Copyright The Street
A witch, a bunch of anthropomorphic animals, and a 9-foot-tall alien walk into a theater. Does a meme stock survive its uninspiring Q3 earnings? Such are the riddles that plague us these days. Such is the state of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (AMC) in 2025, four years after its 2021 rise as one of the first ‘meme stocks’. AMC’s Q3 Earnings Call went about as Wall Street expected, with a decline in revenue ($715.1 million compared to $744.2 million in 2024) and negative EPS. However, this drop is begging to be put into proper context. While Q3 may have been dismal, Q1 and Q2 of 2025 saw gains and room for hope for AMC. And Q4, on the backs of Disney (DIS) and Universal, could save their year. For Q1 and Q2 2025, AMC reported $2.3 billion in revenue, a 14% increase over the same period in 2024, according to their August 11th Securities and Exchange Commission 8-K. For Q3 2025, they posted a $298 million net loss, compared to only a $20.4 million loss over the same period in 2024. Non-cash charges associated with their July refinancing were the main culprit for the discrepancy, according to the Hollywood Reporter. All of tinseltown is waiting to see whether anticipated hits from Disney and Comcast’s (CMCSA) Universal Studios this holiday season can save AMC (and Hollywood?) from their Q3 downturn: “But all hope isn’t lost for Disney. The studio still has two major blockbusters looming, almost as if they backloaded the year,” InsideTheMagic’s film journalist Rick Lye writes. Our proposed saviors? Disney’s “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” both of which are sequels whose previous installments have earned over a billion dollars. For their part, Universal Studios will contribute “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to the smash $750+ million hit “Wicked” (per ScreenRant, Box Office Mojo), to the 2025 Q4 push. Disney flops Q3: can Zootopia, Avatar save 2025? This year, Marvel and Disney had a single billion-dollar hit combined (Disney’s Lilo & Stitch”). In years past, both studios would expect multiple. Let’s start with Disney’s slate, setting the many-limbed tiny alien aside. Their politics-embroiled, live-action “Snow White”, Pixar’s animated “Elio”, and sequel “Freakier Friday” made around a half million all rolled together, with none of the films cracking the year’s top 10. 2025 Box office top 10 (Box Office Mojo) That’s not what you want to see – and don’t even get me started on September’s mega-flop “Tron: Ares” (read my full reaction here), which Disney had high hopes for as a sequel to known intellectual property (IP). Disney is hanging their 2025 box office hopes on Zootopia 2, coming to theaters November 26th, and Avatar: Fire and Ash coming December 19th. For “Zootopia 2”, Jason Bateman leads a star-studded (an understatement) cast of furry fellas. The first Zootopia racked up $1,023,784,195 all told in 2016, per Box Office Mojo. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is James Cameron’s third Avatar film, following “Avatar” and Avatar: The Way of Water. “Avatar” is widely known as the highest-grossing movie of all time, earning an eye-watering $2.9 billion in total after a China re-release, as reported by Variety. Its sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” made $2.3 billion worldwide. Marvel 2025 box office without a hit Disney’s Marvel Studios, responsible for some of the biggest hits of all-time, have fallen flat in 2025 – and they don’t have another release before the end of the year to save them. Their biggest hit in 2025, the Pedro Pascal-led “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” grossed a decent $520 million internationally, a significant drop from the smash success of Marvel Studios’ highest-ever grosser, “Avengers: Endgame,” which pulled in just under $2.8 billion. This iteration of the Fantastic Four was one of three Marvel films released in 2025. Captain America: Brave New World, which kicked their year off on February 14th, was a flop heard ’round the town, bringing in just $200 million. Thunderbolts*, starring Florence Pugh and David Harbour, which followed on May 2nd, puttered to a $190 million finish, per Box Office Mojo’s all-time Marvel box office data. Those don’t look great compared to Marvel’s best performers: Top 5 Marvel films all-time by global box office Avengers: Endgame (2019): $2,799,439,100 Avengers: Infinity War (2018): $2,052,415,039 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): $1,921,426,073 Black Panther (2018): $1,349,926,083 Deadpool & Wolverine (2024): $1,338,073,645 Source: Box Office Mojo Forbes found Fantastic Four’s underperformance worrying, citing changing theatergoing habits (more watching at home) and a difficult target audience (parents, rather than just adults or kids). These habits are also larger challenges to AMC writ large. If people are only going to the theater an average of 3x a year, those three movies had better be smash hits for AMC and their stock’s sake. More Streaming: David Ellison may still raise Paramount bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Disney sees cancellations after consumer boycott Peacock earnings force unexpected NBC pivot Marvel fans are also concerned, according to a recent Reddit (RDDT) post. Titled “With Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash releasing later this year, 2025 is going to be the first year when none of the MCU make it up to the top 10 highest-grossing movies,” the post became a common ground for fan frustration. “If you don’t count the pandemic the last year with a top 10 without a MCU film was 2011 which is quite astonishing. If we’re being honest this is a result of Disney/Warner/Sony releasing so many low quality CBM’s [Comic Book Movies] after endgame,” one user wrote. “Superhero movies use to feel like a must see event, due to over saturation, they just feel mundane.” “Either way, it’s long past due for Marvel to take a backseat,” another user concluded. Winning their diehard fans’ confidence back should be priority one for Disney. If they can bring them back into theaters with Summer 2026’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” coming in July, that will be great for Disney and great for AMC. However, the real test will come with Avengers: Doomsday, slated for December 18th, 2026. The mega-blockbuster’s performance will be the bellwether for the future of AMC – and movies in theaters – and that’s no understatement.
