BitPay

"The regulatory framework surrounding cryptocurrency is going to change dramatically, so we always believe in staying on the right side of the law," says Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment.

During its Q4 2021 earnings call late Tuesday, Adam Aron, CEO of iconic theatre-chain AMC Entertainment, briefed the community on the company's latest crypto adoption efforts. As told by Aron, AMC will start accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) "in a couple of weeks." AMC began accepting online payments for movie tickets via major cryptocurrencies last year. The company said it is also still exploring options to issue its own coin, an idea that has been in the making for quite some time as it monitors the current cryptocurrency regulatory framework. 

Aron also shared his praise for the blockchain industry: "We continue to explore how else AMC can participate in the burgeoning crypto universe, and we remain quite intrigued by the potential business opportunity." Aron then added:

"AMC also picked up the capability to accept Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal online. Incredibly, in just a few months, these latter three forms of payment, along with cryptocurrency, already constitute more than 15% of our online ticketing activity, as was seen in the fourth quarter of 2021."

But AMC has also been making grounds in the nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, space. Since last November, the company has completed four NFT campaigns, with more than 800,000 NFTs made available to consumers. These include NFTs offered as part of ticket sales for Spider-Man, Dune and The Batman movies, and those given to shareholders as part of AMC investor connect. The company plans to roll out more NFT projects this year, both jointly with studios and on its own, citing its potential to increase attendance at AMC theatres. According to Aron, AMC's Spider-Man NFTs have sold for as high as $17,000 in secondary markets.