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- AMC CEO Adam Aron is well known for communicating directly with investors and fans of the meme stock.
- Recently, he’s hyped up dogecoin, new commercials from Nicole Kidman, and Merck’s COVID-19 pill.
- “The beneficial implications for @AMCTheatres of this new anti-COVID pill are mind-blowing,” Aron tweeted.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Adam Aron has been ramping up his status as the meme-stock generation’s leader on Twitter lately.
The AMC chief executive officer, who has garnered a massive following from retail traders, has been hyping up Dogecoin, Nicole Kidman, and Merck’s antiviral pill in various tweets. He’s even caught the attention of Tesla’s Elon Musk and investor Mark Cuban.
In a Sept. 21 tweet, the AMC chief posted a Twitter poll asking if AMC should start accepting dogecoin along with other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum by the end of 2021. The result? “Yes, for sure do it.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk liked the poll, and billionaire investor Mark Cuban responded that Bitpay can accept dogecoin. “I am so delighted by the interest in #AMCandDogecoin!” Aron said in one tweet.
In another, he praised Musk. “I never thought I would see this day. @ElonMusk liked my Dogecoin Twitter Poll tweet. If you happen to see this tweet too Mr. Musk, congratulations on Tesla and SpaceX.”
Then on Friday, Aron cheered Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics seeking the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for its antiviral COVID-19 pill that halved the risk of death or hospitalization from the coronavirus.
“Wow, wow, wow… wow, wow. MOLNUPIRAVIR. The beneficial implications for @AMCTheatres of this new anti-COVID pill are mind-blowing and breathtaking … Oh, the miracles of modern medicine. Thank you, @Merck! MOLNUPIRAVIR,” Aron wrote on Twitter on Oct. 1.
AMC was hit particularly hard by COVID-19, as the pandemic caused movie theaters to shutter and diverted new film releases to streaming services.
In an effort to get people back to the movies, AMC partnered with actress Nicole Kidman to make three 30-second commercials. Aron was excited.
“We had a world class team on this effort. Oscar nominee Billy Ray wrote them. Oscar nominee Jeff Cronenweth filmed them. Oscar winner Nicole Kidman starred in them,” he said in a September 28 tweet.
AMC has been a stalwart of the meme stock movement this year, and Aron has leaned into his role as an icon among the Wall Street Bets crowd. For the millions of individual investors gathering on social media who call each other “apes,” Aron is the “Silverback.”
He’s reached out to them on YouTube and Twitter, and even offered investor perks like free popcorn. He also has pounced on investor interest and raised money through multiple equity offerings this year to help shore up the balance sheet. The stock has had an eye-popping run in 2021, rising over 1,600% and leading some analysts to say the price is detached from reality.
On October 1, as #AMCtothemoon trended on Twitter, Aron reached out to his investors directly. “Sincerely and humbly, it is the honor and privilege of a lifetime to work for so many of you. YOU, who are the owners of @AMCTheatres.”
Topline
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron hinted on social media that AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, could add the meme coin dogecoin to the list of cryptocurrencies it accepts for online payments following a poll he took on whether the company should accept doge.
KATWIJK, NETHERLANDS – JANUARY 29: In this photo illustration, visual representations of digital … [+]
Key Facts
Nearly 80% of around 140,000 votes were in support of AMC accepting doge, compared to around 20% who disagreed, according to Aron’s post on Wednesday.
The poll followed outrage over doge’s exclusion by AMC from the list of cryptocurrencies — bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash — it announced last month that it will accept for purchases by the end of the year.
Doge is a meme coin created in 2013 as a satire of crypto coins.
Crucial Quote
“It’s clear that you think AMC should accept Dogecoin,” Aron said in the post. “Now we need to figure out how to do that.”
Tangent
Doge is accepted by a few companies including Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks and car dealer Post Oak Motor Cars. It had a market capitalization of nearly $29 billion as of Wednesday, ranking as the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market value, according to CoinMarketCap.
Key Background
AMC will start accepting cryptocurrency as a payment option by the end of the year, in the first such move among theater chains. The exclusion of doge upset some of AMC’s day traders who had rescued the chain from going bankrupt earlier this year. Day traders drove a trading frenzy of the meme stocks AMC and GameStop by gathering on Reddit used Robinhood, a gamified trading app that claims to “democratize” finance, to pile on the two stocks, among others. Aron has embraced AMC’s status as a meme stock.
Further Reading
Should AMC Accept Dogecoin? CEO Adam Aron Takes Poll On Social Media (Forbes)
AMC Plans To Accept Bitcoin At Movie Theaters By The End Of 2021 (Forbes)