Grab the popcorn! AMC surges to new high as meme army holds line

The movie-theatre chain’s gains pushed its market value to roughly $28bn, surpassing GameStop.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is really leaning into this whole meme-stock phenomenon. On Wednesday, the movie-theater chain announced that it would reward small-time investors, who have been instrumental in AMC’s wild, logic-defying 1,400% share rally this year, with goodies such as special screenings and free popcorn. It comes a day after AMC took advantage of those meteoric gains to raise $230 million directly from one of its main creditors, Mudrick Capital Management, and shore up its finances. While Mudrick quickly dumped its entire stake for a tidy profit and called the company massively overvalued, the Reddit retail-trading crowd was having none of it. Buoyed by AMC’s public embrace, the shares soared as much as 93% to an intraday record on Wednesday before trading in the stock was briefly halted in New York. The gains pushed AMC’s market value to roughly $28 billion, surpassing GameStop.