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United States: moviegoers can buy tickets in cryptocurrencies

Published November 19, 2021 - 4 mins reading time
Individuals Cryptocurrency Companies Fintechs

In the USA, cinema chain AMC is now offering moviegoers the chance to buy tickets online using cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin are already accepted. Payments in dogecoin should soon be authorized.

AMC hopes to attract young people by allowing cryptocurrencies

Battered by the health crisis, the AMC group, which owns the largest network of movie theaters in the United States, narrowly avoided bankruptcy earlier this year. The group owes its rescue to 3 million individual shareholders, who have boosted AMC's share price by 1,860% to 2021, for a market valuation of $20 billion.

Despite this, AMC remained loss-making in Q3 2021, and hopes to pull its head out of the water by appealing to a younger audience, usually more attracted to streaming video platforms than cinema screenings.

With this in mind, the group has decided to give moviegoers the chance to pay for their tickets online with cryptocurrencies.

Payments in bitcoin, etherum, bitcoin cash and litecoin are now accepted, as the group's CEO Adam Aron announced on his Twitter account. In his tweet, he reminds us that it's also possible to pay for your cinema ticket using PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and points out that these various payment methods already account for 14% of online transactions.

 

The group leaves the door open to parody cryptocurrencies

AMC is also considering allowing movie ticket payments in so-called parody cryptocurrencies, such as dogecoin and shiba inu.

Originally, dogecoin was created to mock bitcoin and, more generally, the cryptocurrency craze. Its symbol is the shiba inu, a Japanese dog that was hijacked as a meme on social networks several years ago.

And yet, even though it was born as a joke, dogecoin now ranks as the world's 7th-largest cryptocurrency, thanks in no small part to its media coverage by billionaire Elon Musk. While bitcoin can only be issued in units of 21 million, dogecoin is not subject to any restrictions, and billions of units of this parody cryptocurrency are issued every year.

Dogecoin is worth just a few cents, and is used to participate in crowdfunding campaigns, or as a currency of exchange between Internet users.

Shiba inu, another parody cryptocurrency that bills itself as dogecoin's competitor, now follows closely behind it in the global crypto rankings, where it occupies 10th place. AMC is currently studying the possibility of adding it to its list of accepted cryptocurrencies.

However, Adam Aron was keen to reassure investors: " We will accept cryptocurrencies, but we will not count them on our balance sheet, and therefore we will not face increased balance sheet risks," he said.

It remains to be seen whether AMC's appeal to younger audiences, which it hopes will see them return to theaters by allowing tickets to be paid for in cryptocurrencies, parody or otherwise, will be heeded enough to enable the group to sustainably turn around its financial situation.