AMC Theatres, is one of the largest movie theatre chains in North America and the only chain out of the 12 largest on the continent that did not go bankrupt during the 2001-2002 recession, due in part to the fact that its theatres often dominate lists of the top 50 most profitable theatres in North America. Its mascot is the animated filmstrip "Clip," who stars in the pre-show policy trailers.

History

The company was founded in 1920 by former traveling showman Edward Durwood with one single-screen movie theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. At a time when vaudeville was on its last legs, Durwood correctly grasped that motion pictures were the future of the entertainment industry. His small chain of single-screen theatres was moderately successful. Durwood's son, Stanley, subsequently attended Harvard University and served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.

In 1960, Stan Durwood took control of Durwood Theatres, renamed it American Multi-Cinema, and began to apply military management and the insights of management science to revolutionize the movie theatre industry. As he later explained to Variety, "We needed to define what our company was doing in the (exhibition) business. My dad wasn't that organized."

AMC opened the first American multiplex (a two-screen facility) in 1963 in Kansas City. Durwood later claimed that "in 1962 he was standing in the lobby of his 600-seat Roxy in Kansas City mulling over its poor grosses when he realized he could double his box office by adding a second screen and still operate with the same size staff." This insight arises from the fact that the real-time labor demands of a movie theatre are not constant. Rather, they come in bursts at the start and end of the movie. At the start, a large number of employees have to sell tickets, process tickets at an access point, sell food at the concession stand (a theatre's primary profit center), make sure the theatre is not overcrowded, and run the film projector. While the movie plays, a small number of employees are needed for security and access control, while the others are relatively idle. At the end of the movie, a number of employees are needed to clean the theatre for the next showing. When the start times for movie showings in several physically connected auditoriums are staggered correctly, one team can continually keep all of them operational with minimal downtime.

In retrospect, Durwood's idea seems simple, but it took a lot of trial and error to get the bugs out. Next, Durwood followed up on the two-screen Roxy with a four-screen theatre in 1966 and a six-screen theatre in 1969.

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Click to see more AMC items Prices current as of last update, 01/22/09 9:49pm.