AMC Theatres has reached a lease agreement with GW Properties to take over and reopen AMC Evanston 12 in the Chicago area.
The theater operated as the Century 12 Evanston movie theatre before Cinemark terminated its lease early on during the pandemic and is expected to open later this year. AMC said it is holding discussions with other property owners on acquiring additional leases for closed locations.
“We continue to seek out these strategic acquisition opportunities to strengthen our company,” Adam Aron, chairman and CEO of AMC said in a statement.
Earlier, AMC reached separate lease agreements with property developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to take on the leases of two more former Arclight cinemas in San Diego and the Washington, D.C. area. And in December, AMC announced that it was taking over the leases of two theaters in Los Angeles and Chicago previously operated by Pacific Theatres and ArcLight Cinemas.
As retail online traders embraced AMC as a meme stock last year and propelled its share price upward, the company sold more than $1 billion worth of stock, giving it a financial lifeline and allowing it to buy up leases of locations that formerly belonged to rival circuits.
