How to Buy AMC Stock (AMC) in 2026

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.

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 +2.26%) 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.

Is AMC profitable?

AMC isn't profitable. It posted a net loss of $352.6 million in 2023. It has been trending in the right direction since its $1.27 billion in losses just three years earlier. But it's still losing a substantial amount of money, and there may not be a realistic pathway to profitability, especially considering its amount of debt.

Does AMC pay a dividend?

AMC used to pay a quarterly dividend, but it hasn't paid one since 2020. Under a legal settlement related to AMC's stock conversion plans, AMC paid a 13.3333% stock dividend to shareholders on Aug. 28, 2023, as a one-time distribution.

Since AMC isn't making money, don't expect to see it start paying a quarterly dividend again in the near future. If you're looking for investments that will provide passive income, check out our dividend stock picks instead.

How to invest in AMC through ETFs

While many AMC investors own the stock individually, there are also quite a few ETFs that hold it. With an ETF, you can invest in AMC along with other companies to add more variety to your portfolio. Here are some ETFs worth looking into that have exposure to AMC:

• The SoFi Social 50 ETF (SFYF +1.11%) invests in the 50 companies most widely held by the SoFi Active Invest community. Its largest holdings are tech stocks, including Tesla (TSLA +4.08%), Nvidia (NVDA +0.74%), and Amazon (AMZN +1.25%). It also currently has exposure to AMC since it's another popular pick among SoFi investors.
• The Nuveen ESG Small-Cap ETF (NUSC +0.69%) invests mainly in small-capitalization U.S. equity securities that meet certain ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria. It has an expense ratio of 0.31%.

You could also invest in a broader ETF with more companies but a smaller AMC allocation. Options include the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB +0.29%), which focuses on small-cap stocks, and the iShares Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN +0.70%), which invests in small U.S. companies thought to be undervalued by the market.

Will AMC stock split?

AMC completed a 10:1 reverse stock split in August 2023. Investors received one share for every 10 shares they'd held before the stock split. This allowed AMC to boost its share prices, which had fallen close to penny stock territory.

Companies don't split their stock too often, so there will unlikely be any upcoming stock splits in AMC's future.

The bottom line

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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