AMC Theaters to offer on-demand, streaming movies

LOS ANGELES — In a sign of just how much streaming is changing Hollywood, movie fans will soon be able to rent and buy films for viewing at home — from a movie theater chain.

AMC Entertainment, the largest multiplex operator in the world, will introduce an iTunes-style online video store in the United States on Tuesday, said Adam Aron, AMC’s president and chief executive.

The service, AMC Theaters On Demand, will offer about 2,000 films for sale or rent after their theatrical runs, just as iTunes, Amazon and other videoon-demand retailers do.

Hollywood’s five biggest movie studios — Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony and Paramount — have made deals with AMC for catalog and new-release movies. Although DVDs still account for billions of dollars in sales for studios, more profit now comes from digital downloads and rentals.

“For us, it’s all upside,” said Ron Sanders, president of worldwide distribution and home entertainment at Warner. “Most of our other big digital partners are focused on multiple categories — music, books. The great thing about AMC is that movies are the whole focus.”

Films will cost roughly $3 to $5.99 to rent and $9.99 to $19.99 to buy.

Aron, who took over AMC in early 2016 after running the Starwood hotel chain, has been more willing to embrace change than many other theater executives, in part because he is not blind to his industry’s challenges.

Moviegoing in North America — across the chains — has been roughly flat for years, leaving theaters to scratch for growth by charging more for tickets and concessions, a strategy that has its limits.

“Our theater business is mature,” Aron said. “There is a high-growth opportunity in this digital expansion.”

He called home entertainment a “natural” extension of AMC’s core business — one designed to capitalize on the chain’s fast-growing customer loyalty program, AMC Stubs, which covers more than 20 million households.