AMC's Adam Aron Slams Robinhood Tokenization: 'We're Saying No'

AMC Entertainment is closing the door on tokenized shares. CEO Adam Aron said Thursday the theater chain will refuse to let its stock be converted into digital tokens in the U.S., escalating a public back-and-forth with Robinhood Markets. Under fresh SEC rules, companies have to sign off before their shares get tokenized — and according to Aron, AMC plans to say no.

"We think this Robinhood tokenization trend is terrible," Aron told CNBC. His argument is about who holds the wheel: companies, not brokerages. "We think that companies should be in charge of their own capital structures, not a brokerage company trying to fool around with our balance sheet," he said. Aron added that the SEC "agreed with us" when it rolled out the rules shortly after his social media posts criticizing Robinhood's plans.

Wall Street barely blinked. AMC stock edged up 0.3% in early morning trade Thursday, and the shares are up roughly 125% this year. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment flipped to "extremely bullish" from "bullish" over the past day, paired with high levels of chatter.

Aron tied his tokenization stance to AMC's turnaround, calling control over shares and debt the secret to the company's last five years. Back in 2022, two years after the pandemic shut theaters, AMC's debt sat at 114 times its annual adjusted EBITDA. Since then the company has paid down $2 billion of debt and refinanced another $4 billion, pushing repayment dates out by five to seven years. Aron expects the debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio to land between 4x and 4.5x this year — "like a normal balance sheet," he said, noting recent upgrades from credit rating agencies.

The pushback lands right after AMC posted record quarterly revenue and adjusted EBITDA for a second straight quarter. Q3 revenue climbed 32% and landed at $1.7 billion, beating the $1.6 billion consensus cited by Koyfin. Earnings per share came in at $0.13, a touch under the $0.14 expected. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 184% while attendance rose 28%.

Aron chalked the profit spike up to AMC's heavy fixed costs: once those are covered, extra revenue flows to the bottom line. "There's no accounting tricks in this," he said. Moviegoers are also spending more — about $15 per visitor after costs, up from roughly $10 before COVID, helped by food, the A-List subscription and movie-themed merchandise. Looking ahead, Aron expects a December U.S. box office of about $1 billion, with Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three on the slate.