Movie theaters do not make money off of ticket sales, but concessions.
I imagine that AMC worked out a subscription-sharing model with the studios, where the subscription fee is split across the movies attended. As long as people show up to movies, a percentage are buying concessions and AMC is making money.
"Movie theaters do not make money off of ticket sales, but concessions."
Both ticket sales and concession sales have positive gross margins, and contribute to the bottom line.
If you artificially separate a cinema business into two pieces, making the 'ticket sales' business responsible for 90% of the overheads (rent etc.), and the concessions part responsible for 10%, then it would appear that the 'ticket sales' business does not make money.
But, in reality, the tickets sales revenue is required in order to run the business, not just to draw in customers for the 'concessions' business, but also to help pay for rent.
I imagine that AMC worked out a subscription-sharing model with the studios, where the subscription fee is split across the movies attended. As long as people show up to movies, a percentage are buying concessions and AMC is making money.