AMC CEO calls for wage freeze as stock tanks

AMC Entertainment’s Adam Aron has requested a pay freeze for himself, he said Tuesday, as the movie theater chain’s stock has fallen significantly in 2022.

“Highest inflation in 40 years, so in 2023 companies will give big % wage increases. But I don’t want ‘more’ when our shareholders are hurting,”[ads1]; he tweeted.

“So I recommended the AMC board red circle and freeze both my target amount and my target salary for 2023. NO INCREASE.”

AMC CEO Adam Aron (Fox News / Fox News)

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In a subsequent tweet, he said he was “asking” the company’s “most senior officers” to “forgo an increase in their cash salaries” for the coming year as well. He sent the request to 15 to 20 executives, according to Aron, who noted that AMC has a “very dedicated leadership team.”

“No raise for those at the top is the right thing to do,” he also wrote, describing his “motives” as “pure” and adding that he is trying “as best as I know how to lead AMC through the painful aftermath of this horrible pandemic.”

Aron earned around $18.9 million last year, according to Reuters.

AMC stock fell about 8% on Tuesday and has fallen more than 80% so far this year.

By comparison, the S&P 500 index is down around 20% so far this year.

An AMC movie theater (AP Photo/LM Otero/AP Newsroom)

Last week, the world’s largest movie theater operator’s board proposed a 1-for-10 reverse split of its common stock and announced plans to raise $110 million in equity from Antara Capital via the sale of APE units.

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AMC first issued APE preferred stock in August as a special dividend, and they began trading on the New York Stock Exchange not long after that. The ticker symbol for them derives from the nickname of the company’s “Monkey” retail investors who helped save the company from possible bankruptcy when COVID-19 restrictions forced cinemas to close their doors.

Adam Aron arrives at the 33rd American Cinematheque Awards honoring Charlize Theron at The Beverly Hilton hotel on November 8, 2019, in Beverly Hills, California. (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images/Getty Images)

In early November, AMC said third-quarter revenue rose 26.9% to $968.4 million from the same period last year, when it reported $763.2 million. Net loss was $226.9 million, which marked a slight increase year-on-year.

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The company has around 10,500 screens in 940 cinemas globally.