Did Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and other crypto crank up AMC’s revenue?

Cryptocurrencies bagged first-row tickets to all of AMC Theatres’ shows. Dogecoin [DOGE] and Shiba Inu [SHIB] were late to the party but still managed to make it. The addition of crypto into the largest cinema chain in the world created quite the buzz. Some even speculated that through the inclusion of crypto, AMC was trying to make up for all losses it incurred during the pandemic. This could be true considering the recent surge in AMC’s revenue.

Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC has been active on Twitter and even made sure to engage with the community before adding Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Further alerting his followers about the progress the firm had made through the first quarter of 2022, he tweeted,

AMC announced 1st quarter 2022 earnings today. Revenues up 5-fold vs. Q1 of 2021. EBITDA loss reduced by 80%. Revenues per patron up 34% over 2019 pre-pandemic. Dr Strange opening was the biggest of 2022, and the 2nd biggest in the last two years! Go see it! Congrats @Disney.

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) May 10, 2022

During a recent Q1 earnings call, AMC CEO Adam Aron disclosed the doors that crypto had opened up for the platform. He said,

“The same IT programming that was required for us to accept cryptocurrency also enabled us to accept other payment types including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Paypal, Bitpay, and Venmo among others. Taken together, these various new payment options, impressively, recently represented about 35% of our total online payments.”

AMC rises as its losses plummet

Cryptocurrencies grew to immense popularity during and post-pandemic. With digitalization taking the front stage, several mainstream firms as well as the average Joe veered into the crypto space. AMC was one of them.

However, it was speculated that the addition of crypto was made to get the company out of debt. With the onset of 2022, Aron took to Twitter and revealed that AMC had taken debt at high-interest rates to survive. Even though the crypto market hasn’t witnessed major price surges over the last couple of months, AMC seems to have pocketed some gains.

The net loss of the firm dropped down by 40 percent since Q1 2021. This was reportedly a plummet from $567.2 million to $337.4 million. Crypto along with other digital payment mediums accounted for 35 percent. Despite the current market sentiment, Aron seemed to be bullish about the addition of crypto.