AMC Entertainment (AMC -1.18%) has been on a wild ride in recent years, going from the verge of bankruptcy to skyrocketing thanks to meme investors. While AMC is still highly volatile and in a precarious financial position, it has retained some degree of popularity. Here's a detailed look at how to invest in AMC and what you should know about the company first.
How to buy AMC stock
If you want to buy AMC stock, you can learn how to do it step by step below. After that, we'll discuss AMC in more detail and whether this entertainment stock is a good investment choice.
Stock
- Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)
Should you invest in AMC stock?
AMC stock is an extremely risky bet because it has been in free fall since it reached spectacular highs in 2021. Even among meme investors, like members of the Reddit (RDDT -3.14%) subreddit r/WallStreetBets, it has tailed off in popularity.
The biggest issue with AMC is that it's losing money. To be fair, as a movie theater company, it took a significant hit during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, it lost a staggering $4.59 billion. To its credit, that number has improved, with net losses of $1.27 billion in 2021, $973.6 million in 2022, $396.6 million in 2023, and $352.6 in 2024.
AMC also has a massive amount of debt. As of the second quarter of 2025, it had $8.5 billion in total debt and only $423.7 million in cash.
The glass-half-full outlook would be that AMC could rebound, especially as the movie industry recovers from the pandemic, and its low share price will give investors a chance to buy it at a hefty discount. While this is possible, it may be overly optimistic for a few reasons:
- There have already been several major releases in recent years, including Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Although these have helped AMC, the theater chain is still far from profitability.
- Streaming services are an increasingly popular alternative to movie theaters. While movie theaters aren't dead, their share of the audience has declined since many people prefer to watch movies at home.
- AMC's share price put it in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, so in August 2023, it completed a reverse stock split to counteract the low share price. However, the price continued to decline even after the split.
The AMC short squeeze in 2021 was certainly an exciting time for investors -- at least those who were bullish on it. But if you buy AMC stock expecting a repeat performance, you'll probably be disappointed. This stock is a long shot and far too volatile to become a large part of your portfolio.
The bottom line on AMC stock
AMC delivered incredible returns for a brief period in 2021. Unfortunately, it has largely gone downhill from there, and there's little reason to think it will bounce back. Investors are better off looking for companies with less volatility and more room for long-term growth.
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