My understanding, from asking my manager when I worked at a movie theater in high school well over twenty years ago, is that the vast majority of profits on movies that have recently come out are from concession (snack bar) sales. Something like 85-90% of the ticket price goes to the distributor in the first few weeks, and that percentage drops over time (until you have the rare movies that last much longer than others in the theater and are almost all profit for the theater by that point). The thing is, while I'm sure that calculation for how much is owed per ticket is not entirely simple, I'm not sure it's necessarily set as a specific dollar amount. I suspect it's a minimum but also a percentage of ticket price, so they can capitalize on theaters in more expensive locations (or that provide premium experiences).
So, even if AMC assumes 3 movies are seen a month on average across those card holders, it might be that they can conceivably break even with the distributors at that price. If that's the case, it's a major net win as those people are not only likely to spend money at the concession stand, they are probably going to spend more, since they don't feel like it's already been an expensive endeavor to go to the movies (not only is it much cheaper, it's also time shifted away from the time you might want to get snacks for the movie, so you feel like you're there for free basically).
In the end, there's a lot of interesting ways movie theaters might be able to leverage these memberships to their advantage. That said, I imagine the distributors will probably push for slightly different payment contracts if that becomes the norm.
So, even if AMC assumes 3 movies are seen a month on average across those card holders, it might be that they can conceivably break even with the distributors at that price. If that's the case, it's a major net win as those people are not only likely to spend money at the concession stand, they are probably going to spend more, since they don't feel like it's already been an expensive endeavor to go to the movies (not only is it much cheaper, it's also time shifted away from the time you might want to get snacks for the movie, so you feel like you're there for free basically).
In the end, there's a lot of interesting ways movie theaters might be able to leverage these memberships to their advantage. That said, I imagine the distributors will probably push for slightly different payment contracts if that becomes the norm.