AMC CEO Adam Aron declared today on Twitter, “Our year ends on a high: Netflix’s Strangers Things series finale to show in many AMC theatres this week.”
As Deadline already told you, the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, posted that 1.1 million seats had been sold as of two days ago in over 620 locations.
Aron emphasized that there’s “many sellouts but seats still available” for the two-day Netflix stunt which starts tonight; It marks another moment of peace between the exhibitor and the streamer following the Halloween booking of Kpop Demon Hunters Singalong.
“How many Stranger Things tickets do you think AMC will sell?” teased Aron.
“4 Hints: 1. Yesterday, Stranger Things creator Ross Duffer posted on Instagram that, as of yesterday across all participating theatre chains and theatres, some 1.1 million movie theater tickets for Stranger Things have been sold so far. 2. Day of showtime walk-up business will be lighter than usual, because so many screenings are already sold out or almost full. But plenty of great seats are still available. 3. AMC’s normal market share of the U.S. box office is around 26%. 4. Just more than one third of the theaters showing Stranger Things will be AMC theatres. We’ll announce the number of tickets that AMC sells for Stranger Things sometime between Friday and Monday.”
Due to the lack of guild clearances, tickets could not be sold for the Stranger Things series finale. The way around booking the event in theaters was to have all exhibitors charge patrons a concession voucher for a reserved seat (i.e. $20 at AMC). Exhibition keeps all the cash.
The Stranger Things theatrical window is shorter than any of the others, just over a day. It starts at 5 p.m. PT tonight, the same time the series finale drops on Netflix globally, and plays through Jan. 1, 2026. KPop Demon Hunters‘ singalong version was originally a 2-day affair that did not play in AMC Theaters, but delivered Netflix its first No. 1 opening with $19M.
AMC and Netflix have long been at loggerheads over the length of the exclusive theatrical window. The two were unable to make a deal to boo Martin Scorsese’s 3 1/2 hour 2019 gangster epic The Irishman. AMC has long lobbied for 45 days, while Netflix is reportedly known for wanting a 17-day window (which would crush the theatrical business). Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has spoken recently in the media about championing the streamer’s embrace of theatrical as they look to absorb Warner Bros. motion picture studios. Sarandos vows to respect a “traditional” theatrical window, but hasn’t specified the number of days.