and from time to time provide them with special benefits at our theaters.”

The news comes a few months after r/WallStreetBets pretty much saved the company by making shares more attractive to investors and thus allowing AMC to issue $304 million in new stock.

“Unlike GameStop, AMC was really in danger,” Michael Pachter, an analyst at financial services firm Wedbush Securities who closely follows the movie theater industry, told The Washington Post in February. “[r/WallStreetBets] didn’t intend to, but they 100 percent have thrown AMC a lifeline.”