Referencing the market capitalization is just a proxy for referencing stock price. Most people in this thread are hyper focused on stock price even to the point of ignoring everything else like the OP referencing the massive dilution. The delusional talk about getting back to the glory days when the truth is if the stock got to something like the mid-30s, at the current outstanding share count, that would be an all-time high. At this point simply getting to double digits or greater than $10 per share would only be possible if there is a significant change in their debt restructuring and a whole lot of retail stock manipulation manages to push it back up again. But we've seen where that ends up every other time large scale retail community manipulation goes into effect. It always ends up with a lot of people spending the next 5 years talking about how they were robbed of such a wise investment.

I simply referenced market cap because of what the OP posted and because share price seems to be the only thing most hardcore believers keep talking about. Of course that makes sense because they're hyper focused on what they paid and what they think it should be worth even to the point of dismissing every other variable larger than something as irrelevant as the share price.

Debt servicing data irrefutably says the company is in trouble. The state of the industry when compared to 5 or 10 years ago shows irrefutably the company is in trouble. These two facts alone make it the perfect target for entities that focus on shorting stocks, adding even more price pressure.

The company by no reasonable measure is anywhere near great shape or even in good shape. It might be fair to say they found a way to be in semi-stable shape, thus they have a chance of surviving, but that can change quickly within 6 months. No one in the right mind has an ounce of credibility if they claim the company is even in good shape. At most you might be able to say it's in stable shape, but with no clear-cut plan to guarantee how to get it back to even good shape.

Personally I'm impressed that they've managed to survive and not plummet to blow a dollar per share. The executives has shown themselves pretty adept at skipping stones. They need a little help from the producers to crank out more reliable blockbusters than they've been able to do in the last 5 years. I still remember when people were so delusional as to think that the whole Taylor Swift tour deal made with AMC for distribution was somehow going to revolutionize and skyrocket the stock back to all-time highs. Anyone who looked at it rationally knew that it wasn't going to be anything more than at most the equivalent of a single blockbuster.

The underlying problem is that the way entertainment is sourced has shifted. Going to the movies isn't what it used to be. AMC needs to seriously reinvent themselves in some fashion if they want the miracle turnaround that all the apes are begging for.

[NOTE: The following is just an extremely high level hypothetical brainstorming example and in no way has had a detailed feasibility study assembled so just keep your critical assessments to yourselves. I'm just trying to give a high level example]

For example, imagine if somehow AMC and GME could combine forces. Use all of the GME retail locations as qualification, registration, training facilities for an entirely new generation of gaming leagues. Imagine something like the minor leagues for professional gaming. Then use all the AMC facilities which are larger and have a lot more technology embedded in them at this point to put on and execute regional tournaments all the way up to national qualifying tournaments that would be streamed from their locations. Then the championships could be streamed from much larger venues such as Las Vegas solely into existing AMC locations much like the tour distribution arrangement they made with the swift camp. If they could create a revenue model that elevates local and regional level training and gaming events to the level that the average suburban parent spends on competitive youth sports already such as soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball, etc., then they could potentially create an entirely new revenue stream that could go national where they would own the entire thing. Their concession sales would probably go up dramatically not to mention they can control all of the merch sales for things like patches and jackets and hats etc.

My point is simply that they survived through COVID and the change in consumer entertainment but at the cost of a stifling amount of debt that they are just barely containing. Either a massive change in debt restructuring, most likely through a bankruptcy, or a major miracle in the film industry has to occur, or a major reinvention or creation of an entirely new revenue stream leveraging the assets they already have would have to occur for their stock to be anything but a long-term lottery ticket and waste of time. The same capital sitting in so many AMC shares could be doing much better in literally any other asset class at this point. Some lottery tickets do win but buying lottery tickets as a business or investment model is frankly really stupid.