THE ROARING KITTY
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A cinema chain that was supposed to die in the pandemic, kept alive by the people who went there.
Cinemas closed. Revenue went to almost nothing. AMC carried heavy debt and analysts openly discussed bankruptcy. The stock traded near $2 at the start of 2021.
After GameStop, attention rolled into AMC and it became the largest retail-held name of the era. Shareholders started calling themselves apes, a label taken from the forum and worn on purpose.
AMC reached an intraday high of $72.62 in June 2021, up from around $2.20 in January. The company used its elevated share price to raise capital and pay down debt, which is the part most people forget.
Unusually, the CEO engaged the retail base directly, taking questions from small shareholders on earnings calls and adding perks for individual investors. Whatever you think of it, retail was treated as a constituency rather than an inconvenience.
A shareholder base can be a lifeline. Retail buying gave the company the window it needed to refinance. The crowd did not just move a price, it changed the company's options.
AMC remains the second name in every meme stock headline, and the ape identity outlived the trade itself.