The company that owns Odeon, AMC Theatres, announced it will allow ticket and concession sales in Bitcoin by the end of this year.
In an effort to stay relevant as a company in the ever-evolving world of technology, AMC has been exploring cryptocurrency.
CEO Adam Aron said it has been exploring the technology and “how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe”.
However, the cinema chain has not said whether it will apply to its cinemas throughout Europe.
Bitcoin has had some wild price swings in recent weeks.
The highly-speculative cryptocurrency was trading at about $45,000 (£32,500) on Tuesday after falling below $30,000 last month.
Bitcoin’s value is so volatile that it can take just hours for its prices to fluctuate by thousands of dollars.
Bitcoins are a popular form of digital currency. Although they haven’t caught on in mainstream society, many businesses have begun to accept them as payment for goods and services. AT&T, Microsoft, and Wikipedia all allow Bitcoin purchases.
“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” Mr. Aron, 66, told journalists on a conference call”.
“This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing… that by year’s end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin”.
Commentators are suggesting that AMC is trying to appeal to young amateur traders by turning it into a so-called “meme stock”. These investors have driven up the price of AMC’s shares by some 1,500% this year – although it has had little bearing on the struggling chain’s actual financial performance.
AMC’s shares jumped almost 6% on Tuesday following the announcement, but quickly fell back. Social media site ‘Stocktwits’ ranked AMC as one of their top trending stocks based off news from Reuters.
But the firm’s six-month report, released on Monday, told a different story.
The pandemic caused revenue to dive by nearly 40%, down from £593 million. Cinemas were shut, customers stayed away, and demand has still yet to recover, despite restrictions easing in the US and around the world.
The firm said its ticket revenue in the third quarter was only on track to reach 45% of 2019 levels.
That said, AMC has negotiated a deal with movie studio Warner Bros to allow a 45-day theatrical window for movies before their streaming release from 2022.
AMC hopes that this new deal with Warner Bros will provide a much-needed boost to their struggling ticket sales.
Although most cinemas have now reopened, the giants of Hollywood like Disney and Warner Bros. are facing backlash from actors as well as cinema chains for continuing to release their films online in addition to theaters.
