Popcorn = profit: Popcorn is profitable, but the economics of running a cinema are still pretty tough

2/2/21 7:00PM

The latest data from Box Office Mojo reveals that cinemas across the United States are taking between $10m and $15m in weekly admissions revenue in 2021. Last year in January they were averaging closer to $200m a week.

Even in "normal" times, running a large cinema chain was an extremely difficult prospect. We've visualised the latest fiscal year from AMC Entertainment, the largest cinema chain in the country, which reveals that AMC made just a 2% operating profit margin in 2019. That sliver of operating profit is then completely wiped out by the repayments that AMC has to make on its debt — meaning that in 2019 AMC actually lost $149m. And that was at least a "normal" year for cinema more generally.

So given everything that's happened to the movie-going industry it's remarkable that AMC Cinemas has managed to stay afloat. In January AMC raised almost $1bn of investment — an injection of capital that should help the company limp on for another six months. The fact that AMC shares have been caught up in the recent retail rally gave management a chance, if able to act quickly, to perhaps strengthen the company's balance sheet even further.

‍Popcorn = profit

‍Although AMC might be in poor financial health overall, its 2019 results reveal just how much cinemas are fleecing you on that popcorn + drink deal. In 2019 they scooped up more than $1.7bn in food & beverage sales, costing them just $279m to do so. That's a delicious 84% gross profit margin — and it's still not enough to keep the business sustainable.

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The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

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Drake whiffs on an expected No. 1 on Spotify

Drake started at the bottom and he’s here, but not quite at the top... of Spotify, at least.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June.

But, while he surpassed the late Michael Jackson and took up three slots on the Billboard album chart at once, his newly released songs haven’t quite cracked the popular music-streaming platform’s top charts, and market seem to think the moment has passed.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.