AMC Theatres is postponing a planned series of concert simulcasts featuring pop stars like Bebe Rexha, Paris Hilton and Maren Morris, to free up auditoriums for what has been a white-hot summer box office.
“Week after week in 2026, the domestic box office performance has exceeded or met expectations,” AMC said in a statement. “With a robust lineup of films and strong advance ticket sales in the weeks ahead, AMC is making some programming adjustments during the month of June.”
Earlier this spring, AMC announced a collaboration with a new company, Arena One, that would see the chain broadcast concerts performed by music artists at a bespoke studio with interactive capabilities, allowing artists to interact directly with hundreds of movie theaters at once.
Those Arena One concerts, which are being marketed as AMC Girls Night Live, will be rescheduled to later in 2026, with advance tickets for the summer dates automatically refunded. The series was set to begin with concerts by Rexha, Hilton and Morris held next week.
But AMC’s postponement comes as films like Paramount/Miramax’s “Scary Movie,” A24’s “Backrooms” and Focus Features’ “Obsession” have lit up the box office while Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” which comes out June 19, is expected to challenge the $182.6 million opening of “The Incredibles 2” for the highest domestic opening weekend ever for an animated film.
Since the first weekend of May, the summer box office has reached a domestic total of $1.35 billion, the highest total to this point in the season seen since the COVID pandemic and 8% ahead of the pace set in 2023.
Along with “Toy Story 5,” July titles like Universal’s “Minions & Monsters” and “The Odyssey,” as well as Sony/Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are expected to keep the strong pace going, pushing domestic totals to a decade-best $4.3 billion.
